This page on Google doesn't actually tell you why the burial had to be after midnight but it does give some interesting information about suicide burials in that time period. This custom in Scotland might have something to do with the burial custom of burying after midnight on unconsequated land. This page also contains some very interesting birth, marriage and death customs in Scotland that made very interesting reading so I am posting the addy here for you all to look at. http://www.fife.50megs.com/birth-customs.htm Here is the paragraph about the suicidal burial. Newburgh Towards the end of the last century the corpse of a suicide had to be lifted over the walls of the churchyard in Newburgh; the superstitious belief being that if it was permitted to enter by the gate, the next child that was carried to the Church for baptism would end its days by self-destruction. This superstition died out by slow degrees. Scarcely fifty years ago, two old women remembering what they had seen in their youth, watched with eager curiosity the funeral procession of a suicide in Newburgh, as it approached the churchyard porch, where a very slight accidental stoppage took place. Imagining that the old superstitious practice was to be put in force, they immediately set off to see the end, exclaiming, Theyre no gaun to let her in yet; but they had not run many paces when the whole procession disappeared within the churchyard gate, and this form of superstition was for ever extinguished amongst us. Enjoy Judi in Tacoma, WA, USA From: "Peter & Angela McMurtry" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 09:54:29 +1000 Subject: [IoW] Sep 1867 Snippet Can anyone tell me why suicide victims had to be buried so quickly and after midnight ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Judi McRae, a Proud Canadian living in the Glorious Pacific Northwest (Tacoma,WA, USA) Please NOTE*** I am NOT researching the McRae name. Nothing attached to this letter is from me unless specifically mentioned in the body of the letter. FIGHT SPAMMERS: Please remove all previous addressees before forwarding this material. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .