“Mary Broomfield,
dyd 19 Novr., 1755, aged 80.
The chief concern of her life for the last 20 years was to order and provide for her funeral. Her greatest pleasure was to think and talk about it. She lived many years on a pension of 9d. a week, and yet saved £5, which, at her own request, was laid out on her funeral.”
In the reign of George III., wars prevailed to an alarming extent, and extraordinary taxes were levied to obtain money to maintain the army and navy. Among the proposals made to raise further revenue was a tax on coffins, which gave rise to some keen epigrams. Here are a couple of examples. The first is by Mr. Evans, M.P., and dated Derby, July 6, 1791:
“Taxed when we’re born and when we die,
Must coffins now a tax supply?
In vain on earth we respite crave,
Or seek a shelter in the grave!”
Mr. Evans adverts to the old tax by which persons, not being in the receipt of alms, had to pay two shillings on the birth of a child. The nobility and gentry were taxed at a much higher rate, for example, a duke, for his eldest son, had to pay £30. Another epigrammatist addressed the king as follows:
“Taxed to the bone, thy loving subjects see!
But still supposed, when dead from taxes free;
Now to complete, Great George, thy glorious reign,
Excis’d to death, we’re then excis’d again.”
