Pauper's funeral
This policy addressed the condition of the poor people of Britain, such as those living in the workhouses, where a growing population of the British ended their days from the 1850s to the 1860s.[2] The common law right of the dead to a dignified burial was first recognized in England in the 1840 case Rex v. Stewart, 12 AD.[3] According to Lacquer, pauper's funerals were seen at the time as a sign of failure, being a source of worry for the poor and degrading to their survivors.[4] He states that while the poor had been buried at the expense of the local parish since at least the 1500s, pauper's funerals first became stigmatized between about 1750 and 1850, as social standing began to depend on acquired attributes like wealth, membership in organizations, and philanthropic or entrepreneurial prominence.[4] In 1811 the essayist Charles Lamb wrote that "Nothing tended to keep up in the imaginations of the poorer sort of people, a generous horror of the workhouse more than the manner in which pauper funerals were conducted.