The Virgins' Crown

By Pamela J. King

The Virgins' Crowns

Abbotts Ann is one of the very few parishes in which the medieval custom of awarding Virgins' Crowns has survived. In the early days of Christianity, funeral garlands were emblems of Virgin Martyrs and the practice of making maidens' garlands presumably derives from that. Shakespeare, in referring to the burial of Ophelia, says "she is allowed her virgin crants (crown)". A crown may he requested by the relatives of the deceased person, who must have been born, baptised, confirmed and have died, unmar-ried, in the parish, and must have been of unblemished reputation. The crown must be made of freshly cut hazelwood (virgin wood), and is decorated with black and white paper rosettes. Five parchment gauntlets hang from the frame. On one of these are written the name, age and year of death of the deceased, and on each of the other four a verse of a hymn is inscribed. At the funeral service the crown is suspended from a white rod and carried in procession by two young girls dressed in white. After the funeral the crown is hung from the front of the gallery for three weeks, and if it is not challenged it is then hung from a bracket near the ceiling of the church, with a scutcheon bearing the name and date.

No crowns survive from the earlier church, hut since the rebuilding forty-nine crowns have been hung, thirteen of them for young boys and the rest for girls and women. Tradition has it that when a crown deteriorates and falls it is not re-hung. The daughter of headmaster Monty Dance remembered her grand-mother, on Sunday mornings sailing into church and turning right to bow to the Virgin's crown which commemorated Sarah Jane Dance. The last two of these funerals took place in 1953 and 1973. Miss Florence Jane Wisewell, aged 72, who lived in Little Ann, was buried with due ceremony in Sept. 1953. The burial was widely reported, indeed a cutting sent from an American paper referred to "England's Answer to the Kinsey Report". (This was a well-publicised document on sexual behaviour.) The last burial was that of Miss Lily Myra Annetts aged 73' of Church Lane. Among the crowns already hanging in the church is one for her young brother, William George Annetts, who died in 1918 aged 15. With today's increasingly mobile population very few people are likely to spend all their lives in one parish and this ancient custom may disappear.

The following information kindly supplied by Tim Tayler

1	LILY MYRA	ANNETTS	AGED 73^RS	1973	Location by number
2	MARY JANE	BAKER	AGED 45	1921
3	WILLIAM GEORGE	ANNETTS	AGED 15	1919
4	GEORGE	COOK	AGED 18	1839
5	J C	BEST	AGED 29	1840
6	ELIZABETH	SEAWARD	AGED 15	1884
7	MARGARET	GUYATT	AGED 7	1841
8	ROBERT	PERRETT	AGED 30	1842
9	JAMES	PERRETT	AGED 33	1842
10	CATHERINE	MARTIN	AGED 15	1842
11	CHARLOTTE	ALLEN	DIED JUNE 1911	AGED 77 YEARS
12	FLORENCE JANE	WISEWELL	AGE 72 YEARS	1953
13	LOUISA	CRIPPS	AGED 10	1842
14	MARY	LANSLY	AGED 29	1843
15	ELIZABETH TREDGOLD	RAY	AGED 24	1847
16	THOMAS BYAM	MARTIN	DIED 6^TH JUNE 1847	AGED 19 YEARS
17	BETSY	WELLS	AGED 6	1850
18	WILLIAM	DOWNTON	AGED 27	1852
19	SARAH	MAY	DIED DEC 28 1854	AGED 14
20	ANN	SUGG	AGED 42	1906
21	JAMES	ANNETTS	DIED APRIL 18 1855	AGED 31
22	HENRY T[HOMAS]. W.	WISE	AGE 15 YEARS	1870
23	WILLIAM MUNDY	TAMLYN	AGED 16?	1855?
24	MARY	FENNELL	AGED 24	1811
25	ELLEN	BANTAM	DIED FEB^Y 13^TH	1861
26	MARY	DEAR	DIED NOV 30^TH 1871	AGED 46 YEARS
27	JOHN	MORRANT	1740
28	LUCY MAY	TAPP	AGED 22	1855
29	MARY	HICKSON	AGED 16	1812
30	FANNY	ASHER	DIED JULY 29 1856	AGED 18 YEARS
31	MARIANNE GERALDINE	FENWICK	AGED 43	1919
32	MARTHA	ANDREWS	AGED 12	1812
33	ALEXANDER	CLARK	1816
34	HANNAH	REDMAN	AGED 11	1821
35	ROSA ANN	HARDY	Died Aug 29^th 1874	Aged 15 Years
36	GEORGE	STONE	AGED 19	1823
37	JOHN	REDMAN	AGED 19	1823
38	CHARLES	HOPGOOD	AGED 28	1824
39	SARAH	MEADS	AGED 16	1824
40	LOUISA MAY	RUMSEY	DIED OCT 5 1890	Aged 27
41	MARY MAUD	FENNELL	DIED DEC 18^TH AGED 25 YEARS	1892
42	HANNAH	ORCHARD	AGED 36	1826
43	FRANCES	FENNELL	AGED 25	1831
44	SARAH JANE	DANCE	DIED 1897	Aged 25
45	M[ARTHA] A[NN]	TAPP	AGED 12	1837
46	SARAH	MASLIN	AGED 22	1837
47	ELIZABETH ANNIE	EDMUNDS	AGED 45	1915
48	LOUISA	POORE	AGED 16	1835
49	ANN	FENNELL	AGED 17	1837

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