A mortsafe or mortcage was a construction designed to protect graves from disturbance and used in the United Kingdom.
Resurrectionists and
Night Doctors Night Doctors, also known as Night Riders, Night Witches, Ku Klux Doctors, and Student Doctors, are bogeymen of African American folklore with some factual basis. Body snatching from graves and enforced medical experimentation led to the developmen ...
had supplied schools of anatomy since the early 18th century. This was due to the necessity for medical students to learn anatomy by attending dissections of human subjects, which was frustrated by the very limited allowance of dead bodies – for example the corpses of executed criminals – granted by the government, which controlled the supply.
Official inaction
The British authorities turned a blind eye to grave-rifling because surgeons and students were working to advance medical knowledge. They kept publicity to a minimum to prevent people from realising what was happening. The cases of grave-robbing that came to light caused riots, damage to property and even fatal attacks. In the early 19th century, with the great increase in numbers of schools and students, there was continual rifling of secluded graveyards, fights in city burial grounds and other disturbances. Men were employed to steal bodies and transport them from place to place, even across the sea, for sale to medical schools. Revelations led to public outrage, particularly in Scotland, where there was great reverence for the dead and a literal belief in
the Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the coming back to life of the dead.
Resurrection or The Resurrection may also refer to:
Supernatural
* Resurrection of Jesus
* Universal resurrection, often referred to by the term of art "resurrection of the dead", the ...
. It was popularly believed that the dead could not rise in an incomplete state.
Precautions
![Mortsafes in Cluny kirkyard - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Mortsafes_in_Cluny_kirkyard_-_geograph.org.uk_-_174646.jpg)
People were determined to protect the graves of newly deceased friends and relatives. The rich could afford heavy table tombstones,
vaults,
mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...
s and iron cages around graves. The poor began to place flowers and pebbles on graves to detect disturbances. They dug heather and branches into the soil to make disinterment more difficult. Large stones, often coffin-shaped, sometimes the gift of a wealthy man to the parish, were placed over new graves. Friends and relatives took turns or hired men to watch graves through the hours of darkness. Watch-houses were sometimes erected to shelter the watchers. One watch-house in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
is a three-storey castellated building with windows. Watching societies were often formed in towns, one in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
having 2,000 members. Many
kirk session houses were used by watchers, but graves were still violated.
Mortsafe
![Mortsafe, Greyfriars Kirk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Mortsafe%2C_Greyfriars_Kirk.jpg)
The mortsafe was invented around 1816. These were iron or iron-and-stone devices of great weight, in many different designs. Often they were complex heavy iron contraptions of rods and plates,
padlocked together; examples have been found close to all Scottish medical schools. A plate was placed over the coffin and rods with heads were pushed through holes in it. These rods were kept in place by locking a second plate over the first to form extremely heavy protection. It would be removed by two people with keys. They were placed over the coffins for about six weeks, then removed for further use when the body inside was sufficiently decayed. There is a model of a mortsafe of this type in
Marischal Museum
Marischal Museum was a museum in Aberdeen, Scotland, specialising in anthropology and artifacts from cultures around the world. The museum was a part of the University of Aberdeen, situated at Marischal College, a grand neo-gothic building said ...
,
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
. Sometimes a church bought them and hired them out. Societies were also formed to purchase them and control their use, with annual membership fees, and charges made to non-members.
Vaults and watch-houses
![Watchtower, Dalkeith Cemetery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Watchtower%2C_Dalkeith_Cemetery.jpg)
Publicity surrounding the crimes of
Burke and Hare heightened the fear felt by many people. It was about this time that
vaults – repositories for dead bodies – were built by public subscription in Scotland, with their use governed by rules and regulations. Some of these were above ground while others – mainly in
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland.
It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...
– were wholly or partly underground. In one Aberdeenshire village,
Udny Green
Udny Green (Scottish Gaelic: Olldanaidh; Doric: Widnie Green) is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, immediately southwest of Pitmedden. It is part of the parish of Udny along with another small settlement, Udny Station. Udny Parish Church is ...
,
the morthouse is a circular building with a thick studded wooden door and an inner iron door. Inside there is a turntable to accommodate seven coffins. A coffin would be moved round as further ones were added and by the time it reappeared the body would be of no use to the dissectionists.
Likely all communities near the Scottish schools of medicine in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen employed some means of protecting the dead. Some used both mortsafes and watching. There are watch-houses in the remoter Scottish areas, in the Borders, and two have been found in the English county of
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land on ...
.
Surviving examples
![Mortsafe in Colinton Kirkyard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Mortsafe_in_Colinton_Kirkyard.jpg)
Surviving mortsafes are generally found in churchyards and burial grounds; some are very broken and rusting away. One has been restored and hung in a church porch, with an explanatory note, by the
East Lothian
East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921.
In 1975, the histo ...
Antiquary Society. There are one or two in museums but those on display rarely have any indication of what they are or how they were used. Some documents appertaining to mortsafes and other protection devices are still in existence in libraries and record offices. There are two mortsafes in reasonable condition outside the old Aberfoyle church in Stirling, which was fully 30 miles from the nearest School of Anatomy in Glasgow. One can also be found, in a slightly rusted state, to the right of the door outside
Skene Parish Church
Skene Parish Church is a congregation of the Church of Scotland in Skene, part of the Presbytery of Gordon. The parish has two places of worship, Skene Church in Kirkton of Skene and Trinity Church in Westhill. The current minister is Rev. Stel ...
,
Kirkton of Skene
Skene (Gaelic: ''Sgainn'') is a small farming community in North East Scotland some 10 km west of Aberdeen. The two traditional villages are Kirkton of Skene and Lyne of Skene. As the name suggests, Kirkton is still the location of Skene Par ...
, Aberdeenshire. Another in reasonable condition can be found in the kirkyard at the remote hamlet of
Towie
''The Only Way Is Essex'' (often abbreviated as ''TOWIE'' ) is a British reality television series based in Brentwood, Essex, England. It shows "real people in modified situations, saying unscripted lines but in a structured way." Originally ...
, west of
Alford.
Tullibody, as well as having a famous stone coffin, is also recorded to have had an iron coffin case as an attempt to thwart local body-snatchers.
References
External links
{{Commons category, Mortsafes
YouTube video and commentary on a mortsafe in Prestwick, Ayrshire.Echoes of the Scottish Resurrection Men
Death customs
Crime prevention
Body snatching