A History of Death in 17th Century England by Ben Norman

Author:Ben Norman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History / Europe / Great Britain / General
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Published: 2020-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

‘I will that Three score and sixteene gownes be made of some good Cloathe of the price of Seaven shillinges the yard or thereabouts to be given unto three score and sixteene poore men to were them the daye of my funerall whereof all the poore men in the Alley next my house and some other poore men of the parishe and warde and my waterbearer to be one, and ten or twelve of the poorest Ironmongers and the Rest to be suche poore men as my Executors shall appoynte.’3

His instructions were seen as kindness to the poor men of his parish, and also an honour. They had been chosen to attend a very grand and wealthy man to his final resting place, to mourn for him as he embarked on the last ritual of his earthly life, which was no small thing.

The streets needed to be clean, tidy, and safe for a substantial funeral procession to journey through. This constituted both a mark of respect for the deceased individual and a genuine undertaking to remove hazardous waste and obstacles from the ceremonial route. Following the death of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, in 1646, an order was issued to the stewards and constables of Westminster to ‘pave and cleanse’ the streets from Temple Bar to Westminster Abbey, so that everybody taking part in Devereux’s procession ‘might pass the streets without inconvenience, by reason of the foulness of the ways’. Sometimes streets did not apply to a funeral procession at all – not for most of it, at least. In 1632, before the burial of Mrs Dorothy Lawson, it was the waterways that required clearing around Newcastle most pressingly, not the pavements. She was to be taken to her final resting place in the medieval church of All Saints’ in her own boat, as organised by her doting son. On the evening of the funeral her corpse was accordingly carried across the water to Newcastle accompanied by at least 20 other boats and barges. Horses lined the shores. Upon the entourage’s arrival on dry land the streets were found to be alight with tapers, being so bright that it seemed more like midday than nighttime. Magistrates, aldermen, and large crowds were waiting at the docking place for Mrs Lawson’s coffin, which was draped in a black velvet cloth adorned with a white satin cross. It was then carried to the church to be buried.

20. An etching of an eighteenth-century funeral procession entering a church by T. Cook, based on a work by William Hogarth. The parish clerk heads the procession, followed by clergymen, the elaborately covered coffin, and mourners walking in pairs. Funeral scenes in the seventeenth century would have been similar in nature to those seen here.

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