DEVELOPMENT IN ENGLISH FUNERAL PRACTICES

1546 - 1900

 

Pageantry and Splendor In Funerals Reached It's Peak During This Era.

    By 1698, the enormous expense for a family to own all the trappings and equipment necessary for a typical funeral brought into being the "undertaker" who furnished these. (Original meaning of undertaker was the same as underwriter, "one who provides financial backing for an enterprise.")

    Embalming was still the prerogative of surgeons and anatomists. Early in the 17th century, the Guild of Barber - Surgeons took over embalming duties in England.

    By 1900, undertaking emerged as a specific trade. It had gathered functions formerly scattered over several trades into a unified single occupational task. While outside the authority of the church, it cooperated with and retained church customs.