{"id":3164,"date":"2026-08-30T11:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T10:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/?p=3164"},"modified":"2026-08-30T11:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T10:42:21","slug":"mourning-jewellery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/30\/mourning-jewellery\/","title":{"rendered":"Mourning jewellery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mourning jewellery has a longer history than you might think. I, for one, thought of it as a Victorian thing. And a bit weird at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For sure, the mourning jewellery I have inherited (pictured<\/em>) seems bizarre as it comprises a jet brooch with woven hair in the centre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whose hair, I have no idea. Some relative on my maternal (mother\u2019s mother\u2019s mother\u2019s mother) line, has to be, given how I ended up with it. But whether my GG grandmother wore it herself or inherited it, is anyone\u2019s guess. Let alone whose hair was snipped off \u2013 presumably post-mortem \u2013 to make the object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a jewellery website<\/a> I found that covers the topic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Hairwork was arguably the more intimate craft. Hair was plaited, woven into intricate patterns, or ground and mixed with pigment for sepia painting, then sealed under a glass locket panel to protect it from handling and light.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Not that the one I\u2019ve inherited has anything protecting the hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It WAS Queen Victoria who made wearing mourning jewellery\u2026 fashionable, if that\u2019s the right word, as she famously stayed in \u2018widow\u2019s weeds\u2019 for forty years, from the death of her beloved Prince Albert in 1861 to her own demise in 1901.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mourning jewellery in previous centuries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

However, mourning jewellery dates back well before the 19th Century, as you can read in this Newcastle University thesis<\/a> by a Cara Sian Middlemass:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own research, meanwhile, has found it wasn\u2019t just grieving loved ones who sought to have a memento of a lost loved one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, the loved one made sure of it themselves!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I leave you a mourning ring\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Having read countless wills, across some six centuries, I have seen a fair number where the person\u2019s bequests included a sum of money for a beneficiary to buy a mourning ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other stand-outs include a man who chose to leave an awful lot of pairs of gloves to assorted beneficiaries, but that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mourning jewellery in 1685<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The will of Reginald Graham of Nunnington, Yorkshire and London really stood out for me on this topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reginald (or Ranald) was a son of a true Cumbrian Character, Richard Graham (1583-1654), who deservedly merits eight pages in my book<\/a> (which is selling nicely, thank you folks!).
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Reginald was the grandson of border reiver Fergus Graham of Plompe. But thanks to his father, Reginald Graham \u2013 along with his siblings \u2013 was a respected gentleman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He married Susanna Washington, daughter of Sir William Washington and Lady Ann Villiers \u2013 the Grahams were mixing in some big-name circles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reginald had learned a trade of some kind in his younger days, for his will mentions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Winifred Fisher, daughter of my master William Latham who was very kind to me when I was his apprentice<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Winifred is left \u00a340 \u2013 about a year and half\u2019s wages for a skilled tradesman at the time. That was a big thank you to her father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Reginald Graham wrote his will, his wife Susanna was still alive. But there are no children or grandchildren named in the will, so either they had no children or they hadn\u2019t survived\/had children of their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reginald and Susanna do seem to have been acting as some kind of guardians for George\u2019s great-nephew Charles Graham (grandson of his brother George, son of Sir Richard Graham of Netherby and Lady Ann Howard).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the will commends Charles to Susanna\u2019s care, as well as specifying various bequests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, young Charles was also to die in 1685, aged just 13. (He was buried in Westminster Abbey).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018..to buy him mourning\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Coming back to the topic of the post: Reginald Graham didn\u2019t have children to ensure his name and memory lived on. So he decided on another way instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The will doesn\u2019t specify \u2018mourning jewellery,\u2019 but I can\u2019t imagine he had anything else in mind (clothing), given the sums involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the sums he left to people in his will \u2018to buy him\/her\/them mourning\u2019 range from \u00a34 to \u00a330.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And his does leave a bunch of people:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018each a ring to the value of twenty shillings\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s \u00a31, or eleven days\u2019 wages for a skilled workman of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did a post on \u2018What is X worth today?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is \u00a3x worth today?<\/a><\/blockquote>