Note 751 — REIGN OF GEORGE II.: 1727–1748. (continued 2)

‘This singular individual died at Edinburgh [January 24, 1788]. In 1784, he sunk £140 with the managers of the Canongate Poor’s House, for a weekly subsistence of 7s., and afterwards made several small donations to that institution. His coffin, for which he paid two guineas, with “1703,” the year of his birth, inscribed on it, hung in his house for nine years previous to his death; and it also had affixed to it the undertaker’s written obligation to screw him down with his own hands gratis. The managers of the Poor’s House were likewise taken bound to carry his body with a hearse and four coaches to Restalrig Churchyard, which was accordingly done. Besides all this, he caused his grave-stone to be temporarily erected in a conspicuous spot of the Canongate Churchyard, having the following quaint inscription:

“HENRY PRENTICE,

Died.

Be not curious to know how I lived;

But rather how yourself should die.“‘

—Contemporary Obituaries.