Smuggling lace in coffins

 

In the eighteenth century, French and Belgian lace was so greatly prized and expensive that the British government imposed an import tax on it. Generally, whenever taxes are imposed people try to avoid them by whatever means they can and smuggling was the easiest way to avoid the tax on lace. One of the ways of doing this was by claiming that a relative had died on the continent and that their body needed to be transported back to England for a funeral. The coffin would be buried in the churchyard accompanied by a solemn service and weeping mourners, but in the night the mourners would return and dig up the coffin to retrieve the valuable lace it contained. In many cases there was no body at all, but even if there was, the coffin allowed plenty of space for a good quantity of lace. 1n 1732, when Bishop Atterbury died in France and his body was returned to Westminster Abbey for burial, the High Sherriff of Westminster found French lace valued at £6000 hidden in the coffin with the body. In response to all this smuggling, Customs Officers became more efficient and by the middle of the century all coffins coming from the continent had to be opened and inspected. This unsurprisingly led to a sudden decrease in the continental death rate. However the new regulations caused some unfortunate moments. When the Duke of Devonshire died in France In 1764 and his body was repatriated the coffin was opened despite the protests of his relatives and the body was poked with a stick to ensure it was not a bundle of lace. Understandably the family were very indignant especially as no lace was found.