Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

The Rev. Mr. Banham, the officiating minister, says that the circumstance of the body falling out of the coffin was so painful that he did not look into the grave, but understood from the sexton that there was very little covering, and no shroud. Greenwood, the sexton, informed me that the body had on a shirt, open all the way down the middle, with a cloth over the top of the body. Two police constables saw the remains on the shirt flying open, and two bits of cloth which were on the top of the body. There was nothing like a shroud. The man who removed the body into the coffin from the grave, William Broadhead (who was assisting the sexton), says that the covering consisted of a shirt (boy’s), reaching little lower than the abdomen, and split down from top to bottom, so that on the cloth that covered the top of the remains falling off, and the shirt dropping down on either side, the whole body was exposed, plainly showing the marks of the post mortem examination. There was no shroud enveloping the body. It will be seen from these statements that the bit of cloth falling off the top, and the split-down shirt falling on each side, the body was so exposed that persons looking down from the top of the grave, and seeing only the remains, were led to believe that there was no covering whatever.

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The original article:

On Tuesday afternoon, a painful occurrence took place at a burial at the churchyard at Worsbrough Dale, near Barnsley. A man, named Adam Watson, died at the Asylum at Wakefield, and his remains were brought there for burial at Worsbrough Dale. On lowering the coffin into the grave, by some means it tippled over, the lid coming off and exposing the ghastly remains in a nude state. The feelings of the relatives of the deceased on finding that the body was not even slightly covered may be easily imagined (Leeds Mercury 1863/08/13).

Frederic Issott, undertaker to the West Riding Asylum, rebutted the claim in a letter published on 15 August:

The facts are that the patient, Adam Watson, had on, when he was put into the coffin on leaving the Asylum, a good linen shirt and suitable shroud (such being in all cases provided by the Institution). At the request of the patient’s father, I did not screw the lid of the coffin on tightly, for he said that the relatives would want to see the body when they got it home. They evidently did not subsequently get the lid properly secured. But the statement … that the body was “nude” when the lid came off is, is untrue, is, in addition to my statement, corroborated by that of the patient’s wife, to whom I have been today, and who has, at my request, written the letter which I enclose… (Issott 1863/08/15).

The entry forms the journalist’s response.

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Original

Permit me to state that the facts on which the paragraph was founded were furnished by persons who were present at the funeral, but who, as will be seen, in the horror of the moment, saw only the “ghastly” remains. The Rev. Mr. Banham, the officiating minister, says that the circumstance of the body falling out of the coffin was so painful that he did not look into the grave, but understood from the sexton that there was very little covering, and no shroud. Greenwood, the sexton, informed me that the body had on a shirt, open all the way down the middle, with a cloth over the top of the body. Two police constables saw the remains on the shirt flying open, and two bits of cloth which were on the top of the body. There was nothing like a shroud. The man who removed the body into the coffin from the grave, William Broadhead (who was assisting the sexton), says that the covering consisted of a shirt (boy’s), reaching little lower than the abdomen, and split down from top to bottom, so that on the cloth that covered the top of the remains falling off, and the shirt dropping down on either side, the whole body was exposed, plainly showing the marks of the post mortem examination. There was no shroud enveloping the body. It will be seen from these statements that the bit of cloth falling off the top, and the split-down shirt falling on each side, the body was so exposed that persons looking down from the top of the grave, and seeing only the remains, were led to believe that there was no covering whatever.

283 words.

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• Autopsy (3) ·
• 📌Barnsley (23) ·
• Funeral (25) ·
• 📌Wakefield (36), cathedral city on the River Calder in the West Riding/West Yorkshire ·
• West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum (3) ·
• Worsbrough (3) ·

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