Location: St James’ Church, Exeter

Type: Grave

Date of death: 26 November 1846
Place of death: 7 Cobourg Place, Exeter (his home)

Note: Records show that Cdr Robert Benjamin Young died at his home in Exeter, of heart disease, aged 73 years, in the presence of Mary Young, who was presumably his wife (copy of death certificate obtained). An obituary in the Gentleman’s Magazine, Feb 1847, states that he left a wife, two sons and two daughters wholly unprovided for, despite having a pension from Greenwich Hospital of £65 pa. The burial register of St James’ Church, presently in Devon Record Office, shows that he was buried on 3 December 1846.
The centre of Exeter was heavily bombed on 2 May 1942, as described under the entry for John Stockham, but the location of St James’ graveyard has now been identified, thanks to research by Mr John Draisey of Devon Record Office. The original St James’ Church, destroyed in 1942, had been built in 1836 near what is now the football ground, but was surrounded by buildings, with no space for a graveyard. However, Mr Draisey discovered that an area of land immediately to the north of St Sidwell’s Church was consecrated during 1846, and the eastern portion of this became St James’ graveyard, so Cdr Young must have been one of the first to be buried there. However, in 1969 this burial ground was cleared and all human remains were re-interred in the Higher Cemetery, Pinhoe Road. There is no record of any headstone for Young. The land that used to be the graveyard of St Sidwell’s and St James is now under the King William Street car park and Wat Tyler House.
Therefore it must be concluded that there now remains no visible record on the ground of the grave.