Funeral Feast in 1752

[mareanna]

the transcript (I hope) reads:
I do allot the sum of sixty pounds for my funeral expenses and do desire to be buried close by my mothers coffin betwixt the two tombs there and my will is that a good rump of beef a quarter of veal a quarter of mutton and a forehind of bacon shall be dressed for my funeral and that eight bushels of wheat shall be baked in great loaves for the poor people that come to my funeral and that six pounds shall be laid out in Marshfield Cakes fifty shillings in Crown Cakes thirty shillings more thereof in half Crown Cakes and the remaining forty shillings in two penny half penny Cakes and three Gallons of red wine and five of white shall be provided
That Sarah Battman may buy my shroud as good a one as will not cost less than three pounds with the winding sheet and pillow and that she may buy the hatbands and gloves for my burial and that her husband shall make me such a coffin as he made for my sister Elizabeth and the bell shall be rung three hours for knell and from eight in the morning till night on the day I am buried

[ThrelfallYorky]

Wow!
That must have been some impressive event.

[philipsearching]

I have a few ancestors who left money in their wills for church repairs and the poor of the parish and I am sure they were very decent, worthy, kind people - but the rebel in me can't help thinking: "stuff that!  Let's have a bl**dy good party" 

Philip

[mareanna]

Joannah and her sister, Elizabeth, did not marry.  Elizabeth inherited the lease of the Queens Head in Willsbridge, the building still stands but it closed as a pub a few years ago.
I have no idea what a Marshfield Cake is.  There is a nearby village of that name though.  One web site calculates the sixty pounds to be over ten thousand pounds now

[Maiden Stone]

That Sarah Battman may buy my shroud as good a one as will not cost less than three pounds with the winding sheet and pillow and that she may buy the hatbands and gloves for my burial and that her husband shall make me such a coffin as he made for my sister Elizabeth

Were the hatbands and gloves for mourners? I have a will which instructs that the 3 executors were to be given a pair of gloves each at the funeral. I think gloves were mentioned in another will. They were written in 1750s & 1760s.

[mareanna]

Were the hatbands and gloves for mourners

The hatbands and gloves for the pall-bearers to mark her passing but perhaps without the extravagance of new suits and dresses, mindful that not many others would be able to afford to go to that expense.  I guess it’s a reflection of her background – somewhere around lower middle class.  In her largesse she decided to provide a grand feast, and go out with a bang that way (and leave less for her brothers).  She does leave fifty pounds to a brother for him to build a house, less than she leaves for the funeral.

The first beneficiary of her will, ahead of family, is Aaron Strange who gets a life interest in a property and an annuity.  She also names him as a pall-bearer.  One sassy lady 

Search on-line for snippets about mourning attire and the nuance of whether the hatbands are black satin or crepe 

[Maiden Stone]

My will-writer who instructed the gifts of gloves was an innkeeper. Perhaps the executors were to be pall-bearers. One of them was the testator's namesake, probably a cousin of some degree. He was a yeoman farmer. 20 years after the innkeeper's death his (probable) great-nephew married a daughter of the yeoman farmer, took over the inn and did very well out of it. One of their daughters married a great- grandson of the old innkeeper. He was a carpenter. His paternal GF probably made the old innkeeper's coffin. It was a small town.
I'd imagined the innkeeper's widow and 2 daughters knitting gloves between death and burial.
The mourners at my innkeeper's funeral might have eaten Lancashire Oven Cake which is what we called scone (pronounced scon). They are big and contain eggs. First time I ate a bought scone it didn't taste right.

[Andy_T]

What a wonderful find and there must have been a memorable send-off.
The food arranged for the wake certainly beats ham sandwiches, fairy cakes and ale.

Andy_T

[a-l]

What a fascinating read , thankyou.