Query with Church Memorial Plaques and Burials.

[stanmapstone]

From Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. 1840.
Felonious homicide is the killing of a human creature without justification or excuse. This may be done either by killing oneself, or another man.
Self-murder....is ranked by our law amongst the highest crimes, it being a peculiar species of felony, a felony committed on oneself......A felo-de-se, therefore is he that deliberately puts an end to his own existence, or commits any unlawful malicious act, the consequence of which is his own death.....But the party must be of years of discretion, and in his senses, else it is no crime. Yet if a lunatic kills himself in a lucid interval he is a felo-de-se.

Stan

[Valda]

Hi

Suicides not buried in consecrated ground and without a burial service only ever covered felo de se - felon of himself. The suicide was deemed a felon and his property confiscated, only abolished in 1870 by the Abolition of Forfeiture Act. This could have serious consequences on the family of a suicide who was deemed to be of sound mind whilst committing the act of suicide. With such serious consequences coroners' jurys were always very sympathetic and usually returned a verdict of unsound mind. Better to judge the person of unsound mind when they committed suicide than a criminal and deny them a Christian burial. A verdict of 'unsound mind' at the time of the suicide is a little different from perceiving an ancestor as a 'lunatic' and explains why such a verdict by the coroners' jury was given. Suicide and attempted suicide ceased to be a criminal act in 1961.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14374296

The burial of criminals in unconsecrated ground only concerned murderers. From 1752 the bodies of executed murderers were not returned to their families for burial.

When London crypts were emptied and many like the churchyards were health risks overwhelmed by the number of bodies they contained, a mass burial of the remains would take place in one of the large London civic cemeteries which replaced the churchyards and crypts as the burial places for most people. A crypt might be bricked up first as in the case of St Marylebone which was only finally emptied in 1980.

http://www.brookwoodcemetery.com/st-marylebone-reburials.htm

Under the Burial Act 1857 it was a criminal offence to exhume or disturb human remains without gaining the appropriate licence first. A more complicated procedure today but still the same 1857 Act is in force and similar and therefore expensive procedure for any family who wanted to exhume and rebury a family member since 1857.

http://www.solihull.gov.uk/community/exhumation.htm


Regards

Valda

[fastfusion]

good article Valda......

there was one other thing I heard ,   about some criminals being buried the opposite direction in the graveyards too......  whether that was a common practice to lay them the other direction or not   I havent realy explored the topic....

anyway most enlightening Valda

m

[Valda]

Hi

This website gives information on the burial (plus gibbetting and dissection) of executed murderers after the Murder Act of 1752.

http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/hanging1.html

Pre 1752 having researched a highwayman who was tried for that crime and also for murder and executed at Tyburn in 1730, his body was gibbeted for some months but eventually a burial of his remains did take place at St James Westminster. The burial register merely records his name.

There doesn't seem anything that was different for the burial of any other sort of criminals other than executed murderers.


Regards

Valda

[kevinf2349]

Thank you so much everyone, that was most informative and enlightening.

I love the things you learn on here.

Kevin

[Les de B]

Thanks again Stan for an informative reply, though the years you mentioned are post 1810, the death year of my ancestor. I did notice that all burials listed at St.Olaves on the relevant open pages were in the the churchyard, but his was listed in the vault. His father was also buried in the vault in 1789, but he died of natural causes.

Les

[Les de B]

Sorry Valda, I missed your most informative reply, and only thanked Stan as I opened his reply email and missed yours. 

Les

[Les de B]

Just an update to my original post regarding the burial of Stephen and Sarah WATTS and their memorial plaque being in a different church to that of their burials.

Well, thanks to a kind lady from Deal (not a RootsChatter but a local researcher), I can confirm that Sarah WATTS is buried at Ripple Church, Deal, having being exhumed from St.Leonards Church, Deal. This researcher was able to supply me with scanned copies of 2 petitions written by son John WATTS to have her body exhumed from St.Lenoards to be reburied in Ripple Church. She was also able to supply transcript records of that reburial in 1860 indicating that she had previously being buried in 1841.

Basically, Sarah wished to be buried with her daughter (d.1826) in Ripple Church, however that could not be done at the time (1841) because of her small grave/tomb. In 1860 daughter's grave was being located due to work being carried out in Ripple Church. Son John WATTS must have been advised, requested reburial for his mother which was approved, and she was reburied under the porch of Ripple Church where her daughter was reburied.

With this topic, burial of suicides was also touched upon. Ironically, when Sarah was reburied, her entry also has the burial of a suicide victim along side her details (no, it wasn't her husband).

Thanks to all for your interest.

Les