It is said that St. Swithun, when he died in 862, on his death-bed ordered his monks to inter him not in a stately shrine, but in a “mean place outside the door, where the foot of the passer-by might tread, and the rain water his grave.” To be beneath the feet of priest or worshipper was not an uncommon wish, and probably, in many cases at least, was a desire for remembrance as much as, or more than, a symbol of humility. Thus Gilbert Carleton, Vicar of Farningham in 1503, wishes “to be buried in the Parish Church of Farningham in one of two places as can be thought most convenient by my friends, either before the high altar in the chancel there, so that my feet may be under the priest’s feet standing at mass, or else under the step coming in at the Church door, so that every creature coming in at the same door may tread upon my burial.” Similarly Richard-sans-Peur, Duke of Normandy: “Je veulx estre enseveli devant l’huys de l’église, afin d’estre conculqué de tous les entrans dans l’église.” Another favourite place is that chosen by Agnes Spicer (1410): “My body to be buried in the Church of St. Austin’s under the bell ropes.” So Ludovic Stuart, Lord of Aubigny (1665), desired his “corpse to be buried and interred without opening it in the Church of the Reverend Fathers the Carthusians in this City of Paris just under the cord wherewith they ring the bell for the divine service, without any pomp, ceremonies, and hanging up of mourning tapestries in the Church; and that upon his grave there be laid a stone of just proportion, whereon they will write his name and quality of Great Almoner without adding anything else.”
Opinion hostile to elaborate funerals or tombs is frequently found, in Catholic as well as in Protestant wills. John Coraunt, in 1403, makes provision for his burial thus: “In the Name of God, Amen. In the XIXth day in the month of April in the year of our Lord 1403, I John Coraunt, in my good mind and whole, make my testament in this manner. First I bequeath my soul to Almighty God, and my body to the earth to be buried where the will is of my two sons William and John. Also my will is to have about me at my burying no more wax than one taper at the head and another at the feet, at the ordinance of my aforesaid sons. Also I bequeath VI yards of black russet cloth lying on me my burying time to be given to poor needy folk, and all other doings about my interment and mind I will it be done at once simply and without pride, within two days after my dying by the ordinance of my sons.” Richard Broke, of Greenwich (1522), desired “no pomp of torches nor great ringing of bells, but that there be bread and ale at the dirige, to make the neighbours and poor people for to drink.”
Bartholomew Reed, Knight, alderman, citizen, and goldsmith of the City of London, in the twenty-first year of King Henry VII., gives directions that seem elaborate, but specially forbids excessive commemoration of his death. He gives his body “to be buried within the cloister of the Charterhouse of London, i.e. in the side of the cloister there between two arches or moynells of stone directly against the door leading or opening out of the choir there into the said cloister, so as I may be the better in remembrance of the holy brethren of the place there in their prayers.... And I will that mine executors do make a tomb of stone of the value and cost of XX l, with the image of the Trinity and of a dead corpse kneeling thereunto.... I will that mine executors do ordain XX comely torches of wax to burn at the time of mine exequies, and to be holden about my corpse by poor men. And on that four comely tapers of wax to be holden by four poor men in likewise ... I will that in nowise mine executors keep any solemn month’s mind in such manner as oftentimes it is used, but that which shall be done for me, I will it be done at my burying, and that without any hault or sumptuous manner of charge to be done.”
Sir John Monson, Knight of the Bath and Baronet (proved January 19, 1683, S.A.), desired a “burial only not a funeral,” a desire elsewhere echoed with much variety of phrase and vigour. He himself, in the same spirit, gives these explicit directions: “If I shall die here at Broxborne before I go to Burton, (which I have reason to expect, my age and infirmities are so great,) my will is that my body be directly carried to South Carlton there to be buried according to the established form of our Church, with a sermon for the benefit of the living, (if it be thought fit), and that I may avoid all ostentation and respect decency only. My further desire is that my corpse may be carried away from my house at Broxborne where I now am about daylight in some morning, without troubling any friends to accompany my hearse, and that there may be only my own coach and one more to go with it from hence to Carlton, where I desire to be laid in peace with many of my relations.”
Thomas Hobbes, of Gray’s Inn (dated 1631), wished “to be interred in the parish Church of Streatham ... utterly forbidding at my funeral any solemnities of heraldry, any feasting or banqueting, any multitude of formal mourning, only willing donment black for my child and family, my nephews and niece Laurence and my executors, and a servant for each of them, and one to my cousin Thomas Brooke. And that the company present at my funeral shall have only bread and wine for their refreshment.”
Bread and wine, or some equivalent, are commonly provided for friends or for the poor. Thomas Lightfoot (1559) ordered every person at the day of his burial to have one farthing loaf; John Sporett (1559), that his neighbours should have bread and ale; John Thorpe (1571), that “all honest folks that goes to the church with me have their dinners.” Richard Plumpton, of York (1544), went further, giving to William Plumpton and his children two hogs-heads of wine “to make merry withal.” Elizabeth Stow (1568), whose last unhappy hours have been narrated, bequeathed ten shillings “for my children and friends to drink withal after my burial.” And a recent Vicar of St. Mary, Ilford, directed that his executors and other mourners were to be entertained, “complete and thorough hospitality” extended to them, and their travelling expenses paid.
Bishop Sanderson has been quoted for a loving tribute to his wife; his will gives as good an instance of the shrinking from pompous funerals as could be found in the seventeenth century. “As for my corruptible body, I bequeath it to the earth whence it was taken, to be decently buried in the Parish Church of Buckden, towards the upper end of the Chancel, upon the second, or at the furthest the third day after my decease; and that with as little noise, pomp and charge as may be, without the invitation of any person how near soever related unto me, other than the inhabitants of Buckden; without the unnecessary expense of escutcheon, gloves, ribbon, etc., and without any blacks to be hung anywhere in or about the house or Church, other than a pulpit cloth, a hearse-cloth, and a mourning gown for the preacher; whereof the former, after my body shall be interred, to be given to the preacher of the funeral sermon, and the latter to the Curate of the Parish for the time being. And my will further is that the funeral sermon be preached by my own household Chaplain, containing some wholesome discourse concerning mortality, the resurrection of the dead, and the last judgment; and that he shall have for his pains £5, upon condition that he speak nothing at all concerning my person, either good or ill, other than I myself shall direct; only signifying to the auditory that it was my express will to have it so. And it is my will that no costly monument be erected for my memory, but only a fair flat marble stone to be laid over me.... This manner of burial, although I cannot but foresee it will prove unsatisfactory to sundry my nearest friends and relations, and be apt to be censured by others, as an evidence of my too much parsimony and narrowness of mind, as being altogether unusual, and not according to the mode of these times: yet it is agreeable to the sense of my heart, and I do very much desire my Will may be carefully observed herein, hoping it may become exemplary to some or other: at least, however, testifying at my death—what I have so often and earnestly professed in my lifetime—my utter dislike of the flatteries commonly used in funeral sermons, and of the vast expenses otherwise laid out in funeral solemnities and entertainments, with very little benefit to any; which if bestowed in pious and charitable works, might redound to the public or private benefit of many persons.”
Close upon a hundred years later (August 18, 1760), another Bishop, the Right Rev. Benjamin Lord Bishop of Winchester, in English less chaste but with remarkable similarity of thought, wrote out his desires for his interment. “There is hardly anything more unworthy of a man, or a Christian, than to have a great concern or deliberation about the place and manner of his funeral. I know of but one reason that can justify it, and that is because it may take off all dispute and difference which may arise, and determine it so as that the executors can have no trouble or blame. I once had a fixed design to order my burial at Streatham Church in Surrey, where I passed many agreeable years of my life, in a vault to be built by me which might hold all my nearest and dearest relations. But when I had thus fully resolved, and was going to begin the work in the plainest manner, I found myself totally disappointed; for when I came to enquire of the proper officers of the parish where I had lived long and where I had buried my first wife, I found something true which I did not before think to be so; and that in short it was in vain to enquire about any particular coffin after such a certain number of years have passed from the time of the funeral. I therefore now, without any further thought about what is of so little consequence, order and appoint, solely to take off all uneasiness from my executor, that my burial shall be in the Cathedral Church of Winchester, in as private a manner as decency will permit, in such part or place as the Rev. the Dean and the majority of the Chapter shall allow of, and judge proper, for the making one grave for this purpose only. I desire that no unnecessary trouble may be given to any persons towards their attendance, but that only what has been usual on such occasions may be paid. I desire and hope that neither my executor nor any near relation will attend: nor indeed any person but the Dean and Prebendaries if he or any of that body happen on any other account to be at Winchester at that time, and not otherwise. These may be followed at the funeral by those servants of mine who may attend the corpse from Chelsea.... My will also is, that the inscription I have left, containing only facts relating to myself, may be engraved on a piece of marble, with very little ornament about it, and be fixed to a pillar, the nearest to the grave, without any addition of any character or any word or figure but to fill up the vacancies left.”
In a century of melancholy monuments, the century of “The Grave” and “Night Thoughts,” the desire for simplicity is frequently expressed: there seems to be a common reaction against pomposity and show. “I desire to be decently and privately buried in the Churchyard of the parish of Wargrave without any funeral pomp or vain idle expense,” says Simeon Rockall (1789), and Pierce Galliard, of Edmonton and Southampton, “I will and desire that my body may be buried decently and privately without pomp or show and with as little expense as possible, either in the parish Church where I shall die or at Edmonton with my ancestors and family as shall be agreeable to my beloved wife and executrix.” These are but random instances.
But sometimes the tones are raised by appeal to reason or to ridicule. Thus Rev. Obadiah Hughes (1751) says: “I order that my body be conveyed in a decent but not pompous manner, (for pomp and show abate the solemnity of death, and often prevent those serious impressions which a funeral might make upon the minds of attendants and spectators,) to the parish Church of St. Martin Outwich in the City of London, and be there deposited as near as may be to the precious remains of my late dear wife, there to rest and sleep together until the great resurrection day.” And Samuel Gillam, whose will was proved on August 13, 1793, thus breaks out: “Whereas I think it a very great absurdity and the most egregious folly to make the deaths and burials of persons to be an occasion of pomp and show, I do hereby order and desire my funeral may be performed in such manner as may be barely decent, but no more, and that the expense thereof do not exceed including the parochial fees £20, and that William Brent do undertake the same. I give unto the said William Brent as a legacy £10. I verily believe he is an honest man.”