by John Todd

On March 12th 1992 Mr John Todd spoke to the Society about the finding of St Bees man. For those who were unable to be present here is a brief summary of the talk.

A team of archaeologists found burials below the site of the ruined chancel aisle of St Bees priory in 1980. The most interesting burial was in a well-made tomb in front of the altar site. There were two bodies. One was a skeleton, probably a woman. The other was sealed in lead sheeting, held with iron clamps. There was a hole in the lead sheeting near the feet. The body within was wrapped in two pieces of linen and
tied with twine. The linen was coated with beeswax. It exuded an extraordinary smell, not offensive, but very strong indeed and sweet.

The body was that of a slightly bald man with a small beard and a moustache. He had been in the prime of life and in good general health. Preservation of the corpse was such that the arm could be flexed and the skin of the palm, where it was untouched by the beeswax, almost normal in appearance. A bunch of hair (not his) was tied under the chin. A post-mortem examination showed multiple injuries: a dislocated lower jaw, a broken collar-bone, cracked ribs and bleeding into the lung cavity (the blood still liquid) as from a penetrating wound. The pathologist likened the injuries to a road traffic accident. He could have fallen from a horse, whether or not in a fight.

Identification was difficult, but the site of the tomb showed the man had been important. The second body was probably that of his wife, buried in an extension of the tomb. He had died in the years between the building of the aisle (1300) and its collapse in 1539. The shattered remains of tomb effigies, one having a shield with a “fretty” charge, gave clues. A drawing of the tombs, made when Sir William Dugdale, Norroy King of Arms, was visiting the area in 1665, showed the fretty shield and indicated armour dated to about 1360-1380. Six families in the region had fretty arms. One of the more likely men was Anthony Lucy, last of his name. He went on a crusade in 1365 and died abroad in 1367. He had probably been with the Teutonic Knights in eastern Europe.

This is probably a unique case. There are records suggesting that similar burials have been found in the past, but none have had full post-mortem examination as this one has. Investigations continue. The lead in which the corpse was wrapped is not apparently English, and enquiries have gone as far as Poland. A pollen analysis of the beeswax might help show where that originated, but there is a doubt whether
enough beeswax was retained to allow this.

The body was reinterred – in the lead sheeting, but unsealed – and was a service based on that devised for the crew of the ship, the Mary Rose

Published in Mourholme Magazines Issue 18 1992