Mort Cloths

[sandyjose]

 Thank you for all the info.Having read many sites about mortcloths I understand a lot more about them. It seems they have been used for centuries,ie The Turin Shroud.Today some deceased's coffins in England are covered with a flag which is a type of mortcloth?I don't remember mortcloths being mentioned in England,but any coffin covered in a flag,would have been the same as a mortcloth.
 The term must have been dropped a long time ago,but it makes sense that,if a family couldn't afford a coffin,the body would have been wrapped in a mortcloth.
  I would be interested to know when the practice was stopped.Several members of my family were buried in Glasgow over 200years,I wonder who had a mortcloth and who didn't.

[hanes teulu]

At Alness, the Highlands, in 1863 the cord of a mort cloth was being sought to cure a sick horse. Superstition - witches had made use of the animal and the cure was to wrap the animal in the cord. A problem was encountered - mort cloths having become "almost extinct".
The solution was to wrap the horse in a sheet that was known to have been used to wrap a corpse.

(Inverness Courier)

The becoming extinct could, of course, simply apply to that neck of the woods.

[Johncarruth]

I am of Scottish birth but was living in the London area as a child in the 1950s when  all my Grandparents died in Glasgow, my parents separately going to Glasgow for the funerals and I  was told at that time that only men attended the funerals with the womenfolk staying at home.
John.

[sandyjose]

 Yes that was true.A cousin told me about the funeral of our uncle.He was in their house for about 3 days before the funeral, which she found hard to deal with,especially they only had a small flat.On the day the men went with the coffin while the women stayed at home to prepare food and drinks.I don't know when this was changed,can anyone tell me?

[Lodger]

This custom "died out" gradually from the 1960s onwards. My great-aunt's husband died in 1965 and she went to the graveside. My grannie (her sister) was scandalised and they had an argument after the church service. I think it really had to do with the women staying behind and making the steak-pie & peas! Nowadays we are all too rich to do it ourselves - but it's still steak-pie & peas 

[scotmum]

I have noticed that in Northern Ireland, some women still do not attend the burial, leaving it instead to the men to go, whereas in Scotland and England, I've noticed many women attend. Perhaps regional variations in any of these countries also prove the opposite though, and local 'customs' are reflecting what is considered 'standard' in any particular area.

[Lodger]

There doesn't seem to be a problem with women attending a crematorium service.

[Chesapek]

I think it was an old tradition for whatever reason but even today some women will not go to the graveyard. I was born in 1956 but I remember this from I was young.

[Skoosh]

Lodger is right, the introduction of cremations brought about the end of women's non-attendance at funerals generally.

This stark painting by James Guthrie shows a mortcloth in use at a Highland funeral. Click to expand the image,

http://collections.glasgowmuseums.com/starobject.html?oid=571

Skoosh.