The Sin-eater

Aubrey recorded that in Herefordshire poor people were hired at funerals to take on the sins of the dead. When the corpse was laid on the bier, a loaf and a maple bowl of beer were handed to the sin-eater over the body, with sixpence, and in return he took the sins upon himself and kept the dead from walking. Aubrey knew of it at Dinedor and in Hereford, at Llangors in Brecon, and said it was still used in North Wales in 1686. In Shropshire villages near Wales an old sire was given a groat, a crust and a bowl of ale at the door of the house, and pronounced the ease and rest of the departed soul.