The Anthropoid Coffins at Farleigh Hungerford Castle, Somerset

Abstract

Farleigh Hungerford Castle consists of the ruins of a fortified manorial house of the Hungerford family, major landowners in Wiltshire and Somerset from the 14th to the 17th centuries; within the curtain are a chapel, with an attached chantry chapel, and a chantry priest's house. Below the chantry chapel is the 17th-century burial vault of the Hungerfords, which contains eight lead coffins of anthropoid form, four of which are depicted with faces. This article, prompted by the first detailed photographic record of the coffins, outlines the family history in order to identify which of the Hungerfords are buried in the chapel, describes (for the first time) the burial crypt and the coffins, and suggests the identities of the bodies which they contain. The striking coffin type is surveyed by Julian Litten in the succeeding article.