textile nuggets

[blythely]

An act of parliament, from 1686, mandating that no-one could be buried wrapped in any other kind of cloth apart from Scots linen. I was listening to a podcast (Cloth Cultures) and thinking about my ancestral matriline (distaff, if you will, a lovely term bringing together two of my interests!), went down a little rabbit hole about the linen industries in Scotland, and found this.

Comments

[lazulus]

The Burying in Woollen Act of the second half of the 17th Century means you see the term 'buried in woollen' a lot in burial registers of the period. Looks like it had a similar root in wanting local cloth to be used instead of imported. Weird research rabbit holes are the best!

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

A fascinating bit of history, but I'm guessing they didn't stop to think about, not only poor people in general, but how the churches were supposed to pay for paupers' burial cloth instead of using whatever rags they could get as usual.