Image ID: 21169

Funeral instructions from the will of Charles Thompson

Courtesy of Mansfield Museum and Art Gallery

Mansfield
England

Charles Thompson was a benefactor of Mansfield Town, a cloth merchant who had travelled in Persia and had settled in Lisbon where a terrible earthquake occurred in 1755. After witnessing the scene from nearby hills, Thompson stated that he saw the city 'rocking and staggering below', he returned to the city, recovered his money and sailed for home. Each day afterwards he would walk to a site overlooking Mansfield which reminded him of the hills above Lisbon. This is an interesting photograph of his will which recounts his precise burial instructions. 'I desire that Edmund Bulbie be employed as undertaker; that he make me a good, strong, plain coffin, without ornaments. That I be dressed in a flannel shirt, better than two yards long, a flannel cap, a slip of flannel around my neck, and in that state put me into the coffin, and then have two yards of plain flannel thrown over me - no shroud snipt or cut. About the coffin, after I am put in, I would have three iron hoops or plates - one towards the head, another about the middle, the third towards the feet, fastened to the coffin; in each of these places to have an iron ring inserted at the upper part of the coffin, for the ropes to run through to let me down into the grave. That six or eight poor men be employed as bearers, to put me into a hearse and take me out, and that they be allowed five shillings apiece. That George Allen and assistants be employed to make my grave; and, if they can make it six yards deep, to be handsomely paid for their trouble; but to make it as deep as they can. I would have my interment as private as possible; no bell to toll; the hearse to go down Bath Lane, to avoid the town; and in the morning, if it can conveniently be. I desire that george Allen may employed to build me a good strong wall, by way of enclosure, seven yards wide withinside. I desire that, after my funeral, my executors, at my expense and charge, shall cause as much earth to be brought here as will raise a mount; and, at the proper season of the year, some trees may be planted thereon; and then finish the wall.'

Date: 1900

Organisation Reference: NCCW000453

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