Finger-Ring Lore

Everything a Victorian antiquary could gather about rings: betrothal and mourning, poison rings and papal rings, the superstitions attached to every stone, and the rings dug from the presumed site of Troy.

Memorial and Mortuary Rings

19 pages in this part of Finger-Ring Lore.

Memorial and Mortuary Rings

BEQUESTS of rings are frequently mentioned in wills of the middle and later ages. In the reign of Henry the Third, two rings were…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Drury

A A2 In the 'Bury Wills and Inventories' (Camden Society) are various bequests of rings. Some of these entries are very curious. John Baret…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: John

In the 'Wills from Doctors' Commons, 1495 to 1695' (Camden Society), Cecily, Duchess of York (1495), gives to John Metcalfe and Alice his…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Meres

John Meres, an 'Esquire Beadle' of Corpus Christi College, left, in 1558, to the Vice-Chancellor of the College a ring weighing a royal…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Thomas

Sir Philip Sidney (1586) desires that 'three gold rings, set with large diamonds, might be fashioned exactly alike, for his aunt, the…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Bossuet

Miss Agnes Strickland, in her 'Lives of the Four Princesses of the Royal House of Stuart,' mentions a circumstance in the life of the…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Charles

On the eve of the death of Henrietta Anne, the daughter of Charles the First, she sent most tender messages to her brothers King Charles…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Franks

Mr. Franks corrects an error of Sir Stephen Fox as to the date of the death of Sir Philip Warwick, which took place January 15, 1682-3.

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: George

That great man, George Washington, in his will, thus bequeaths 'to my sisters-in-law Hannah Washington and Mildred Washington, to my…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Augusta

A very long list might be added of bequests of rings by distinguished persons, but I must be content to notice how the practice has been…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Rogers

In the family of Rogers, of Lota, a ring is still preserved as a heirloom which was presented to an ancestor by King Charles I. during his…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Royalist

BEHOLD In Lockhart's 'Life of Scott' it is stated that Sir Henry Halford gave Sir Walter Scott a lock of the hair of Charles I., when the…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Braybrooke

In the Braybrooke Collection is one of the Royalist mourning-rings, of gold, with slight hoop beautifully inlaid with black enamel, the top…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Nelson

A very interesting memorial ring in connection with the death of Nelson is mentioned in a communication to 'Notes and Queries' (vol. vii…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Egyptians

The custom of decorating the dead with their jewellery (including rings) has been traced in a remarkable manner to the earliest periods of…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Mayence

Stukeley (Abury, p. 45) records the finding of a flat gold ring in a barrow at Yatesbury. Douglas, in his discoveries of a later date ('…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Rufus

In the 'Archæologia' (vol. xlii. part ii. p. 309) is an account, by the Rev. J. G. Joyce, B.A., F.S.A., of the opening and removal of a…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Paris

According to Matthew Paris, Henry II. was arrayed after death in his royal vestments, having a golden crown on his head and a great ring on…

Memorial and Mortuary Rings: Merovingian

The custom same of monarchs being buried with their rings prevailed in France during the early and middle ages. The gold ring of Childeric…

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