Forwarded by my mum, transcribed from a paper clipping found in the belongings of a village matriarch who passed away recently-
An amusing item from Lamplugh Church records is included in the current issue (1970) of �John Peel Jottings,� the magazine issued by S. Redmayne and sons of Wigton.
The article explains that from January 1658 to January 1663, there were only a few burials every year in Lamplugh, but at each burial the cause of death was recorded. The causes were later classified, and deaths from old age totalled 57.
some of the more interesting causes were:
�broke his neck robbing a hen roost,�
�Crost in Love�
�Broke a vein in bawling for a knight of ye shire�
�Overeat himself at a house warming�
�Led into a pond by a will o� the wisp� and
�Of a sprain in his shoulder saving his dog at Culgate.�
Four parishioners died �Of a five-bar gate stag hunt� while �Mrs. Lamplugh�s cordial bottle� saw off two of them.
No less than four died after being �Frightened to death by fairies.�
Three old women were �Drowned upon trial for witchcraft.�
Two people were killed �By ye parson�s bull� and three at Kelton Fell Races.
The greatest number to die by other than natural causes were �Bewitched,� and the register records that seven Lamplugh folk died in this way.
Technorati tag: Fairies
