Wenhaston Archive Project History Notes

History Note No.25: The Burial Register

History Note No.25: The Burial Register
Some of the records from 1701 - 1945

Although it was in the 1530s the Parish Registers had to be kept regarding Baptisms, Mariages and Burials, it is only from 1687 that records are in existence for Wenhaston. Looking at the burials there have been over the years comments concerning the burials and the causes of death are interesting:

1701 29 March. Thomas Smith, Schoolmaster.
1713 15 October. Robert Ashby died very suddendly in a field, there being nobody with him. He was not missing for two hours before he was found dead of Apoplexy.
1774 5 February. John and Elizabeth Buck killed when a gable end of a stable fell on them.
1777 28 June. Reverend John Leman "died of the stones after five years of extreme pain. He was open by Doctor Durban of Halesworth and two very large stones were found".
1777 7 August. Sarah Adams drowned. Over the years one finds a number of children drowning in the River Blyth.

1781 A "putrid fever" broke out in Blythburgh and the House of Industry. A third of the village died and 130 in the House of Industry. There must have been cases in Wenhaston, but the Parish only show a modest increase. However there were eight burials in 1777, but from 1779 to 1785 the average was twenty two.

1793 17 January. James Bottom, a pauper, died of starvation.
1797 Eight infants die in May. A possible epidemic.
1802 2 August. William Tuthill, infant, died by a wagon accidentally going over him when asleep in a field where women and children were gleaning.
1854 11 March. Hannah Ellis aged 101. Unusual age for mid 19th century.
1914 Sadly 24 names with five missing on War Memorial
and five more added for 1939-1945.