Right to a proper burial of a Suicide in 1880

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi, Everyone,
Have recently been tracing the shortish life and final demise of a Joseph Walter CARTER, who shot himself in Ramsgate in Sept. 1880.  It appears - his name at least appears on the headstone - that he may have been buried in his parents' grave in the burial ground of a Nonconformist Chapel, in Melbourn, Cambs to be precise.
Did the Non-Conformists at that time have a different attitude to a Christian burial of a suicide case, and what exactly was the attitude of the C. of E. in 1880 to people who took their own lives...
Very best wishes,
keith

[stanmapstone]

An 1823 statute legalized the burial of suicides in consecrated ground, but religious services were not permitted until 1882
In the year 1823 it was enacted that the body of a suicide should be buried privately between the hours of nine and twelve at night, with no religious ceremony. In 1882 this law was altered by the Internments (felo de se) Act, 1882. where every penalty was removed except that internment could not be solemnised by a burial service, and the body may now be committed to the earth at any time, and with such rites or prayers as those in charge of the funeral think fit or may be able to procure
Stan

[stanmapstone]

Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880.

Before 1880 no body could be buried in consecrated ground except with the service of the Church, which the incumbent of the parish or a person authorized by him was bound to perform; but the canons and prayer-book refused the use of the office for excommunicated persons, for some grievous and notorious crime, and no person able to testify of his repentance, unbaptised persons, and persons against whom a verdict of felo de se had been found. But by the Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880, the bodies of persons entitled to be buried in parochial burial grounds, whether churchyards or graveyards, may be buried there, on proper notice being given to the minister, without the performance of the service of the Church of England, and either without any religious service or with a Christian and orderly religious service at the grave, which may be conducted by any person invited to do so by the person in charge of the funeral. The Act also allowed the use of the Church of England Burial service on unconsecrated ground.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~framland/acts/1881burialAct.htm

Stan

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi again, Stan,
All very interesting, and many thanks for your expertise and knowledge in this particular area of the rites of passage.  I wonder when exactly in 1880 this amended law came into being, and whether it had any effect on the interral of Joseph Walter CARTER whose coroner's inquest took place just a few days after his death on Sept. 13th 1880...

[stanmapstone]

The Act is dated  7th September 1880 at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~framland/acts/1881burialAct.htm but I don't know when it became law, however the text of the 1880 Act makes no specific reference to the burial of suicides, it legalised non-Anglican church rites at Anglican (C of E) burial grounds, and from that date the rites of any Christian denomination could be used.


Stan

[Keith Sherwood]

Thanks very much for that, Stan...
keith