Several people who read my original inquiry (see below) asked me to
please post if I ever got a response.  Of course, I never thought I
would, but wonder of wonders, someone out there knows about this...

* My Original Post (2004):

Has anyone ever heard of placing "keys" inside a coffin or casket,
beneath the deceased person's head?  Apparently in the preparations for
Thomas Jefferson's burial in 1826, "the coffin was constructed and his
keys were placed under his head."

* Reply from Brian Denyer of Toronto, Canada (2006):

I currently restore, collect, lecture, write and illustrate about the
topic of antique locks and keys.  In Europe and especially in England
and France the female head of the household was buried with the keys to
the abode.  When a British general used to dig up graves, he knew by the
keys who the remains belonged to.

Right now I am writing an article about coffin/casket keys for
publication in a Locksmith Magazine.  There are 2 coffin/casket keys I
am making illustrations of for the article.  One is late Victorian
1880's, and the other is from about the 1920's up to 1953 when the
company went out of business.

I found some of this information in a book written by General
Pritt-Richards during the late Victorian period.  Also in the City of
London, England, in the 1820's they had locked metal cages to prevent
grave robbers from stealing the bodies for use as cadavers for the
Anatomy schools.

Brian <[log in to unmask]>


*********************************
Ted Delaney
Archivist & Curator
Old City Cemetery Museums & Arboretum
Lynchburg, Virginia
(434) 847-1465
Fax: (434) 856-2004
Web: http://www.gravegarden.org
E-mail: [log in to unmask]

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