‘Rapt up with joy’: children’s emotional responses to death in early modern England

The chapter is an investigation of the child’s emotional response to death in early modern England. While much valuable scholarship has been produced on parents’ responses to the deaths of children, the reactions of the young themselves have rarely been explored. Drawing on a range of printed and archival sources, I argue that children expressed diverse and conflicting emotions, from fear and anxiety, to excitement and ecstasy. By exploring the emotional experiences of Protestants, the chapter contributes to the bourgeoning literature on emotion and religion, and contests earlier depictions of reformed Protestantism as an inherently intellectual, rather than an affective, faith. This study also suggests that we revise the way we classify the emotions, resisting the intuitive urge to categorise them as ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. The fear of hell, for example, though profoundly unpleasant, was regarded as a rational, commendable response, which demonstrated the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul, and was a prerequisite for the attainment of a joyful assurance of heaven. An underlying question is to what extent children’s responses to death differed from those of adults. I propose that although their reactions were broadly similar, the precise preoccupations of dying children were different. Through highlighting these distinctive features, we can come to a closer idea of what it was like to be a child in the early modern period.

Ethyl sulphate and ethyl glucuronide in vitreous humor as postmortem evidence marker for ethanol consumption prior to death

To clarify the circumstances of death, the degree of inebriation is of importance in many cases, but for several reasons the determination of the ethanol concentration in post-mortem samples can be challenging and the synopsis of ethanol and the direct consumption markers ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and ethyl sulphate (EtS) has proved to be useful. The use of a rather stable matrix like vitreous humor offers further advantages. The aim of this study was to determine the concentrations of ethanol and the biomarkers in the robust matrix of vitreous humor and to compare them with the respective levels in peripheral venous blood and urine. Samples of urine, blood from the femoral vein and vitreous humor were taken from 26 deceased with suspected ethanol consumption prior to death and analyzed for ethanol, EtS and EtG. In the urine samples creatinine was also determined. The personal data, the circumstances of death, the post-mortem interval and the information about ethanol consumption prior to death were recorded. EtG and EtS analysis in urine was performed by LC-ESI-MS/MS, creatinine concentration was determined using the Jaffé reaction and ethanol was detected by HS-GC-FID and by an ADH-based method. In general, the highest concentrations of the analytes were found in urine and showed statistical significance. The mean concentrations of EtG were 62.8mg/L (EtG100 206.5mg/L) in urine, 4.3mg/L in blood and 2.1mg/L in vitreous humor. EtS was found in the following mean concentrations: 54.6mg/L in urine (EtS100 123.1mg/L), 1.8mg/L in blood and 0.9mg/L in vitreous humor. Ethanol was detected in more vitreous humor samples (mean concentration 2.0g/kg) than in blood and urine (mean concentration 1.6g/kg and 2.1g/kg respectively). There was no correlation between the ethanol and the marker concentrations and no statistical conclusions could be drawn between the markers and matrices.

The facts of life: from birth to death

Mode of access: Internet.

A history of England for schools, from earliest times to death of Queen Victoria,

Founded upon the author's larger work: A history of England from the earliest times to the death of Queen Victoria.

Narrative of the life and sufferings of Rev. William B. Lighton : containing an interesting and faithful account of his early life, and enlistment into the British army; his experience while in the service, and escape from his regiment; capture, imprisonment, trial, and condemnation to death; his subsequent sufferings, and final escape from captivity, and settlement in the United States /

Mode of access: Internet.

Narrative of the life and sufferings of Rev. William B. Lighton; containing an interesting and faithful account of his early life, and enlistment into the British army; his experience while in the service, and escape from his regiment; capture, imprisonment, trial, and condemnation to death; his subsequent sufferings, and final escape from captivity, and settlement in the United States.

Added t.-p., engr.

The three sisters : a brief sketch of the lives and death of Ann Eliza, Hester Jane, and Laura Washington, daughters of the Rev. Hartwell J. Perry who were burned to death in May, 1854 /

Mode of access: Internet.

The London Missionary Society's report of the proceedings against the late Rev. J. Smith, of Demerara ... who was tried under martial law, and condemned to death, on a charge of aiding and assisting in a rebellion of the negro slaves; from a full and correct copy ... and including the documentary evidence omitted in the Parliamentary copy; with an appendix; containing the letters and statements of Mr. and Mrs. Smith ... The whole pub. under the authority of the directors of the said society.

Mode of access: Internet.