Cultural Heritage
On December 14, 1825, General Santander delivered some land located in Zipaquirá so that the remains of the members of the British Legion who died in Colombia could be buried there. This diplomatic gesture of thanks to the Crown for sending the troops that fought alongside Simón Bolívar in his liberating campaign, contributed to the official recognition of Great Britain as the first ally within the political and economic scene of the nascent Republic.
The link that existed between the two nations during the independence process was solid, since from the beginning the British Crown had shown interest in the liberation and autonomy of the colonies. Indeed, in 1817, dozens of ships carrying about 5,000 volunteer soldiers commanded by Colonels Hippsisley and their first regiment of Hussars of Venezuela, English, Elson, D’Evereux, MacGregor and Meceron, sailed from London and bound for America. The expedition that arrived in Colombia traveled with Bolívar to the Llanos and participated in the liberation of the neogranadino territory in May of 1819. According to what was exposed in the book Cemeteries of Bogotá, by Daniel Ortega, in 1825 the city officially delivered some grounds: “considering that the selfless, suffered and courageous soldiers of the British Legion, the Numancia Battalion and the Red Hussars entered to share the penalties, setbacks and triumphs of our struggle for emancipation. (…) and finally, it was thanks to that valuable contingent as the Liberator could undertake the prodigious campaign of 1819, annihilating Spanish domination in Boyacá. (…) He gave material to Colonel Don Patrick Campbell, Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister, of a plot of land for cemeteries of English subjects, residents of this capital. ”
Two years later, President Simón Bolívar signed a decree banning burials in temples, and ordered the construction of cemeteries on the outskirts of the cities, a decision that coincided with the offer made to the British crown to donate land in the San Victorino sector . Finally, in 1829, the municipal authorities agreed that the British cemetery should be contiguous with the newly acquired land for the new necropolis in the San Diego sector, on the road to Engativá, today 26th Street. This offer was the answer to the need to give “Christian burial” to Protestants, in view of the prohibition of bringing “heretics” to Catholic cemeteries.
Between 1830 and 1841 William Turner, Minister representing the British crown, was in charge of acquiring the land, which was under the responsibility of Patrick Campbell, who ordered the construction of the enclosure and the house for administration in 1835; works financed by members of the British community.
The first record (still preserved in the Embassy) was named after William Duffin, who died on June 4, 1830. Six years later, the neighboring Central Cemetery opened its doors with the burial of Angel Maria Cuervo y Urisarri (1831-1837 ). According to Ortega, in 1931 the Protestant cemetery was located “east of the Catholic cemetery, separated from the public thoroughfare by a large and beautiful garden that a guardian cultivates.” The iron fence, surrounding, and still remaining, was built with the old bayonets and rifles of the British Legion, which were presented to the cemetery, whose old entrance door exhibits the following legend
HOC SEPULCHRETUM CIVIUM BRITANNORUM
PROPRIUM GULIELMUS TURNER PRIMUS LEGATUS
BRITANNUS QUI LITERAS REGIAS FIDEMQUE FACIENTES
IN HANC CIVITATEM PERDUXIT DICAVIT ANNO SALUTIS MDCCXXXIV. 1834
This cemetery recognised not only the new political actors, but a new religious doctrine: Protestantism. Its presence in South America was not exclusive to the revolutionary stage, since its first traces date back to the 16th century when the King of Spain, Carlos V, granted a concession in Venezuela in favor of the Welser Lutheran bankers of the German house from Augsburg.
In Colombia the arrival of Protestantism was linked to the influence of liberal ideas driven by the French Revolution (1789), the independence of the United States (1776) and the English Industrial Revolution (1850). Spain slowly lost control of its colonies, and the Church, understood as perpetuating the status quo, was weakened allowing Protestantism and liberalism to be linked in the search of democratic and pluralist modernity. “This situation urged that radical governments that considered that a real liberal society was possible only through a reorganisation of education, allowed the entry of British and American Bible Societies, which operated the Lancaster system of teaching and were linked to the Protestant movement.
In Colombia, the Bible Societies bequeathed with Scottish Baptist pastor James Thompson (1781-1854), who landed in Buenos Aires on October 6, 1818. Thompson arrived in Colombia in 1825 where Santander and the liberal clergy supported his ideas, to the point of allowing him to found the philanthropic Society, which worked in the convent of Santo Domingo until his departure
Subsequently, plenipotentiary minister James Fraser brought Colonel Henry Barrington Pratt, a member of the British Legion, who officiated the first cult of a group of Protestant foreigners in a house on Florian Street. They were also prominent in the work of evangelization of Reverend Lucas Matthews and Tomas F. Wallace, the latter received, in 1865 in the government of Manuel Murillo Toro, the temple of Santo Domingo for the cult there. However, a & nbsp; In the mid-19th century, Protestant religious practice was carried out with difficulties, because although foreigners residing on the country were allowed the “private exercise of & nbsp; cult ”, all non-Catholic trade was prohibited to nationals, and only until 1856 were such celebrations authorized publicly. (3)
Although Protestantism arrived with an initially “moral and reformist” sense, its field of action transcended the earthly scenario. For the historian Malcolm Deas, the military, commercial and diplomatic role that the English played in Independence was “the most important among foreign nations. ” It is not strange, then, that in 1825 Britain was the first power that through the Treaty of Friendship, Navigation and Commerce, recognized the Republic as a free nation, capable of conducting any type of negotiations and exchanges, with autonomy and sovereignty . This treaty was promoted by Santander and signed by the delegates Pedro Gual, secretary of state, and general Pedro Briceño Méndez, minister of foreign relations, and by the squires of the Crown Juan Potter Hamilton and Patrick Campbell. Its purpose was to formalize an existing exchange, regulating trade between the two “powers” on equal terms.
The liberal nature of the signatories there, as well as the fact that most of the subjects of the Crown were of Protestant religion, forced the new nations & nbsp; to annex official clauses or declarations so that Biblical Societies could be freely disseminated and freedom of conscience and worship were allowed. Indeed, according to Bastian, despite the opposition of Catholicism to allow new doctrines in America, its acceptance was due rather to diplomatic pressures exerted during the negotiation of trade agreements, and the urgent need to affirm a broad policy on migration issues. ”
In Colombia this can be corroborated in Article 12 of the Treaty with England, which reads: “Art 12 (…) The citizens of Colombia will enjoy, in all the domains of His British Majesty, a perfect and unlimited freedom of conscience, and that of exercising their religion publicly or privately; within their private homes or in chapels or places of worship (…)
(…) Likewise, the subjects of His British Majesty residing in the territories of Colombia will enjoy the most perfect and complete security of conscience, without being exposed to being disturbed, disturbed or disturbed because of their belief religious, or in the proper exercises of their religion, provided they do so in private homes and with decorum due to divine worship, respecting the established laws, customs and customs. They will also be free to bury the subjects who die in the said Colombian territories, in convenient and appropriate places that they themselves designate and establish, with the agreement of the local authorities. for that object, & nbsp; and the funerals and graves of the dead will not be disturbed in any way or for any reason. (…) ”.
The historical value of the British Cemetery lies in being the irrefutable memory of a foreign culture that had an important influence on the destiny of the newly formed nation. This was expressed by the British minister Spencer S. Dickson, in his correspondence dated May 12, 1936: (…) This institution (the cemetery) has a very deep meaning on the relations between the British Empire and Colombia. There the heroic and selfless efforts of the British Legion soldiers are remembered during our liberating struggles and the remains of illustrious compatriots of your Excellency rest, whose names are linked to many of the distinguished Bogota families.”
Information taken from the Cemeteries Guide, published by the Bogota Mayor’s Office, District Institute for Cultural Heritage.