The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-02-02 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PRESS.

POLICE.

a!ANSION.HOI
The Sexton of the new Roman Catholic Chapel en Moorilelds
was summoned before the Lord Mayor, to answer the complaint of
Alice Allen. the widow of a 'SWOT men, who had been buried in the
burlal-ground belonging to the Chapel, a few days ago.
The complainant's statement was to the following effect :—ller
husband died about three weeke ago. and in consequence of her
poverty, she was obliged to keep the.body out of the ground a tart-
night. flaring scraped together the amount of the funeral expellees,
sheet the mil of that time had the body put under ground. Three
days afterwards, a friend of her husband's was buried in the seine
grout,d. and she was tntermed by a person who attended both tune-
rats. that her husband's body, coffin, and all, had been removed.
It was the practice to dig each grave In the Aloutlielda burial
ground shout 13 or 14 feet deep, and to lay coffin upon coffin, until
the bodies reached the surface, and then another grave wasting so
close to the former. that the sides of the coffins contained in the full
grave were to be seen as anon as it became necessary to bury in the
empty one. Mr husband's body was the first hijal in the earth of
the newly-made serve, and when the body of his friend was carried
to the same recepis.te' no coffin was to be seen at the bottom. The
poor woman fancied that the hody-inatchera had been active in the
neighourhond, and that the body of her husband was now a sub.
jeer at one of the hospitals.
The sexton said that the poor woman had been misinformed as
to the burial-ground. It was impossible for the coffin to be Cr.
moved, and no disturbance of the ground bad been made except for
the purpose of giving inhumation is other dead. The fact was, the
burial-ground of the Chapel was very small, and the burials were
very numerous. 'Chia it was that led to the stake made by the
complainant's informant. The grave in which her Imehand had
be,.., laid was rapidly filled whit other bodies, and the next grave
was ntistaken for it, because it was they, and quite close so that which
had been just filled. The complainant had raised an outcry upon
the suspicion that the body hail been removed ; but such a thing
was, he repeated, quite impossible.
One of the clergymen who officiate at the chapel also represented
the erroneousness of the suspicion of the poor woman, and men-
tioned that the frequent burials rendered it necessary to pursue the
system of inhumation described. Six or seven coffins were gene-
rally laid in a grave, and diree-fourths of the ground was already
occupied : so that it could not long reinabi open. The complain-
ant had represented that tie. burial ground fur her husband cost
her 30e. and that she had been put to great difficulty to raise that
sum. It had been thought proper to return the money tothe poor
woman, ender the circumstances; but she was not satisfied with
that, or with the assurances that her husband's body lay undis-
turbed in his grave ; on the contrary, nothing would content her
but the removal of all the coffins which had been deposited in the
immediate neighbourhood of that particular grave ; her wish
could not be gratified without actually taking up thirty coffins,
which could not be done without great scandal, and great injury to
the feelings of the Ftiblic.
The Loon Mayon represented to the poor woman the great int-
probability that her husband's body had been touched, and did all
in his power to soothe her grief. Hie Lordship could not help no-
ticing the extraordinary arrangement with respect to the burials in
3loorlields ground, as calculated to revolt the public mind, and
occasion distempers. The practice of keeping the graves open, or
nearly open, there being but a very small quantity indeed of earth
thrown upon each coffin, was extremely improper, and required
the interference of the Magistrates of the district.