Echoes of the Resurrection Men

Prior to 1832 the only legally available bodies for human dissection in Britain were those of criminals executed for murder. Unfortunately for the early anatomists, the supply of such bodies was very limited. With the growth of medical teaching in the 18th century, universities required ever-greater numbers of cadavers for study and grave robbing became by far the most significant source of bodies. The earliest grave robbers were the surgeon-anatomists themselves, or their pupils, but later on professional body snatchers, also known as resurrection men, provided several thousand bodies annually.

Mort-safes were devices designed to physically prevent the body snatchers from digging up newly buried corpses. This group of four lies in the graveyard of Cluny parish Church in Aberdeenshire. Each consists of a coffin shaped grey granite slab, some 6 inches thick and of great weight. Below the slab, and firmly attached to it there is a riveted lattice work of iron bars some one and a half feet in depth. The cage was meant to fit over a coffin with the heavy slab on top thus preventing the body snatchers from gaining access to the coffin from whatever direction. Each stone has in it three holes, two at the shoulder and one at the centre line near to the foot. These were used to attach the heavy tackle that was needed to lower the mort-safe over the coffin in the grave and to retrieve it for reuse once the body was decomposed.