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Archiver > ESSEX-UK > 2002-11 > 1038353462


From: Mike Gallafent <>
Subject: Re: buried at night
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 23:31:02 +0000
References: <000f01c29579$791e3740$b19f073e@nqezxeod>
In-Reply-To: <000f01c29579$791e3740$b19f073e@nqezxeod>


In message <000f01c29579$791e3740$>, Jo Mason
<> writes
>Please can anyone give a reason why folk were buried at night? There
>are a few in Chelmsford burial registers. I can understand Lady
>Mildmay on Christmas Eve but there are some on 'ordinary' dates.
>Thanks
>Jo in Leics

More often than not, it was a matter of hygiene. Victims of the plague
and others who perhaps met their end in unfortunate circumstances,
particularly in hot weather presented malodorous problems. At other
times were strong feelings against the vestiges of Popery in the
ceremonial and wished to avoid any presence of a priest.

For further research, I commend 'Birth, Marriage & Death - Ritual,
Religion and the Life-Cycle in Tudor & Stuart England' by David Cressy,
OUP, 1997. Also 'Death & Burial in Medieval England 1066-1550' by
Christopher Daniell, Routledge, 1997.

Mike.
--
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Mike Gallafent - Publisher - CD 'Strangers, Foreigners & Aliens'
- CD 'Early Inhabitants of Kent'
- CD 'Middlesex Oath Rolls 1641-2'
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