Mort Cloths

[sandyjose]

 Please can someone explain to me the use of mort cloths.I know that if a family didn't have one for the deceased,they would rent one.Where did they rent it from? Why did they need one,how big was it,was it placed over the coffin and why? When did it stop being normal practice?I believe they were used in Ireland too.As my father's family were from Glasgow and Ireland it would have been something used for the deaths of many family members.
  Why did women not attend funerals,only the males of the family even if the deceased was female.When did that practice stop.
    Thank you for any information,up until a few years,I knew nothing about these practices.

[*Sandra*]

Hi,

The coffin would be covered by a mortcloth, a black, usually velvet, piece of cloth. This cloth, as was the hearse, was owned by the parish and a charge was made for it. Sometimes even a coffin was too expensive and the body was simply wrapped in a sheet.

From Funeral Customs Scotland http://freepages.folklore.rootsweb.com/~bldr/funerals.html

Mentioned on an old RootsChat thread in 2007

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=206072.0

Sandra

[*Sandra*]

The Regency Way of Death - Ladies at Funerals ?

https://regencyredingote.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/the-regency-way-of-death-ladies-at-funerals/

Sandra

[sandyjose]

 Thanks for the info you have given me,however I still have a lot of questions.When did this practice start and when did it finish? I know that it wasn't practice to have a church ceremony before a burial,any service was conducted at the graveside.Was a mort cloth used by all religions or was it peculiar to one.?

[*Sandra*]

Have you read the Wikipedia entry

The use of a rich cloth pall to cover the casket or coffin during the funeral grew during the Middle Ages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pall_(funeral)

Sandra

[sandyjose]

 Thank you for telling about Wikipedia.I understand a lot more about the custom.

[Berlin-Bob]

Three RootsChat topics about Mortcloths here:
http://surname.rootschat.com/lexicon/reflib-lexicon.php?letter=M

These might add a few more insights.

regards,
Bob

Update: THis topic has now been added to the Lexicon

[hanes teulu]

An extract from Hugo Arnot's "History of Edinburgh", 1779

"The register of burials is kept by people whose faculties are impaired by drinking, who forget today what was done yesterday. People who have an interest in reducing the list of burials, as thereby they may peculate the share of mort cloth money* due to the Charity Work house. Besides they enter not into the list of burials any who have died without receiving baptism; nor those whose relations are so poor as not to be able to pay for the use of a mort cloth; nor those who die in the Charity Work house"

* The "mort cloth is the term generally used in Scotland for the Pall

[Lodger]

An extract from Hugo Arnot's "History of Edinburgh", 1779

"The register of burials is kept by people whose faculties are impaired by drinking, who forget today what was done yesterday. People who have an interest in reducing the list of burials, as thereby they may peculate the share of mort cloth money* due to the Charity Work house. Besides they enter not into the list of burials any who have died without receiving baptism; nor those whose relations are so poor as not to be able to pay for the use of a mort cloth; nor those who die in the Charity Work house"

That may have been true in Edinburgh but I would suspect it was the exception to the rule.
The mortcloth covered what was usually a very plain pine (or any other local wood) coffin until the burial. The small fee charged by the parish was used for the upkeep of the poor.