Defenders of the Grave - Exhumed

Heraldry is a protection against such practices;

for what the audacious

atrocity of the resurrection-man cannot, the venality of the sexton certainly,

will accomplish" - Thomas Wakely, The Lancet newspaper 1832

«'…a coffin was registered with the expressed purpose of frustrating the

resurrectionists… designed to be made in cast or wrought iron,

with concealed spring catches on the inner

Side of the lid to prevent levering, and joined in such a way as to thwart any

attempt to force the sides of the coffin apart… Some parishes had communal

mortsafes or 'jankers' - huge coffin-shaped pieces of stone or metal put on new

graves.»

— Ruth Richardson Death, Dissection, and the Destitute 1987

«Resurrection men, your fate deplore

Retire with fore vexation

Your mystery’s gone, your art’s no more

No more your occupation:

Surgeons no more shall ye ransack

The grave with feelings callous

Tho' on the Old Bailey turn’d your back

Your only hopes the gallows» — Mr. Diben The Patent Cof in 1818

Stalk through hallowed headstones

For notes and coin, trade flesh and bone

Your eternal rest may, become nocturnal wrest

The newly deceased, still bereaved

Snatched from their peace, taken without leave

Truncated repose, for the decomposed

Adamantine clasp of the mortsafe, the muddy bonds of earth

Patent coffins do not vouchsafe, calm repose beneath the turf

Stone walls do not a prison make, nor six feet of sod a grave

Pray the lord your soul to take, you’ll need defenders of the —

Graves' occupants, so dearly prized

But to butcher, not to eulogize

To rest they were laid, now sold under the blade

Who turns the key to the mortsafe, when the sexton stuffs his purse?

Nightwatchmen cannot vouchsafe, calm repose beneath the turf

Stone walls do not a prison make, nor six feet of sod a grave

So pray the lord your soul to take, you’ll need defenders of the grave

Defenders of the grave, hallmarks of this ghoulish age

Defenders of the grave, defenders of the —

Solo — Matthew Harvey

Solo — Michael Burke

Stone walls do not a prison make, nor shovels full of sod a grave

So pray the lord your soul to take, you’ll need defenders of the grave

Defenders of the grave, hallmarks of this ghoulish age

Defenders of the grave, defenders of the — grave