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The Common Room / Re: Burials in C18 English Parish Registers
« on: Saturday 28 March 20 10:33 GMT (UK) »
My thanks to both respondents. Your comments on Cromwell's edict have prompted me to check the Canons of 1603: it was in substance repeated by Canon 70, which every eighteenth century clergyman ought to have read.
I think that the prevalent eighteenth century view should have been that every parishioner was entitled to be buried in the parish churchyard. The Complete Parish Officer 1772 stated (p 132, citing as authority a case in the reign of James I):
"Though the freehold of the church and church yard be in the parson; yet as he can hinder no parishioner from having a place in the body of the church, so he may not hinder any such from being buried in the church yard; but for burying in the church, it is otherwise."
However, not hindering a burial is a different matter from registering it. I suspect that in practice it all came down to fees: the sexton would dig a grave for a fee but, if the custom of the parish was that the clergyman or churchwardens would be paid a fee for the burial service, it would have been a case of "no fee, no registration", particularly in the period 1783-94 when there was a tax on registration.
David
I think that the prevalent eighteenth century view should have been that every parishioner was entitled to be buried in the parish churchyard. The Complete Parish Officer 1772 stated (p 132, citing as authority a case in the reign of James I):
"Though the freehold of the church and church yard be in the parson; yet as he can hinder no parishioner from having a place in the body of the church, so he may not hinder any such from being buried in the church yard; but for burying in the church, it is otherwise."
However, not hindering a burial is a different matter from registering it. I suspect that in practice it all came down to fees: the sexton would dig a grave for a fee but, if the custom of the parish was that the clergyman or churchwardens would be paid a fee for the burial service, it would have been a case of "no fee, no registration", particularly in the period 1783-94 when there was a tax on registration.
David