"No ceremony performed"

[RJ_Paton]

persons who took their own life could be buried in Churchyards

An Act passed in 1823 allowed suicides private burial in a churchyard, but only at night and without a Christian service. A review of the law resulted in a new Act in 1882 allowing burial in daylight hours. Parliament did not decriminalise suicide until 1961, despite the fact that it had been suggested in 1823.

https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/death-dying/dying-and-death/burying/

 

[BumbleB]

Well, the death was registered in the District covering Caton = Lancaster. 

[Jebber]

You may never know the reason, but as has been said, her death certificate may give a clue.

Just because she was buried in a Churchyard doesn’t necessarily mean it was in consecrated  ground. There were sections left unconsecrated, nonconformists were often buried in that section.

[DianaCanada]

persons who took their own life could be buried in Churchyards

An Act passed in 1823 allowed suicides private burial in a churchyard, but only at night and without a Christian service. A review of the law resulted in a new Act in 1882 allowing burial in daylight hours. Parliament did not decriminalise suicide until 1961, despite the fact that it had been suggested in 1823.

https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/death-dying/dying-and-death/burying/

Thank you for this information, Falkym.

[coombs]

I have an ancestor who took his life in 1894, so that was after the 1823 Act.

Yes I would say buy the death certificate, a definite must. I myself have looked on newspaper archives and found nothing yet about Mary Ann Parkinson.

[DianaCanada]

Mary Ann's mother was baptized as a Catholic and I suspect her grandmother was as well.  I wonder if that might be the reason, too, if Mary Ann had adopted Catholicism?

[Davedrave]

I have a case where a man (Henry Davies in Thurlaston, Leicestershire) in 1880 murdered his wife and then slit his throat, in a case which was quite widely reported at the time. He was hastily buried without ceremony by angry villagers in the churchyard but the feeling in some of the press was that this was wrong because he was judged by some to have been mentally unbalanced. So presumably there would have been the possibility of a more normal burial. There was clearly a lot of hostility to Davies but if he’d only committed suicide it seems unlikely that would have been the case.

[DianaCanada]

Interesting story, Davedrave!

[Erato]

"no ceremony performed"

Maybe that was her expressed wish.