Return to Church

The Virgins’ Crowns

Virgin crowns 2

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 1973
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 AGED 77 1911
12 FLORENCE JANE WISEWELL AGED 72 1953
13 LOUISA CRIPPS AGED 10 1842
14 MARY LANSLY AGED 29 1843
15 ELIZABETH TREDGOLD RAY AGED 24 1847
16 THOMAS BYAM MARTIN AGED 19 1847
17 BETSY WELLS AGED 6 1850
18 WILLIAM DOWNTON AGED 27 1852
19 SARAH MAY AGED 14 1854
20 ANN SUGG AGED 42 1906
21 JAMES ANNETTS AGED 31 1855
22 HENRY T(HOMAS) W WISE AGED 15 1870
23 WILLIAM MUNDY TAMLYN AGED 16? 1855?
24 MARY FENNELL AGED 24 1811
25 ELLEN BANTAM DIED FEB 13th 1861
26 MARY DEAR AGED 46 1871
27 JOHN MORRANT   1740
28 LUCY MAY TAPP AGED 22 1855
29 MARY HICKSON AGED 16 1812
30 FANNY ASHER AGED 18 1856
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 AGED 15 1874
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 AGED 27 1890
41 MARY MAUD FENNELL AGED 25 1892
42 HANNAH ORCHARD AGED 36 1826
43 FRANCES FENNELL AGED 25 1831
44 SARAH JANE DANCE AGED 25 1897
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