Name Index

To

Registry required by act of Parliament for burials in Woollens in Stockleigh English

Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. 36 (1904), pp. 517-521.

by

J. Erskine-Risk

Prepared by Michael Steer

In 1666 an Act of Parliament was passed stating that all corpses were to be buried in wool, but this act was not enforced. The reason was a glut of home-produced wool. In 1678 a 2nd Act was passed and enforced. Coffins had to be lined in wool and the shroud made from wool also. An affidavit had to be sworn by a relative in front a JP with two witnesses, to state that the burial was in wool only. If an affidavit was not given to the incumbent within 8 days, it was reported to the magistrate. There was a £5 fine for non-compliance. The practice of 'burial in woollens' had mostly died out by about 1750, but some districts carried on until much later. The Act was repealed in 1814. Google with the Archive Organization has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. The Internet Archive makes available, in its Community Texts Collection (originally known as Open Source Books), books that have been digitised by Google from a number of libraries. These are books on which copyright has expired, and are available free for educational and research use. This rare book was produced from a copy held by the New York Public Library, and is available from the Internet Archive.