A History of Mourning

by Richard Davey

"There is an Act of Parliament which ordains, That the Dead shall be bury'd in a Woollen Stuff, which is a kind of a thin Bays, which they call Flannel; nor is it lawful to use the least Needleful of Thread or Silk. This Shift is always White; but there are different Sorts of it as to Fineness, and consequently of different Prices. To make these dresses is a particular Trade, and there are many that sell nothing else; so that these Habits for the Dead are always to be had ready made, of what Size or Price you please, for People of Every Age and Sex. After they had washed the Body thoroughly clean, and shav'd it, if it be a Man, and his Beard be grown during his Sickness, they put it on a Flannel Shirt, which has commonly a sleeve purfled about the Wrists, and the Slit of the Shirt down the Breast done in the same Manner. When these Ornaments are not of Woollen Lace, they are at least edg'd, and sometimes embroider'd with black Thread. The Shirt shou'd be at least half a Foot longer than the Body, that the feet of the Deceas'd may be wrapped in it as in a Bag. When they have thus folded the end of the Shirt close to the Feet, they tye the Part that is folded down with a piece of Woollen Thread, as we do our stockings; so that the end of the Shirt is done into a kind of Tuft. Upon the Head they put a Cap, which they fasten with a very broad Chin Cloth, with Gloves on the Hands, and a Cravat round the Neck, all of Woollen. That the Body may ly the softer, some put a Lay of Bran, about four inches thick, at the Bottom of the Coffin. Instead of a Cap, the Women have a kind of Head Dress, with a Forehead Cloth."

Funeral invitations of a ghastly kind were sent out, and Elegies, laudatory of the deceased, were sometimes printed and sent to friends. These were got up in the same charnel-house style, and embellished with skulls, human bones, and skeletons. Hat-bands were costly items.

"For the encouragement of our English silk, called a la modes, His Royal Highness the Prince of Denmark, the Nobility, and other persons of quality, appear in Mourning Hatbands made of that silk, to bring the same in fashion, in the place of Crapes, which are made in the Pope's Country where we send our money for them."

(d) The poor in Anne's time had already started Burial Clubs and Societies, and very cheap they seem to have been.

"This is to give notice that the office of Society for Burials, by mutual contribution of a Halfpenny or Farthing towards a Burial, erected upon Wapping Wall, is now removed into Katherine Wheel Alley, in White Chappel, near Justice Smiths, where subscriptions are taken to compleat the number, as also at the Ram in Crucifix Lane in Barnaby Street, Southwark, to which places notice is to be given of the death of any Member, and where any person may have the printed Articles after Monday next. And this Thursday evening about 7 o'clock will be Buried by the Undertakers, the Corpse of J. S., a Glover, over against the Sun Brewhouse, in Golden Lane; as also a child from the corner of Acorn Alley, in Bishopsgate Street, and another child from the Great Maze Pond, Southwark."

(e) Undertakers liked to arrange for a Funeral to take place on an evening in winter, as the costs were thereby increased, for then the Mourners were furnished with wax candles. These were heavy, and sometimes were made of four tapers twisted at the stem and then branching out. That these wax candles were expensive enough to excite the thievish cupidity of a band of roughs, the following advertisement will show:—

"Riots and Robberies—Committed in and about Stepney Church Yard, at a Funeral Solemnity, on Wednesday, the 23rd day of September; and whereas many persons, who being appointed to attend the same Funeral with white wax lights of a considerable value, were assaulted in a most violent manner, and the said white wax lights taken from them. Whoever shall discover any of the Persons, guilty of the said crimes, so as they may be convicted of the same, shall receive of Mr. William Prince, Wax Chandler in the Poultry, London, Ten Shillings for each Person so discovered."

(f) We get a curious glimpse of the paraphernalia of a funeral in the Life of a notorious cheat, "The German Princess," who lived, and was hanged, in the latter part of the 17th Century, and the same funeral customs therein described obtained in Queen Anne's time. She took a lodging at a house, in a good position, and told the landlady that a friend of hers, a stranger to London, had just died, and was lying at "a pitiful Alehouse," and might she, for convenience sake, bring his corpse there, ready for burial on the morrow.

"The landlady consented, and that evening the Corps in a very handsome Coffin was brought in a Coach, and placed in the Chamber, which was the Room one pair of Stairs next the Street, and had a Balcony. The Coffin being covered only with an ordinary black Cloth, our Counterfeit seems much to dislike it; the Landlady tells her that for 20s. she might have the use of a Velvet Pall, with which being well pleas'd, she desir'd the Landlady to send for the Pall, and withal accommodate the Room with her best Furniture, for the next day but one he should be bury'd; thus the Landlady performed, setting the Velvet Pall, and placing on a Side Board Table 2 Silver Candlesticks, a Silver Flaggon, 2 Standing Gilt Bowls, and several other pieces of Plate; but the Night before the intended Burial, our Counterfeit Lady and her Maid within the House, handed to their comrades without, all the Plate, Velvet Pall, and other Furniture of the Chamber that was Portable and of Value, leaving the Coffin and the supposed Corps, she and her Woman descended from the Balcony by help of a Ladder, which her comrades had brought her."

It is needless to say that the coffin contained only brickbats and hay, and a sad sequel to this story is that the undertaker sued the landlady for the loss of his pall, which had lately cost him £40.