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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: D ap D on Friday 26 March 04 12:59 GMT (UK)
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I was at the LDS last week looking at some parish records on film, when I came across the following:
"Buried, Mrs Sarah Ingram, Feb. 10 1770
NB the penalty for not being buried in woolen paid the same day"
Was it compulsory to be buried in wool then? and if so, what for? It can hardly be to keep the person warm....
Any suggestions?
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Maybe it was a measure to support the woolen industry.
Pauline
Then again, from the cambridgeshire family history site:
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Snippets from the Fens List
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Buried in Woolen
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A discussion thread followed the phrase "buried in woolen" which appeared in some records.
It was apparently the law at some point that anyone buried was required to purchase a woolen shroud of a certain price to support the English wool market and English farmers, failure to use a woolen shroud resulted in a £5 fine
payable to the churchwarden and distributed to the needy of the parish. Apparently it was the result of the 1677 & 1678 wool acts that required
that all corpses should be buried in a woolen shroud unless they died of
plague. This seems to have fallen into disuse during the 18th century and
was finally repealed in 1814. Although it appears that it may have existed
as a royal decree prior to the acts being passed.
The following quotation was listed as reference:
"Following the Burial in Woollens Act of 1666 - 80, some parishes kept
copies of burials in the churchwardens' accounts, or in a separate affidavit
volume. Reference to this affidavit, which had to be signed by a magistrate
(or clergyman if no JP was available) often occurs in the normal parish
register. Although the Act remained in force until 1814, it fell into disuse
between 1750 and 1780"
Source: The Family Tree Detective: Tracing your ancestors in England and Wales, Chapter IV Looking for Deaths, pg 226.
Manchester Unity Press. ISBN 0 7190 5213 0
Well I never.
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Hi there to you both
•1678 Act - repealed 1814; “Buried in Wool”•
“No Corpse of any person (except those who shall die of the plague) shall be buried in any shirt, shift, sheet, shroud … other that what is made of sheep’s wool only”
It was an act passed to benefit the wool trade - penalties were imposed for non-compliance.
If a family preferred to bury the corpse in silk or flax(linen) they could pay the fine and do so and the registry may record this. The act was not repealed until 1814, but the practice had fallen into disuse lonf before that date.
Chris in 1066Land
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I thought I read somewhere that early news paper that was manufactured from old cotton they left to soak and then they skimmed of the loose fibres to make the paper.
With the growth of the demand for paper they would take any cotton product they could find hence the reason they were buried in Wool ???
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