Story: The history of the Roma community goes back 500 years in Sheffield records. An intriguing story is about Lucretia Smith and Mathilde Boswell who were buried at St Mary’s Churchyard in Beighton, 1844. Lucretia’s tomb says “Queen of the Gypsies”. Local Records show that Lucretia was well known in the area. We’re not sure if Mathilde is her daughter or niece, whether they were blood family or found family.
The recovery: Rosa has brought her knowledge of dance and flamenco to this beautiful film that holds space for women’s history and presence, loss and a connection between Rosa, Lucretia, Mathilde and us.
Tears In A Cup
See me for me
Not as an intruder.
Lucretia Smith and Mathilde Boswell.
Lucy? Lucretia? Queen? Gypsy Queen?
Her tomb says “Queen of the Gypsies”.
Buried at St Mary’s Churchyard in Beighton, a part of the land.
Two women, mother and daughter? Aunt and niece?
Found family?
Rest side by side
Visited by tourists
“ A true gipsy, blue-black hair and long silky lashes”
Called a thief, a woman with a record
Gypsy Queen
Roma, originally from India
But in this place
1514 the archive mentions a Gypsy in England.
Lucretia Smith and Mathilde Boswell.
Gypsy Queens.
The relationship between Lucretia Smith and Mathilde Boswell, two Romany Gypsy women buried in Beighton, Sheffield in the 1840s is a story of sisterhood and female strength. Lucretia is known as the "Queen of the Gypsies", a title not easily given to many and locals say her spirit still moves in the churchyard. Today there is a local pub named after Lucretia Smith and the area welcomes many tourists who come to visit the tomb of both women. My response to this story was to draw on my Spanish Roma background and Flamenco and ballet dance training, and through still and moving images play with extremes of lightness and darkness.
Notes from Sheffield City Archives:
Research suggests that Lucretia Smith was born Lucy Boswell in 1780, daughter of Robert Boswell and Lucy (also known as Lucretia or Lucresey) and came from a long line of travellers. Local newspapers reveal much about the life of Lucretia Smith - largely from court reports and her inquest. At the time of her death, she had been apprehended on a charge of obtaining 60 sovereigns from a farmer in Cheshire. She was in a weakened state upon discharge, and was later found deceased in a shipoon.
Lucretia and Matilda were related (possibly niece and aunt). Neither died at Beighton - Matilda died in Lythe near Whitby and Lucretia at Halton, Cheshire - so both were transported a distance to be buried at Beighton.
There is a gravestone in St Mary’s churchyard, Beighton, Sheffield which marks the burial place of Lucretia Smith, ‘Queen of the Gypsies’ (buried 27 November 1844) and Matilda Boswell ‘a Gipsy’ (buried 23 January 1844).
Lucretia Smith is long-remembered in Beighton. An article in the Sheffield Telegraph (11 March 1910) recalls the memories of an old Beighton resident who reportedly visited her caravan and there she showed him ‘a quart basin full of golden Spade Ace guineas’. Another told how she was in posession of ‘a small silk shawl of all the colours in the rainbow’, worn by the Queen of the Gypsies. To this day there is a pub in Beighton called The Gypsy Queen (on Drake House Lane) which is named after Lucretia Smith.
Burial record of Lucretia Smith, St Mary the Virgin, Beighton (Sheffield City Archives: PR73/11)
