Burial of Hannah Bird at Colton St Mary, Staffs

[david1701]

Hello,

I'm researching the Bird family of Staffordshire in the early/mid 1700s. I have found a marriage between Joseph Bird and Hannah Tooth at Lichfield on 27th Jan 1735.

Although to date I have no firm proof, I believe that this couple had 7 children, from 1736 to 1753, all baptised at Colton St Mary. Images etc available on FindMyPast. No mother is listed in the Baptismal Register (which is written in Latin) - with all children being listed as son or daughter of "Josephi Bird".

In trying to ensure I've got the correct couple, I've been looking for burials of Joseph and Hannah. A good possibility for Joseph is the burial recorded at Colton on 27th Aug 1775. But it is the burial of Hannah Bird on 28th Nov 1776, also at Colton, with which I would appreciate some help deciphering.

Can someone please tell me what the words/abbreviations are after "Hannah Bird"? I wondered if what appears to be "W^w"  might mean "Widow? But then again I could be barking up completely the wrong tree!

Any thoughts and comments will be greatly appreciated.

[bbart]

Flipping through the pages, there were a couple of other women with the W^w.
I did note that the burials for children had their parents named, and married women had "wife of so-and-so" noted.
I did find one written Wid^w, which makes me think you are correct about "widow".
There are lots of Bird and Tooth families in that book; it might be worth your while to do a page by page look-see!

I have no idea of what the abbrev is after the W^w.  It only appears on burials, and virtually every burial, except for the odd man here and there, such as Joseph Bird. It could be a latin abbreviation, as just prior to the 1769 clipping attached, showing the Wid^w , latin was heavily used in all entries.

[Bookbox]

28  Buried Hannah Bird W^w cum aff^t (= widow, with affidavit)

The affidavit was probably a sworn statement that she was buried in woollen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burying_in_Woollen_Acts

[david1701]

bbart and Bookbox - many thanks for your very helpful replies. Apologies for not responding sooner, yesterday was a busy day!

Thanks for the confirmation that W^w very likely means "Widow" - and whilst I've come across this "Buried in woollen" point before, becuse I do my family history research in fits and starts I'd forgotten about it! The link you provided, Bookbox, was very interesting and helpful.

I'll certainly check further through that Register for other Tooths and Birds, to see if I can glean any further helpful information.

Thank you both once again.
David