Circus, Sideshow & Oddities

A 17th Century English Church Affidavit for Burial in Woollen. English, mid-17th century (Reign of Charles the Second). Unaccomplished printed affidavit on laid paper, with woodcuts of a skeleton and wrapped corpse, which would certify the statutory requirement of burial of a person in woolen cloth. 4to (9 x 7 ¼”). Foxing along right edge, strike-through to “Scotland.” Old horizontal folds, tipped onto a slip of paper. The Burying in Woollen Acts of 1666/80 required that all English subjects, except plague victims, be buried in a wool shroud, partly to discourage the importation of foreign textiles. A register would be maintained within each parish in which the affidavits were made.