Abstract

"The Commodification of Grave Sales in 19th Century England"

Julie Rugg, University of York (julie.rugg@york.ac.uk)

This paper reflects on the emergence of a mixed market in grave sales in 19th century England. At the beginning of the century, the Church of England held a near-monopoly in burial sales, augmented by the fact that every parishioner had a common-law right to interment in churchyards. However, as the century progressed, the Church of England found its monopoly challenged by alternative private sector and municipal providers. This transition was rather more complex in meaning than is generally assumed. This was not a straightforward shift from a spiritual moral economy to a secularised market. The Church of England regarded grave sales as largely transactional: neither the funeral service nor burial in the churchyard were regarded as significant in theological terms. New cemeteries included consecrated spaces that were, by law, under the control of ecclesiastical authorities. The Church benefitted substantially from compensation clauses built into acts of parliament establishing cemetery companies, and the Burial Acts extended to the new burial board cemeteries the customary fees demanded by clergy and parish clerks for churchyard burial.

Satisfaction with churchyard burial declined substantially over the course of the nineteenth century, as the Church failed to respond to changing consumer demand. Cemeteries refined burial as a commodity rather than a service, through the sale of grave plots. However, commodification carried spiritual and emotional benefit. Cemetery company providers were more attuned to the varied theological needs of non-Anglican denominations. Further, private and later burial board cemetery provision was more likely to deliver a higher level of consolation than interment in the churchyard. Cemeteries could offer a guarantee of perpetuity burial and plots where families could be assured of burial in space they had a legal right to control.