Recently I have met with a quaint-looking invitation to a funeral, issued upwards of 176 years ago, and relating to a member of an Old South Lunesdale family. Exclusive of the margin, this funeral card, if one may call the thickish papers used for the purpose, measures 6½ inches in depth by 6 inches in width. On a middle space 3 inches deep and 3-3/8 inches wide, there appears the following in nine lines (the words underlined are in italics and the remainder written: --

"You are desired to accompany the corps of Mr. John Doubigin from his house in King Street, Westminster, on Sunday the 19th of October, to the Parish Church of St. Margaret's, Westminster, at 6 of the clock in the precisely, and Bring this Tickett with you."

On a tablet at the top are the words, "Memento Mori" on the right side of which Death is represented by a skeleton with an arrow half-poised in the right hand, while the left hand rests on a skull and cross bones, these emblems of mortality being placed just above the memorial tablet. On the other side is a figure of Time, with a scythe resting against his left arm, and holding up in the left hand an hour glass to which he is pointing with the index finger of the right hand. The blade of the scythe is carried behind Time's head, and bears the words "Time is come."

On either side of the middle space containing the invitation is a mourning figure, inclining a little to the centre -- a bearded man on the right and a woman on the left, almost entirely enveloped in black cloth, and bare-footed. The mourning costume extends from the head to the ankles.

On the bottom part of the "ticket" there is a pictorial representation of a funeral party about to enter a church. A little, old-looking round-shouldered clergyman, apparently reading the Burial Service leads the way to the porch (on the top of which stands the aforementioned man in mourning); after the clergyman comes the coffin, carried shoulder high, the pall having three escutcheons on the side, and the six bearers wearing wigs and sashes and one of them carrying a walking stick.

Five or six mourners follow, a man and a woman coming first; the woman completely enveloped in black, and the male mourners wearing long black cloaks, apparently touching the ground. A more dismal production it would be difficult to imagine. The imprint runs thus: -- "Printed for John Lenthall at the Talbot in Fleet Street over against St. Dunstan's Church." The "ticket" is endorsed "Mr. Dowbiggin, No.1, Hare Court, groundchamber, left hand."

The registers of St. Margaret's, Westminster, show that John Doubiggin, Esq. was buried within the church on October 19th, 1712. His tombstone is still to be seen in the North aisle. He was a solicitor in Westminster, and 48 years at the time of his death.

He appears to have belonged to the old Dowbiggin family of Roeburndale. When he died, his only daughter, Ann Winder Dowbiggin, was a minor, and she attained the age of twenty-one years on January 28th, 1715, her uncle and guardian Christopher Dowbiggin administering the estate for her in the meantime. Ann Winder Dowbiggin was married, a few years after attaining her majority, to Thomas Benison junr., son of the leading attorney in Lancaster.

Thomas Benison the elder died in Lancaster in December 1723, aged about 60 years. The son, who also had a legal training, and was sometime agent for the Hornby Castle estate, built Hornby Hall, but had barely completed it when he died at Lancaster in 1738. His widow died August 6, 1762, aged 68.

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