Mortuary - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition mortuary

Definition :

Mortuary, a burial place. Also, a kind of ecclesiastical heriot, being a customary gift claimed by and due to the minister in very many parishes on the death of his parishioners. Like lay heriots, they were originally only voluntary bequests to the church, being intended as a kind of expiation and amends to the clergy for personal tithes and other duties not paid by the deceased in his lifetime. It was usual in ancient times to bring the mortuary to church along with the corpse when it was brought to be buried, and thence it was sometimes called a corpse-present. In the laws of Canute it was called soul-scot or symbolum anim'. See 2 Bl. Com. 425.

Mortuaries are limited in amount by the still unrepealed 23 Hen. 8, c. 6, thus: None where deceased died worthless than10 marks; 3s. 4d. where he died worth from 10 marks to 30l. 6s. 8d. where from 30l. to 40l.; and 10s. where exceeding 40l.; but the same Act forbids mortuaries for married, women or children, and prescribes that mortuaries for travellers be paid 'where they had their most habitation.' See also MUTA CANUM.

Mortuaries could be compounded for by parochial agreement under s. 9 of the (English) Tithe Act, 1839 (2 & 3Vict. c. 62).

Also, a place for the reception of the bodies of persons who have died of infectious disease, etc., to which such bodies may, in certain cases, be removed by order of a justice of the peace. see Public Health Act, 1936 (26 Geo. 5 & 1 Edw. 8, c. 49), s. 198; and (English) Public Health (London) Act, 1936 (26 Geo. 5 & 1 Edw. 8, c. 50), ss. 234-239.