By 1890, the sheer number of burials in the Necropolis had created unsanitary conditions in the surrounding area. The council took control of the site and over a period of several years turned it into a park. The bodies of those buried there were not exhumed but the gravestones and memorials were removed. It was at this time that Daniel’s son from his second marriage – William Dodge James - arranged for the gravestones to be transferred to the church (St Andrew's) just behind his house in West Dean, where they remain today. At the foot of Daniel and Elizabeth's stone is that of Daniel's second wife Sofia, and daughter from his first marriage - Elizabeth Eccleston James.
