The old Foveran watch house

In Britain, prior to 1832, the only legal source of human corpses for dissection and the teaching of human anatomy were those of executed murderers. Despite the fact that the 1752 Murder Act made penal dissection mandatory for convicted killers, there was a great shortage of bodies for dissection. This shortfall was made good by body-snatchers who dug up newly buried bodies for the anatomy schools.


In an attempt to prevent grave robbing many kirkyards were guarded overnight by local volunteers for several weeks after a burial, until the body was too corrupt to be of interest to the anatomists. The Kirk Session often built a watch-house in or adjacent to the graveyard to provide shelter for the watchers.  


These are the the remains of the fireplace in the watch-house built at the edge of our local kirkyard at Foveran. There are also shelves and cupboards built into the walls for the storage of victuals and the whisky jar!

There is no record of anyone being successfully snatched from their grave in this graveyard.