The SPAB W&WM Section
Bulletin of September 1954 printed this item from
the Kentish Gazette of 7 April 1815:
Eccentric Funeral:
On Friday last the remains of William Fowle, gent.
of Boxley, were interred (according to his will)
under part of a windmill on his estate. The funeral
was respectably attended by his executors and
relatives and was conducted with a solemnity well
according with the awful circumstances of his
death; and the eccentricity of selection of such a
spot for the occasion drew together a considerable
assembly of persons. On arriving at the Mill the
coffin was carried into the building and the Revd Mr
Harris of the Society of Unitarians, in the open air
addressed the persons assembled. The body was then
committed to its silent abode and the following
epitaph (the deceased’s own composition) is to be
placed on his tomb:
Underneath this
little Mill
Lies the body of poor Will
Odd he lived and odd he died,
And at his burial no one cried.