The Romance of Wills and TestamentsVine Hall, Edgar
History
The Romance of Wills and Testaments
Vine Hall, Edgar
Wills -- Great Britain -- Miscellanea
Close upon a hundred years later (August 18, 1760), another Bishop, the
Right Rev. Benjamin Lord Bishop of Winchester, in English less chaste
but with remarkable similarity of thought, wrote out his desires for
his interment. “There is hardly anything more unworthy of a man, or a
Christian, than to have a great concern or deliberation about the place
and manner of his funeral. I know of but one reason that can justify
it, and that is because it may take off all dispute and difference
which may arise, and determine it so as that the executors can have
no trouble or blame. I once had a fixed design to order my burial at
Streatham Church in Surrey, where I passed many agreeable years of
my life, in a vault to be built by me which might hold all my nearest
and dearest relations. But when I had thus fully resolved, and was
going to begin the work in the plainest manner, I found myself totally
disappointed; for when I came to enquire of the proper officers of the
parish where I had lived long and where I had buried my first wife, I
found something true which I did not before think to be so; and that in
short it was in vain to enquire about any particular coffin after such
a certain number of years have passed from the time of the funeral. I
therefore now, without any further thought about what is of so little
consequence, order and appoint, solely to take off all uneasiness
from my executor, that my burial shall be in the Cathedral Church of
Winchester, in as private a manner as decency will permit, in such part
or place as the Rev. the Dean and the majority of the Chapter shall
allow of, and judge proper, for the making one grave for this purpose
only. I desire that no unnecessary trouble may be given to any persons
towards their attendance, but that only what has been usual on such
occasions may be paid. I desire and hope that neither my executor nor
any near relation will attend: nor indeed any person but the Dean and
Prebendaries if he or any of that body happen on any other account to
be at Winchester at that time, and not otherwise. These may be followed
at the funeral by those servants of mine who may attend the corpse
from Chelsea.... My will also is, that the inscription I have left,
containing only facts relating to myself, may be engraved on a piece of
marble, with very little ornament about it, and be fixed to a pillar,
the nearest to the grave, without any addition of any character or any
word or figure but to fill up the vacancies left.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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