Now! Then! George Yardley, charcoal-burner, dies as he had lived

11 October 1786: George Yardley, charcoal-burner, dies as he had lived

Sidney Oldall Addy. 1888. A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Sheffield. London: English Dialect Society/Trübner and Co. Get it:

Excerpt

Mr Furness has obliged me with the following inscription from a gravestone in Ecclesall wood: “In memory of George Yardley, wood collier. He was burnt to death in his cabin in this place October 11th, 1786. William Brookes, salesman; David Glossop, gamekeeper; Thomas Smith, beesom-maker; Sampson Brookshaw, innkeeper.” It is said that after drinking one night at the house of Brookshaw, the innkeeper, he was found the next morning burnt to death in his cabin. It is supposed that his calcined remains were buried on the spot. Brookes was the wood salesman. A wood-collier [charcoal-burner or supplier of wood thereto] at Hazelford, near Hathersage, he had acquired such accuracy of aim in chopping wood that he could spread out his fingers upon a piece of wood, and cleave the wood into lengths by cutting between his fingers.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.
Abbreviations:

ER: East Riding
GM: Greater Manchester
NR: North Riding
NY: North Yorkshire
SY: South Yorkshire
WR: West Riding
WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Why was he making charcoal when so much coal was available nearby? Maybe Loopy, who worked as a charcoal burner in Hampshire in the 1980s, will be able to answer this.

Addy suggests a ghost story:

I have several times heard it said that if a corpse is carried through an enclosure of any kind a right of road is thereby obtained through such enclosure. A writer in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, June 28, 1888, in describing the death of the wood-collier, whom I have mentioned under that word in the glossary, says:

The accepted version is that after his wife had left him (she had brought him his supper) he is supposed to have gone to sleep, and that a spark from the burning wood caught the cabin, and he was burnt to death, and only his bones were found by the men whose names are on the headstone. The reason he was buried there is said to be that wherever a corpse is carried a right of road can be claimed. Whether this is so or not is a question for the lawyers. A number of larch trees were planted in the shape of the cabin, and were in existence until a few years ago close to the headstone, where a descendant of one of those who found the bones and the present writer were passing a quiet hour under the shadow of the friendly branches from the heat of the sun, when we both fell asleep, and were only awakened by a loud peal of thunder and a deluge of rain.

It need hardly be said here that no legal right could be thus established.

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Original

WOOD-COLLIER, sb. a charcoal burner, or a person who cuts wood to be made into charcoal.

The word occurs in the Latin of the Norton Parish Registers as carbonarius lignarius. Mr. Furness has obliged me with the following inscription from a gravestone in Ecclesall wood: ‘In memory of George Yardley, wood collier. He was burnt to death in his cabin in this place October 11th, 1786. William Brookes, salesman; David Glossop, gamekeeper; Thomas Smith, beesom-maker; Sampson Brookshaw, innkeeper.’ It is said that after drinking one night at the house of Brookshaw, the innkeeper, he was found the next morning burnt to death in his cabin. It is supposed that his calcined remains were buried on the spot. Brookes was the wood-salesman. A wood-collier at Hazelford, near Hathersage, had acquired such accuracy of aim in chopping wood that he could spread out his fingers upon a piece of wood, and cleave the wood into lengths by cutting between his fingers. The Sheffield Parish Register, Sep. 3, 1711, records the death of ‘John Green, ground-collier.’

182 words.