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BURIAL

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 824 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BURIAL and BURIAL ACTS (in O. nag. byrgels, whence byriels, wrongly taken as a plural, and so See also:

Mid. Eng. buryel, from O. Eng. byrgan, properly to protect, See also:cover, to See also:bury). The See also:main lines of the See also:law of burial in See also:England may be stated very shortly. Every See also:person has the right to be buried in the See also:churchyard or burial ground of the See also:parish where he See also:dies, with the exception of executed felons, who are buried in the precincts of the See also:prison or in a See also:place appointed by the See also:home See also:office. At See also:common law the person under whose roof a See also:death takes place has a See also:duty to provide for the See also:body being carried to the See also:grave decently covered; and the executors or legal representatives of the deceased are See also:bound to bury or dispose of the body in a manner becoming the See also:estate of the deceased, according to their discretion, and they are not bound to fulfil the wishes he may have expressed in this respect. The disposal must be such as will not expose the body to violation, or offend the feelings or endanger the See also:health of the living; and See also:cremation under proper restrictions is allowable. In the See also:case of paupers dying in a parish See also:house, or shipwrecked persons whose bodies are See also:cast ashore, the overseers or guardians are responsible for their burial; and in the case of suicides the See also:coroner has a similar duty. The expenses of burial are payable out of the deceased's estate in priority to all other debts. A See also:husband liable for the See also:maintenance of his wife is liable for her funeral expenses; the parents for those of their See also:children, if they have the means of paying. Legislation has principally affected (1) places of burial, (2) mode of burial, (3) fees for burial, and (4) disinterment. 1.

The overcrowded See also:

state of churchyards and burial grounds gradually led to the passing of a See also:group of statutes known as the Burial Acts, extending from 1852 up to 1900. By these acts a See also:general See also:system was set up, the aim of which was to remedy the existing deficiencies of See also:accommodation by providing new burial grounds and closing old ones which should be dangerous to health, and to establish a central authority, the home office (now for most purposes the See also:Local See also:Government See also:Board) to super-intend all burial grounds with a view to the See also:protection of the public health and the maintenance of public decency in burials. The Local Government Board thus has the See also:power to obtain by See also:order in See also:council the closing of any burial ground it thinks See also:fit, while its consent is necessary to the opening of any new burial ground; and it also has power to See also:direct inspection of any burial ground or See also:cemetery, and to regulate burials in common See also:graves in statutory cemeteries and to compel persons in See also:charge of vaults or places of burial to take steps necessary for preventing their becoming dangerous or injurious to health. The See also:vestry of any parish, whether a common-law or ecclesiastical one, was thus authorized to provide itself with a new burial ground, if its existing one was no longer available; such ground might be wholly or partly consecrated, and chapels might be provided for the performance of burial service. The ground was put under the management of a burial board, consisting of ratepayers elected by the vestry, and the consecrated portion of it took the place of the churchyard in all respects. Disused churchyards and burial grounds in the See also:metropolis may be used as open spaces for recreation, and only buildings for religious purposes can be built on them (1881, 1884, 1887). The Local Government See also:Act 1894 introduced a See also:change into the government of burial grounds (consequent on the general change made in parochial government) by transferring, or allowing to be transferred, the See also:powers, duties, See also:property and liabilities of the burial boards in See also:urban districts to the See also:district See also:councils, and in rural parishes to the parish councils and parish meetings; and by allowing rural parishesto adopt the Burials Acts, and provide and See also:manage new burial grounds by the parish council, or a burial board elected by the parish See also:meeting. 2. The mode of burial is a See also:matter of ecclesiastical See also:cognizance; in the case of churchyards and elsewhere it is in the discretion of the owners of the burial ground. The Local Government Board now makes regulations for burials in burial grounds provided under the Burial Acts; for cemeteries provided under the Public Health Act 1879. Private cemeteries and burial grounds make their own regulations. Burial may now take place either with or without a religious service in consecrated ground.

Before 188o no body could be buried in consecrated ground except with the service of the See also:

Church, which the See also:incumbent of the parish or a person authorized by him was bound to perform; but the canons and See also:prayer-See also:book refused the use of the office for excommunicated persons, majori excommunicalione, for some grievous and notorious See also:crime, and no person able to testify of his repentance, unbaptized persons, and persons against whom a See also:verdict of felo de se had been found. But by the Burial See also:Laws See also:Amendment Act i88o, the bodies of persons entitled to be buried in parochial burial grounds, whether churchyards or graveyards, may be buried there, on proper See also:notice being given to the See also:minister, without the performance of the service of the Church of England, and either without any religious service or with a See also:Christian and orderly religious service at the grave, which may be conducted by any person invited to do so by the person in charge of the funeral. Clergymen of the Church of England are also by the act allowed, but are not obliged, to use the burial service in any unconsecrated burial ground or cemetery, or See also:building therein, in any case in which it could be used in consecrated ground. In cases where it may not be so used, and where such is the wish of those in charge of the service, the See also:clergy may use a See also:form of service approved by the See also:bishop without being liable to any ecclesiastical or temporal See also:penalty. Except as altered by this act, it is still the law that " the Church knows no such indecency as putting a body into consecrated ground without the service being at the same See also:time performed "; and nothing in the act authorizes the use of the service on the burial of a felo de se, which, however, may take place in any way allowed by the act of 1880. The proper performance of the burial office is provided for by the Public See also:Worship Regulation Act 1894. Statutory See also:provision is made by the criminal law in this act for the preservation of order in burial grounds and protection of funeral services. 3. Fees are now payable by See also:custom or under statutory powers on all burials. In a churchyard the See also:parson must perform the office of burial for parishioners, even if the customary See also:fee is denied, and it is doubtful who is liable to pay it. The custom must be immemorial and invariable. If not disputed, its See also:payment can be enforced in the ecclesiastical See also:court; if disputed; its validity must be tried by a temporal court.

A See also:

special See also:contract for the payment of an See also:annual fee in the case of a non-parishioner can be enforced in the latter court. In the case of paupers and shipwrecked persons the fees are payable by the parish. In other parochial burial grounds and cemeteries the duties and rights to fees of the incumbents, clerks and sextons of the parishes for which the ground has been provided are the same as in burials in the churchyard. Burial authorities may See also:fix the fees payable in such grounds, subject to the approval of the home secretary; but the fees for services rendered by ministers of See also:religion and sextons must be the same in the consecrated as in the unconsecrated See also:part of the burial ground, and no incumbent of a parish or a clerk may receive any fee upon burials except for services rendered by them (act of 1900). On burials under the act of 188o the same fees are payable as if the burial had taken place with the service of the Church. 4. A See also:corpse is not the subject of property, nor capable of holding property. If interred in consecrated ground, it is under the protection of the ecclesiastical court; if in unconsecrated, it is under that of the temporal court. In the former case it is an ecclesiastical offence, and in either case it is a See also:misdemeanour, to disinter or remove it without proper authority, whatever the See also:motive for such an act may be. Such proper authority is (1) a See also:faculty from the See also:ordinary, where it is to be removed from one consecrated place of burial to another, and this is often done on sanitary grounds or to meet the wishes of relatives, and has been done for See also:secular purposes, e.g. widening a thoroughfare, by allowing part of the burial ground (disused) to be thrown into it; but it has been refused where the See also:object was to cremate the remains, or to See also:transfer them from a church-yard to a See also:Roman See also:Catholic burial ground; (2) a See also:licence from the home secretary, where it is desired to transfer remains from one unconsecrated place of burial to another; (3) by order of the coroner, in cases of suspected crime. There has been considerable discussion as to the boundary See also:line of See also:jurisdiction between (I) and (2), and whether the disinterment of a body from consecrated ground for purposes of See also:identification falls within (I) only or within both (1) and (2); and an See also:attempt by the ecclesiastical court to enforce a penalty for that purpose without a licence has been prohibited by the temporal court. See also CHURCHYARD; and, for methods of disposal of the dead, CEMETERY; CREMATION, and FUNERAL See also:RITES.

End of Article: BURIAL

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