I showed this posting to my wife. One of her friends (now dead) always said her mother (who was born in the 1870s) said it was traditional for female members of the deceased's family not to attend the funeral. Maybe the testator was one of those who felt traditions of this sort needed to be spelt out in writing. As for the reasons for the tradition, I can only speculate: perhaps it was considered inappropriate for women to attend because they would only wail, blubber and sniffle, getting in the way of the menfolk manfully bearing their grief, keeping stiff upper lips etc. Or was it that important events were considered men-only? Regards, Colin Mills