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  1. #1
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    Default 'Proprietor' on burial record

    Can someone please tell me what the column headed 'proprietor' means on a non-conformist bural record from 1824? The name given seems to be the deceased man's wife, but it is interpreted as his mother on the transcript provided, even though he was 36 when he died.

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    Quote Originally Posted by essbee View Post
    Can someone please tell me what the column headed 'proprietor' means on a non-conformist bural record from 1824? The name given seems to be the deceased man's wife, but it is interpreted as his mother on the transcript provided, even though he was 36 when he died.
    A proprietor, in general, are genuinely people who own dwelling, land or shares.

    In this case it could be the deceased's wife owned the land or a share of it, though because of sexism in the day this is hugely unlikely.

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    What the column headed 'proprietor' means on a non-conformist bural record
    Proprietor of the grave, presumably.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter Goodey View Post
    Proprietor of the grave, presumably.
    Yep. Grave spaces can be purchased and hence owned.

    I've got family documents, including a sealed Grant from 'the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough... (of Sunderland)... to grant 'the exclusive Rights of Burial in the grave no. ... in the... Cemetery'.
    The grant is in perpetuity for the purpose of burial - ie a family plot.
    It cost £4 in 1945 and I guess made my Gran 'the proprietor'.

    A separate doc. is a receipt from the Corporation and one item on it allows for the 'Interment Fee in an Unpurchased Grave....' (not filled in as gran had bought the plot) but presumably an unpurchased plot would still leave the Council as the proprieter.

    Another receipt I have is from an undertaker and quotes £6-9-6d for 'Purchase of ground (2 spaces)'

    I seem to have at the back of my mind the idea that unpurchased plots can be 'reused' later for other, possibly unrelated, burials. I'm sure my mum shuddered about having strangers buried with you. She was cremated!

    Cheers, MTS

  5. #5
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    Thanks everyone. I'm glad to know that 'proprietor' means the same on the record as it does in everyday English. The transcriptions for this set of records (burials at the Wesleyan chapel in Cheetham) seem to designate everyone in the 'proprietor' column as either 'father' or 'mother'. I thought I must have the wrong person until I looked at the actual document. Perhaps I should let the website know, to save others the same confusion.

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