Re: Cremation in 1857

On Fri, 9 Jan 2009 "A Jones" <acjj@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Bob >" <'Bob' <@cap.hotmail.com> wrote in message
I have come across a tomb at West Norwood Cemetery with the inscription:
Mr Henry Dawkins, born 28 Jan 1773, buried 28th Jan 1857
Interdicted by Parliament from intermingling his ashes wis wife and
daughter
who lie buried in the grave yard at St Margarets Westminster
Upwards of 30 years in the Civil Service of his country
[...] by his only son.

Perhaps "ashes" is being used in a poetic, rather than a literal sense
(meaning mortal remains)? As in "we therefore commit his body to the
ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust" (Book of Common
Prayer, 1662).

An interesting point - all burials in London churchyards were forbidden after
about 1830, so no-one had been allowed in the family plot at the parish
church for some years. Hence the existance of the "Magnificent Seven"
metropolitan cemeteries to entice burials away to more grand surroundings.
Dawkins' plot was in one of the more expensive parts of an expensive
cemetery.
Nonetheless, its quite a strong polemic to have as your epitaph, when it had
been the law for decades..

Otherwise it seems a bit strange that this case is not more widely known,
e.g. via supporters of the Cremation Society - alongside the curious
example of Jesus Christ Price, the infant son of an eccentric 83 year old
father, whose attempted cremation in 1884 led to a re-thinking of the law in
England & Wales http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Price_(doctor).

Three decades had elapsed between his burial and the cremation society's
heyday - its quite possible they were unaware or chose to ignore it.
(ISTR the cremation society "proved" the concept c. 1880 by demonstrating
cremation on a horse.)

St Margaret's, Westminster, is the Houses of Parliament parish church -
maybe the right to burial there had become subject to additional
restrictions by 1857?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Margaret's,_Westminster

I'm not aware that Parliament had their own special parish rules there - the
Vestry records did not intimate any "interference". It is probable that
Parliament would intervene with the goings on at Westminster Cathedral.

Bob.
.

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