Hi Don and others, I don't know if this was done in other parishes, but at Shotts, Lanark, there were many cases of the Parish donating the use of the Mortcloth by the poor. I've been transcribing their parish records for some time now, and this type of event seems to have been common there. These entries are like this one: 1834, Feb 2 By Mary Rennie's Mortcloth Remitted poverty 6 shillings 8 pence (3rd best) Sadly, not too many of these records have survived for other parishes. Jim Bundy ----- Original Message ----- From: <DonW16@aol.com> To: <SCT-RENFREW-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2003 8:09 AM Subject: Re: [Renfrew] Re: Different Christening Dates for BARR children > Georgena from Las Vegas also from Scotland writes: > "I just thought I would correct an error mort clothes were over the coffin > and > were of various sizes and also various prices they were not shrouds." > > Quite right, Georgena. My comment reflects the problem of sending a message > in the middle of the night, when one is half asleep, as I was, and not > thinking carefully. ;-) > In fact, the mortcloth was rented from the parish for funerals, which > resulted in many of the poorer people not able to have this burial. The dues > were given to the parish for the hire of the mortcloth or pall, as it was > sometimes known. > One writer suggests, another reason for the difficulty of finding persons in > the few of these records that exist, may be the custom of carrying deceased > persons to their native parish or burial place of their ancestor. > However, he also has said the mortcloth was not used for children under the > age of ten. This apparently was not the case in this parish. > A tip of the hat to you, Georgina, for picking up on an error that shouldn't > have been made. > Cheers > Don Wilson > > > > > ==== SCT-RENFREW Mailing List ==== > ********************************************************************** > The Renfrewshire GenWeb page is at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~sctrfw/ > >