CERTAIN MEANS OF SECURING THE BODIES OF THE DEAD IN COFFINS
Year: 1823

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HUGHES, of Barking, in the County of Essex, Slopseller, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eleventh day of
September now last past, did give and grant unto me, the said John Hughes,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full power,
and authority, that I, the said John Hughes, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of
fourteen years, pursuant to the Statute in that case made and provided, my
Invention of "CERTAIN MEANS OF SECURING THE BODIES OF THE DEAD IN COFFINS;
in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
John Hughes, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is
to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, otherwise the same to cease, determine, and utterly to become
void, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
"
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Hughes, do hereby declare that my said Invention of "Certain Means

page_text: of Securing the Bodies of the Dead in Coffins" is fully described and
ascertained in manner following, and by the Drawings in the margin of these
Presents, and accompanying description thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in the use or application of an extra or additional
bottom or bottoms to the coffin, and fastening thereto the body by means of
plates, chains, bars, springs or straps of cast or wrought iron, steel, or any
kind of metal, joined together or separate, as may be most desirable, and
attaching or firmly affixing the said extra bottom or bottoms with the body
thus fastened or held down to the usual and real bottom of the coffin or to the
sides thereof by means of locks, springs, catches, bolts, nuts and screws, nails
or rivets, as may be most convenient. Note, this extra or additional bottom or
bottoms to the coffin may be made of wood, iron, steel, or any kind of metal,
but if made of wood only it is desirable that it should be bound or strapped
with iron to guard it from being cut. The Drawings in the margin of these
Prescents exhibit the kind of plates, chains, bars, springs or straps, by which I
propose to fasten or hold down the body to the extra or additional bottom or
bottoms or sides of the coffin, and the means of fastening the same to the usual
or real bottom or bottoms and sides, though it must be understood I do not
mean to confine myself to these precise kinds of fastenings, or to use the whole
number at any one time, except on particular occasions.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
A is the peg that fastens the bottoms together by being introduced into the
socket of H, which is screwed or rivetted to the real or original bottom of the
coffin. B, the pins to be driven through the hole in the top of the peg A,
which force out two or more catches into the socket, and are fastened by a
shoulder which is within the socket H. K is another peg with a spring to
force out the catches as before mentioned. C is a collar or strap to be put on
the neck of the corpse. D, two straps, the one end of each to go through the
holes in the neck strap, to be secured to the extra bottom of the coffin with nuts
or screws on the undermost side. The other ends of these straps are to go under
the arms of the corpse and through the extra bottom of the coffin, and screwed
as before mentioned. E, the body straps fastened in the same manner as the
straps D. and G are straps for the knees and ancles to be fastened to the
extra bottom of the coffin with nuts and screws, in the same manner as the
other straps are secured to the extra bottom or bottoms of the coffin. I, a nut,
either square or round, to screw on to the straps and to fasten them to the extra
bottom of the coffin. L, a number of straps rivetted or welded together to
form a grating or cage to cover the corpse from head to foot, and fastened to

page_text: the extra bottom or bottoms, or to the sides of the coffin, with nuts and screws,
as before mentioned. M, the extra bottom of a coffin, shewing the body or
corpse secured by the fastenings above described.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Tenth
day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and twenty-three.