RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: muckandtwigs on Wednesday 19 November 14 16:30 GMT (UK)
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Looking-up some deaths in the 1800s I note some were marked as buried in consecrated ground and some in Unconsecrated ground. Were the unconsecrated Pauper burials?
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Is this in a churchyard or municipal cemetery? In a cemetery the Anglican burial area would be consecrated, and subject to Church law, a body interred in consecrated ground is under the protection of the ecclesiastical court. Unconsecrated ground would be for non-conformist denominations and civil burials.
Stan
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Looking-up some deaths in the 1800s
What was the date? Burial laws changed during the nineteenth century.
Stan
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It was a Municipal cemetery and they were around the late 1800s, I had never realised before that some burials were in unconsecrated ground.Thankyou for the information.
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Hi
A lot of the corporation burial grounds were for everyone which meant you had Church of England, Chapel and Catholic buried in the same cemetery and usually the consecrated burials were Church of England and the unconsecrated, (or sometimes general) were non conformist.
When the Huddersfield Edgerton cemetery was proposed the then vicar of Huddersfield want a wall built to separate the two ground. Also if you look at one of the cemeteries you will notice that most of them have two mortuary chapels one for the consecrated and the other for the unconsecrated.
Regards
John
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It was a Municipal cemetery and they were around the late 1800s, I had never realised before that some burials were in unconsecrated ground.Thankyou for the information.
In many cases unconsecrated ground is a misnomer.
In an Anglican burial ground the area is consecrated when it is laid out as a burial ground. Areas laid out for other religions tend to consecrate the individual plot prior to the burial.
This means that for instance Catholic graves although marked as being in unconsecrated ground may actually be in consecrated ground.
Cheers
Guy
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Thank's for the replies. Roots group are certainly a 'Mine' of information, there must be lots of people like myself who have reached a fair age and did not realise such things.
Muckandtwigs
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I should have added that Roman Catholics, Quakers, and Jews had their own sections in municipal cemeteries.
Stan
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Some people buried in unconsecrated ground, over here, had committed crimes for which they were not pardoned and therefore were not buried within the cemetery.
There is a cemetery on Norfolk Island where several convicts were buried outside the cemetery wall for killing policemen.
Maybe there were similar instances also in England?
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Thanks for that, from Norfolk in England.
Billy
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Thanks for that, from Norfolk in England.
Billy
From Norfolk Island, South Pacific ;)
- but if it happened here under British jurisdiction, then I presume it could happen in England. :)
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Well yes I believe people who were executed in prisons in this country were buried in prison grounds ( I assume unconsecrated ) and have read where families have tried to claim the body but have been denied the right.
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suicides were often buried in unconsecrated ground too
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At one time the burial of suicides, along with felons, outcasts and unbaptised infants, would normally be in unconsecrated ground.
An 1823 statute legalized the burial of suicides in consecrated ground, but religious services were not permitted until 1882. In the year 1823 it was enacted that the body of a suicide should be buried privately between the hours of nine and twelve at night, with no religious ceremony. In 1882 this law was altered by the Internments (felo de se) Act, 1882. where every penalty was removed except that internment could not be solemnised by a burial service, and the body may now be committed to the earth at any time, and with such rites or prayers as those in charge of the funeral think fit or may be able to procure.
Stan
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I found that confusing too when I first heard the term 25 odd years ago. I formed the conclusion that my family were either paupers or devil worshipers. However, they were neither. They were ardent Congregationalists and seemingly quite well to do.
However, I've yet to work out why an earlier ancestor was buried in "Uncon" when he was clearly Anglican church.
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As has been said, the unconsecrated ground was for non-conformists, i.e. non-anglicans, but if you were buried in the unconsecrated section does not mean you weren't anglican! There are cases where an Anglican burial occurred in the unconsecrated section due to space, or which graves were open.
Municipal cemeteries, such as Beckett Street in Leeds, had a consecrated and unconsecrated section. In Beckett Street (originally called Leeds Township Cemetery and also Burmantofts Cemetery) each had their own entrance and chapel.
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There is of course also (certainly in the RC Church) where people who committed suicide were not buried in consecrated ground. Sad 'innit!
Bill
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Our nearest council cemetery is now interdenominational due to decreasing space. There are old CE and GEN Non-Conformist sections (and perhaps RC too but I don't know about those) that have had rows added to the exterior of the sections where people of all religions are now buried.
Blue
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A lot of suicides were not allowed to be buried in church or consecrated ground but that is why they gave the inquest verdict of taking his own life while in a state of "unsound mind" which meant they could be buried in consecrated ground. (And the vicar would also charge more.)
John
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Historically the goods of people found guilty of the 'crime' of suicide were forfeit to the crown, often leaving the survivors in poverty, however if the person committed suicide while the balance of the mind was disturbed (non compos mentis) the survivors were not subject to this draconian penalty.
This forfeiture of property for the felony of suicide was seldom applied for many years before its repeal, but it was the letter of the law up to 1870.
Stan
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that's really cruel isn't it. Thank goodness things have changed.
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Forfeiture Act 1870 "An Act to abolish Forfeitures for Treason and Felony, and to otherwise amend the Law relating thereto" http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/33-34/23/enacted
Stan