Deaths of Babies

[arthurk]

I'd been going to say much the same as others, that burials in England were in churchyards, but then I remembered that there are occasional exceptions.

One that I know of is a Taylor family burial ground in Gomersal, WRY. The Taylors were a prominent local family and friends of the Brontës, but I don't know how this burial ground came about.

Some of the larger stately homes have private chapels - do they also have burials there? But that's a world away from the kind of thing Erato has mentioned.

[Jebber]

Residents of a Parish were always entitled to be buried in the churchyard, nonconformists and others such as atheists were buried in an unconcecrated section.

In the UK it is perfectly legal to bury a person in your garden, provided tge death is registered and subject to certain regulations. For example the distance from a water course and the must be wrapped etc. You would also need to think about what happens if you later want to sell the property.

[Lisa in California]

Adding to Erato’s comments, while researching for a few of my American friends, I came across “private cemeteries” that were located on farmlands or other expansive properties.  The few that I researched contained burials for just (sometimes generations of) family members.  I believe the little cemeteries were not too far from towns.

[Gadget]

Many of my Scottish relatives who moved to Canada in the early 19th century are buried in family  grave yards. 

[Erato]

No, there is no church at the Mitchell Cemetery site now nor was there one in the past.  But there were plenty of churches in Litchfield [these were descendants of the Puritans, after all] and also plenty of church-going Mitchells.  Joshua Mitchell, my ggg-grandfather, was a deacon [Congregationalist] and was named as such on his tombstone.  I don't know if cost was a factor in the choice to forego the rather dubious benefits of "consecrated" ground.  While not wealthy, the Mitchells were far from destitute; they could afford carved gravestones.  No one knows how many people are buried in unmarked graves at the Mitchell Cemetery, but some may have saved additional money by stinting on a permanent marker.

[Andrew Tarr]

So many of my ancestors had lots of children but quite a lot died shortly after birth. How did the parents pay for funerals for them or was it free?

My g-g-grandparents bred 10 children in Liverpool in the 1830s.  While they lived near the densely populated centre several children died young and were buried in the Necropolis, where the burial fee was 19/6d.  As g-g-gf had an established business that was probably affordable.  After a few years they moved uphill to Everton, which seems to have been healthier.

[MollyC]

Even as late as the early 1950’s I can remember when a lady from the village died, her coffin being carried on mens’ shoulders  to her place of worship, a tiny Baptist Chapel, up a really steep path at least a mile from her home.

This week, in Yorkshire, a farmer's widow aged 97 was carried on the shoulders of 8 grandchildren from the farm gate to the parish church.  Admittedly, only about 300 yards, but following the path of her husband in 2020 and two previous generations which I know of.  Probably the last to receive that honour.

I was heartened to see a bin lorry, which had happened to meet the head of the procession, stopped in the road, switched off his engine and waited until everyone had passed through the church gate.

[Andrew Tarr]

This week, in Yorkshire, a farmer's widow aged 97 was carried on the shoulders of 8 grandchildren from the farm gate to the parish church.  Admittedly, only about 300 yards, but following the path of her husband in 2020 and two previous generations which I know of.  Probably the last to receive that honour.

Don't forget those old 'coffin roads' in the north of England which went over passes in the hills to the church in the (large) parish containing the home of the deceased.  A good deal more than 300 yards ... 

[coombs]

Also some probably buried their infant children in pauper graves, or if the child died in a workhouse the workhouse burial grounds.

I have a certain London ancestor family in the early 1800s who likely had some children who died in infancy, due to no known record whatsoever of them after their baptism, or they had a younger sibling with the same first name. They worshipped mainly in Anglican churches but were of French Huguenot descent further back in the early to mid 1700s.