DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0203
REMARKABLE FUNERALS.
177
clothed with a sable mantle, and attend his remains as
one of the chief mourners, which was accordingly done
with the greatest pomp and solemnity.
Wills.—In July 1751, were interred, the coffin and
remains of a Farmer Stevenage, in Hertfordshire, who
died Feb. 1, 1720, and ordered by will, that his estate
which was 4001. a year, should be enjoyed by his brothers,
who were clergymen, and if they should die, by his
nephew, till the expiration of thirty years, when he sup-
posed he should return to life, and then it wras to revert to
him : He also ordered his coffin to be affixed on a beam
in his barn, locked, and the key enclosed, that he might
let himself out. They staid four days more than the time
limited, and then interred him.
Tn March 1751, died, Mr. Francis Humphry Merrides,
a sea officer ; he ordered by will, that his body should be
put into a leaden coffin, soldered down, and then buried
in the Goodwin Sands, and on the 16th of May of the same
year, the coffin with his remains was taken up floating
on the waves by a Hamburgher, though the inner coffin
of lead, in which the body was deposited, weighed 7001bs.
The following curious entry is inserted in the register
of Lymington church, Hampshire, under the year 1736;
“ Samuel Baldwin, Esq. sojourner in this parish, was
immersed without the Needles in Scratchall Bay, sans
ceremonie, May 20.”—This was performed in consequence
of an earnest wish he had expressed to that effect a little
before his dissolution. And what reason dost thou think,
reader, could induce him to have his body cast into the
ocean rather than quietly committed to the earth. No
motive of erring superstition—no whim of bewildered
reason, but a determination to disappoint the intention
of an affectionate wife, who had repeatedly assured him
in their domestic quarrels, which were very frequent, that
Eccentric, No. IV. a a if
177
clothed with a sable mantle, and attend his remains as
one of the chief mourners, which was accordingly done
with the greatest pomp and solemnity.
Wills.—In July 1751, were interred, the coffin and
remains of a Farmer Stevenage, in Hertfordshire, who
died Feb. 1, 1720, and ordered by will, that his estate
which was 4001. a year, should be enjoyed by his brothers,
who were clergymen, and if they should die, by his
nephew, till the expiration of thirty years, when he sup-
posed he should return to life, and then it wras to revert to
him : He also ordered his coffin to be affixed on a beam
in his barn, locked, and the key enclosed, that he might
let himself out. They staid four days more than the time
limited, and then interred him.
Tn March 1751, died, Mr. Francis Humphry Merrides,
a sea officer ; he ordered by will, that his body should be
put into a leaden coffin, soldered down, and then buried
in the Goodwin Sands, and on the 16th of May of the same
year, the coffin with his remains was taken up floating
on the waves by a Hamburgher, though the inner coffin
of lead, in which the body was deposited, weighed 7001bs.
The following curious entry is inserted in the register
of Lymington church, Hampshire, under the year 1736;
“ Samuel Baldwin, Esq. sojourner in this parish, was
immersed without the Needles in Scratchall Bay, sans
ceremonie, May 20.”—This was performed in consequence
of an earnest wish he had expressed to that effect a little
before his dissolution. And what reason dost thou think,
reader, could induce him to have his body cast into the
ocean rather than quietly committed to the earth. No
motive of erring superstition—no whim of bewildered
reason, but a determination to disappoint the intention
of an affectionate wife, who had repeatedly assured him
in their domestic quarrels, which were very frequent, that
Eccentric, No. IV. a a if