HC Deb 03 April 1900 vol 81 cc1065-6
MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbigh shire, W.)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to a recent incident in the Vale of Clwyd, in reference to the burial of David Vaughan, who died at the Ruthin Workhouse, on 12th February last, at the age of 72; whether he is aware that the action taken by the rectors of Bodfary and Llandyrnog in regard to this burial has formed the subject of discussion at meetings of the Ruthin Board of Guardians, and that Vaughan was a member of a highly respected family residing in the parish of Aberwheeler (which is attached to the parish of Bodfary for burial purposes), that he had himself resided in this parish for sixty years of his life, and that his father and mother and sister were buried in the Bodfary churchyard, but that the rector of Bodfary refused to allow him to be buried there; whether he is aware that several non-parishioners have been buried in this churchyard for whom burial fees were paid, and that, upon a decision being arrived at to bury the man in the churchyard of Llandyrnog parish, the rector refused to allow the hearse to go outside the boundary of the parish for the corpse, that this hearse was provided by public subscriptions of the parishioners in 1895, and has on other occasions been sent outside the parish for burial purposes; and whether, in view of the feeling aroused by such incidents, he will consider the desirability of so amending the law relating to parish churchyards as to give parishioners more effective control over the burial of the dead.

THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. JESSE COLLINGS,) Birmingham, Bordesley

The Secretary of State had not previously heard of this case; but from inquiries which have been made it appears that the whole difficulty arose from a doubt as to whether the deceased could properly be regarded as a parishioner of either of the parishes in question. In the particular circumstances of the case there seems to have been reasonable excuse for the doubt; and in consequence the rector of Llandyrnog did not fool himself justified in sending out of the parish the hearse which had been provided for the use of parishioners only. The incident does not appear to call for an alteration of the law.