sermon added very materially to the funeral expenses, the cost of this part of the ceremonies varying apparently at different periods; in two instances in York County in 1667, it was two pounds sterling,[1] and in 1690, it amounted to five pounds.[2]
The stones above the graves were often imported from abroad. Thus in 1657, Mrs. Sarah Yeardley in her will directed that after her death, her necklace and jewels were to be sent to England, and there sold, the proceeds to be used in the purchase among other things of two black tombstones to be conveyed to Virginia.[3] Mrs. John Page desired her grave might be covered with a brick tomb on which a polished black marble slab was to rest.[4]
The outlay which custom required to be made in food, but more especially in liquors, for the funeral was often very heavy. Sheep, poultry, hogs, and heifers, and even an ox, were not infrequently killed to satisfy the hunger of the friends of the deceased who attended, and who, with few exceptions, had been compelled to come a long distance, owing to the fact that the plantations were so widely separated. Spirits were dispensed in large quantities. At a funeral which took place in York in 1667, twenty-two gallons of cider, five gallons of brandy, twenty-four gallons of beer, and twelve pounds of sugar were consumed;[5] sixty gallons of cider, four gallons of rum, and thirty pounds of sugar were consumed by the company present at a funeral in Lower Norfolk in 1691.[6] The amount that was drunk was indeed only limited by the resources of the estate. Some testators gravely calcu-
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1664-1672, pp. 217, 221, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of Lancaster County, original vol. 1690-1709, p. II.
- ↑ Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1656-1666, p. 117.
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1694-1702, p. 64, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Ibid., vol. 1664-1672, p. 221.
- ↑ Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1686-1695, f. p. 171.
