Posted on 12/04/2006 12:22:50 PM PST by FLOutdoorsman
The 500-year-old death records from Lamplugh which revealed some peculiar demises.
Forget knife-carrying hoodies, people in the mid-17th century had far more dangerous opponents to worry about... such as spirits and fairies.
Also, pitchforks, stools or even a trusty frying pan were the weapons of choice when it came to street fights, a newly unearthed burial register has shown.
The document reveals the deeply superstitious – and often brutal – side of life in Oliver Cromwell's England.
Covering deaths from 1656 to 1663 – the manuscript reveals no less than four people were 'Frighted to Death by faries' while another died after being 'Led into a horse pond by a will of the whisp'.
A further seven people died after becoming 'bewitched' – and three 'old women' were drowned after being tried for witchcraft.
While most of the deaths recorded in the Cumbrian parish of Lamplugh were due to old age, drunken duels claimed two lives in bizarre fashion.
One man died in a battle 'fought with frying pan and pitchforks' while a second brawl involving a 'three-footed stool and a brown jug' accounted for another.
Also dangerous was 'Mrs Lamplughs cordial water', which accounted for two deaths.
The manuscript is not dated or signed, but experts studied the writing and concluded it was written in the mid-1700s.
It is based on the burial register from a century earlier, which has been lost, but would have been kept by the local rector.
Archivists in Cumbria came across the document recently in their archives in Whitehaven, as part of a national campaign to highlight the treasures to be found in local history.
Archivist Anne Rowe said: 'These were insecure social times and many folk in the 17th century would have been scared of fairies and will o' the wisps.
'Many a natural death would have been put down to the evil witchcraft of a harmless old widow.'
THOSE DEATHS IN FULL:
Deaths taken out of the Register of Lamplugh from Janry ye 1 1656 to Janry ye 1 1663
* On a five bar gate, stag hunters: 4
* Two Duels, first fot [fought] with frying pan and pitchforks: 1
* Second between a 3 footed stool and a brown jug: 1
* Kild [killed] at Kelton fell raices [races]: 3
* Knocked on the head at Cockfight: 2
* Crost [crossed] in love: 1
* Broke his neck robbing a hen roost: 1
* took cold sleeping at Church: 11
* hanged for clipping and coyning: 7
* of a sprain in his shouldr by saving his dog at bul bate [bull bait]: 1
* Mrs Lamplughs cordial water: 2
* Knocked on ye head with a quart bottle: 1
* Frighted to Death by faries: 4
* Of strong October at the hall: 14
* Bewitched: 7
* Broke a vein in bawling for a knight of ye shire: 1
* Old women drowned upon trial for witchcraft: 3
* Climbing a crows nest: 1
* Led into a horse pond by a will of the whisp: 1
* Over eat himself at a house warming: 1
* Died of a fright in an Excersise of ye traind bands: 1
* By the Parsons bull: 2
* Vagrant beggars worried by Esqr Lamplughs housedog: 2
* Choked with eating barley: 4
* Old age: 57
"Oddly enough, I was wondering about that just a few days ago...I suppose he then went on to discuss long S's that look like lower-case Fs?"
Possibly. But I had already seen those in the writings of the Founding Fathers.
Clipping, cutting slivers of silver or gold from the King's money.
Coyning=coining, counterfeiting.
Swamp gas...
Yes, the coinage was actual Gold and Silver.
I hope you have a long drop latrine...
And funkle...
The English were kind and just hanged counterfeiters.
The Germans boiled them in lead, dipping them in an inch at a time.
The French usually broke them on the wheel.
Here are two that even an Anglophone can say.
Ye Olde Frenche Alliterative Worde Playe #1:
Si six scies scient six cigares, six-cent-six scies scient six-cent-six cigares.
It means "If six saws saw six cigars, six-hundred six saws saw six-hundred six cigars", but the fun part is the pronunciation. Written out in English (or Spanish, "si"), what it sounds like is: SI SI SI SI SI SIGAR, SI SAHN SI SI SI SI SAHN SI SIGAR. The game is that si, six, scies and scient are all pronounced identically: "Si".
Ye Olde French Alliterative Worde Playe #2:
Ton tonton ton ton tonton. Ton tonton, ton tonton ton.
It means "Your uncle plays (lit. 'sounds') your toy. Your toy, your uncle sounds."
Ye Final Olde Frenche Worde Playe:
Everyone has heard Descartes' famous line:
"Je pense, donc je suis." - I think, therefore I am.
Never content to leave edifices of marble unmocked, the average Frechman can be heard saying, on a hot day:
"Je panse, donc je m'essui." - I sweat, therefore I wipe.
The trick is that it's pronounced the same, except for the "m'eh" before the "suis".
Well, that explains why I'm going broke shaving the edges off my pennies & nickels...
Sorry, it's too much fun to let go (when does one get to share French tounguetwisters other than in the context of deaths from the wee folk)?
The classic French "Peter Piper" equivalent is about hunting:
Un chasseur sachant chasser bien doit savoir chasser sans son chien.
(A hunter who knows how to hunt well ought to know how to hunt without his dog.)
A Japanese farmer owned a horse and a Chinese neighbor had a cow.
The Japanese accused the Chinaman of stealing his horse's feed, and received the following reply:
"Horse no can kaukau cow kaukau. Cow kaukau cow kaukau."
lol - I have told people in Spanish numerous timed that I am pragnant [embarrassed] or married [tired] after a long day's travel.
Great work above. Languages are fascinating things! My great-uncle, a JAG lawyer, had books and books on the history of language and the development of modern English. I did a couple of projects in college using his library and found it amazing how things are interconnected and nuanced [in a non-Kerry way] to the tongues we use today. I wish I had studied at an earlier age to become fluent in more than one!
Cool info ping!
Indeed.
The linguistics professor was making a point about languages to his sophomore class, and he concluded with a flourish: "And so I have demonstrated that in many languages, the single negative is used to indicate negation, while in many others - although certainly not in the English! - the double negative is used to indicate negation. However, intensive studies of all of the world's languages have conclusively demonstrated that in no language has a double positive ever been used to express negation."
Then a bored student in the back of the hall said "Yeah. Right."
IIRC, ol' Walt left that scene on the cutting room floor when he made Fantasia.
Especially in light of this, you would tend to think he was a rather...Cavalier fellow:
By the Parsons bull: 2
Well,
between the parson and the Lamplugh's, folks seemed to be droppin' left and right....
and if Mrs. Lamplugh had anything to do with making the October (beer) then they were a hazzard to the community!
Anyone know what this one means??
* On a five bar gate, stag hunters: 4
THIS one I get, and I think it's a hoot!
* Broke a vein in bawling for a knight of ye shire: 1
My sense is that they hanged four men on a fence for poaching stags.
Alternatively, they all crashed and died in a hunting accident. Or maybe four separate accidents jumping over something.
Or maybe one guy died four times and became a will o' the wisp.
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