Would a man be buried under the name 'widow'?

[JAKnighton]

I have sometimes come across women in parish registers who are simply referred to as 'widow' rather than their first name, but I have found an entry where a person is called 'widow' but is also noted as 'senior', which makes me wonder if this is a man.

This is a transcription I found on FreeReg, and the date is not fully transcribed, so my suspicion is that a first name was written down but wasn't fully legible.

[JohninSussex]

Do you mean an entry is for "Widow Senior" or something else?  Can you give the actual transcription as it is given?  What era is the entry?  Is it old enough that the original entry is in Latin?

[majm]

I doubt 'senior' referred only to males.   

Even in mid 20th century,  a married couple were referred to as Mr & Mrs  John BROWN, senior if they were parents of a John BROWN who was of course, John BROWN,  junior.  And Mrs BROWN would be addressed as Mrs John BROWN senior.

JM

[JohninSussex]

Yes I agree with that, depending as I  said on the era, "the widow Brown senior" simply means the widow of a man once known as Brown senior.   If Brown junior has also died, there are two widows Brown and this is the older one's wife.  We have seen in some periods seniior/junior used for persons other than father/son, such as brothers or two unrelated men of same name.  So don't assume anything!

[Redroger]

Remember too that there is a surname Senior; so it is possible that the term "widow Senior" has no more signifance than "widow Smith " for example.What part of the country? The surname Senior is relatively common in South Yorkshire, Doncaster, Barnsley, Rotherham etc.

[arthurk]

A few months ago I came across the concept of men being referred to as widows - I think it might have been in some old Scottish registers. Other entries and references to poor relief or similar made it fairly certain that it was referring to men rather than women.

I've just had a look to see if I can find the reference (almost certainly a forum post, but not necessarily on RootsChat), but unfortunately drew a blank.

[youngtug]

I have seen men referred to has "widow" in some parish records. Maybe there is another person of the same surname listed, thereby necessitating the addition of the term senior here, or it could be that they were known has the senior of that name to the writer of the record in this case, or just generally known as such

[JAKnighton]

Thank you for your answers. To be clear, the record is for a person with the surname Swettman, no first name recorded, just 'widow', and 'Senr.' following the surname. There is no exact burial date, just the burial year of 1641. It's a FreeReg transcription.

[majm]

https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_queries/5c1d99faf4040be5935a998e

I cannot see any reason for presuming the deceased was a male,  sorry.

JM