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Author Topic: burial payments  (Read 1917 times)

Offline SK4SK

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burial payments
« on: Tuesday 17 June 08 04:41 BST (UK) »
I have found a burial in Coldstream which could belong to my family, but as there is no record of the person's age at death, I'm not certain.  I was wondering if the burial payments varied according to the person's age.  For example, would it cost less for the burial of a child compared to that of an adult?  The burial I'm looking at is in 1833 and 4/- was paid (no mortcloth). Could this be a child (eg 1-2 years old)?  How much would an adult burial have cost in 1833?  Does anyone have any expertise in this?
Thanks
Simon

Offline charlotteCH

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Re: burial payments
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 17 June 08 06:28 BST (UK) »
siroli, I have no expertise whatsoever in this area but 4/- was quite a bit of money in 1833.   The stats in 1913 show the 'working man" earned a bit more than one GBP a week  for his family, often numerous, to live on.   

My Chelsea pensioner in 1833 had a very good pension that gave him 2/- per day- he was well off. 

To whom would the burial payments be made? Maybe the local church as the burial would have been  in the churchyrad  I guess,  but then there would have been the coffin etc.

Let's hope someone with some real knowledge of this tells us the answer.

charlotte

Offline SK4SK

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Re: burial payments
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 17 June 08 07:47 BST (UK) »
Have done a bit of searching on the internet since my last post.  Seems the fees related to a burial varied from parish to parish.  There were fees for hire of the mortcloth (if used).  Often there were fees for the gravedigging too.

Thought I'd share the following I found at:
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/SCT-FIFE/1999-11/0942003221


Aberdour, Fife, 1820:  Rates of Charge for Grave-digging:

Charge for a grave of 4 feet in depth 2/
 " " 5 feet " 3/
 " " 6 feet " 5/
 " " 7 feet " 7/
 " " 8 feet " 10/6

Charges for Mortcloth:
best mortcloth 5/
second mortcloth 4/
child's best morcloth 2/
child's second mortcloth 1/8

So, do you think it's safe for me to assume that the burial I'm investigating (ie 1833 with a fee of 3/-, no mortcloth) was for a child (or a very small adult!!)?

Simon

Offline charlotteCH

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Re: burial payments
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 17 June 08 12:03 BST (UK) »
Probably safe to assume that it was a child or a young undernourished teenager.

Of course if one had the foresight it would pay to have the grave dug deep to accomodate more people in the long run. the 2/- grave would just be for one person.  I wonder if they cahrge for the plot.
So much to learn about our ancestors.

charlotte
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