The land that now contains the St Thomas' cemetery site was granted, in 1821, to Edward Wollstonecraft.[2] The land for the cemetery was donated to the Anglican Parish of St Leonards in 1845 by the prominent landowner and merchant, Alexander Berry, whose wife Elizabeth had inherited it on the death of her brother Edward Wollstonecraft.[3]
Wollstonecraft had died in 1832 and was buried in the Devonshire Street Cemetery. His remains were later moved to a tomb constructed in the St Thomas' Cemetery by Alexander Berry for his wife. Berry was also later entombed there. The tomb is still standing in the grounds of the Rest Park.
In 1967 the Cemetery was handed over to North Sydney Council by an Act of Parliament granting the area as 'community land' and allowing its conversion from a cemetery into a Rest Park. The new park opened in 1974. The sexton's cottage, dating from around 1850, was restored and opened as a museum in 1985. Many monuments and headstones are located within the sandstone-edged historic precincts while others are scattered around the Rest Park. An interpretive history trail provides 24-hour access to historical information.[1]
The cemetery contains one Commonwealth war grave, of an Australian Army officer, Capt. Richard Gordon Dibbs.[4] The Park contains the headstones of thirteen members of four generations of the Dibbs family, the oldest being Sophia Elizabeth Dibbs, born in Sydney in 1809, and mother of George Dibbs (grandson of George Dibbs, below) of World War II.[5]
^"Death of Mr. Edward Lord". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 14555. New South Wales, Australia. 19 November 1884. p. 7. Retrieved 15 April 2019. "The Late Mr. Edward Lord". The Sydney Mail And New South Wales Advertiser. Vol. XXXVIII, no. 1273. New South Wales, Australia. 29 November 1884. p. 1094. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
^"Mr. Alfred G. Wilson". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 28099. New South Wales, Australia. 26 January 1928. p. 10. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
^"Death of Mr. Robert Moodie". Evening News. No. 12935. New South Wales, Australia. 23 November 1908. p. 5. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
^"Death of a Bowler". The Daily Telegraph. No. 6932. New South Wales, Australia. 28 August 1901. p. 7. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
^"Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 15603. New South Wales, Australia. 28 March 1888. p. 1. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
^"Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 17183. New South Wales, Australia. 17 April 1893. p. 8. Retrieved 15 April 2019. "Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 17175. New South Wales, Australia. 7 April 1893. p. 8. Retrieved 15 April 2019.