Sir Daniel Fleming

• General Notes
  • @NI1484@
    People of wealth distributed presents to the entire community on a lavish scale. An example was the funeral which a rich Cumbrian gentleman named Daniel Fleming of Rydal Hall arranged for his wife, who died 13 April 1675, two days after having given birth to her fourteenth child. Her grieving husband ordered six quires of paper (150 large sheets) for folding "sweetmeats." He also ordered that the poor of Cumberland should receive four pennies apiece, and for that purpose he set aside the sum of 30 pounds, ten shillings, and four pence enough for 1,831 poor people.
    
    Daniel Fleming also spent another large sum on ringing, singing, sermons, gravemaking, and a "coffin and clasp." But this was an exceptional event. Coffins were not generally used in this impoverished region. Borderers were buried in cloth sacks.
    A statue of 1678 required that south of the Scottish border, only English wool could be used. The Scots and Irish preferred linen, but in most respects the customs were much the same.