ABERDEEN-L Archives

From: Judy <>
Subject: Re: Dead Bodies and Mortcloths
Date: Fri, 05 May 2000 20:30:57 +1000

Hi Judith

A Mortcloth was an embroidered cloth hired out by the kirk and used to cover the coffin. Many coffins were of somewhat flimsy construction, and the mortcloth covered this fact up! The cloth wasn't buried with the coffin. A charge was made for its hire, hence the separate listing in the register.

By the way, in earlier times many graves didn't have memorial stones. They were quite expensive, and so only the more well off tended to use them. I believe most kirks kept a register of the location of graves, but not all of these have survived, and not all of them have them have been indexed. You may need to contact the minister of the relevant kirk, or whoever looks after the graveyard, to find our whether such records exist. The NEAFHS would probably know as well.

Regards

Judy Strachan

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