This thesis explores colonial life and death at the historic Barbadoes Street Cemetery in Christchurch. The gardenlike municipal cemetery is an early example of local colonial design, and demonstrates a shift from unnamed churchyard burials. As the oldest organised European burial ground in Canterbury, it holds importance as being the final resting place of many of Christchurch’s early settlers. It was included on the original plans of the city and first opened to Anglican burials in 1851. The smaller portion on the other side of the road was then opened to Dissenting Protestant and Roman Catholic populations in 1854 and 1860 respectively. This division of the cemetery into three denominational sections makes it a rich source for understanding the role of Christian diversity in an Anglican majority settlement. Inscriptions and symbolism found on the headstones also provide much information. Therefore, they have been used to analyse important themes, issues and values that pertained to society in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. My thesis chapters discuss gender roles, Victorian family structures, regional identities, and class differences through a close reading of the extant graves. This material evidence has been supplemented by a variety of sources, including archival documents and newspapers. While cemeteries are a rich source of information, grave analysis is a neglected field of research. The thesis begins to fill this gap by using headstones to uncover what burial sites tell historians about colonial society.