This poser is an extract from the mortcloth accounts for 11729 and 1730 recorded in a kirk session minute book for the parish of Restalrig (National Records of Scotland, CH2/1306/3, page 12).

Mortcloths were hired out by the kirk session to the poor of the parish and were used to cover the bodies or coffins of the dead prior to burial. The fee charged for the hire of the mortcloth varied according to the means of the recipient and which mortcloth was hired (kirk sessions typically hired out several mortcloths of various quality and in ranging states of repair). The hiring out of mortcloths provided a substantial income for the kirk session and mortcloth records are often included amongst kirk session minutes or accounts, or heritors' records.

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Question: whose morthcloth was for free?

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