Charles Francis Allnatt (9 August 1837 – 1 June 1903) was born on 9th August 1837 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, the only son of Charles Blake Allnatt and Elizabeth Sophia Möller.
He died aged 65 on 1st June 1903 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
His will suggests he was a very devout man as he left several bequests to religious people.
In Company I Have Kept Henry Salt tells that Charles implied he would be a beneficiary of his will but he would have to guarantee the removal of Charle’s head after he died. Salt declined. Charles’s will confirms he found someone else to undertake the task:
“I bequest the sum of ten guineas (£10. 10. 0) to Doctor Johns, 3 Lansdown Place, Cheltenham or to such other competent and well qualified medical man as shall supply his place in thoroughly and efficiently carrying out after my death and before the removal of my body from the house in which I may happen to die a Post Mortem examination of my body including especially a Post Mortem examination of my heart and the complete severance of the head from the spinal column (the said operation to be carried out to the entire satisfaction of the trustees and Executors who act for me). And to the Landlady of the house in which I may happen to die, I bequest the sum of five pounds (£5) in compensation for the trouble caused her in allowing the said work to be carried out in her house.”
Judith and Rachel Salt may have helped provide some context to Charles’s strange request. Their relative Agnes Salt (1833-1923) remembered:
“Sarah Bolde (1735-1813) at the age of sixteen had an attack of catalepsy, and was believe to be dead. Just before the coffin, in which she lay was fastened down, some slight sympton of life was observed, and at once efforts were made to bring her back to consciouness — and with success. When later she learned how nearly she had been buriel alive, she was so much scared of a recurrance of such an illness that she made her relations promise that she would not be buried until a doctor could certify her death absolutely. In 1813 she went to visit her daughter and son-in-law, Mr & Mrs George Moultrie, then living at Hopton Court, Shropshire, where for two years Mr Moultrie exchanged his living of Cleobury Mortimer with the rector of Hapton Court. She was taken ill there, and died a few days later, but for a whole fortnight Mr Pope, the doctor of Cleobury Mortimer, had trouble getting over to Hopton Court, a long and very hilly journey, before he could certify her death.”
The case of Sarah Bolde wasn’t an isolated case, in the Nineteenth Century and After (1907-10, pp. 544-559) there was a detailed article on the same subject entitled “Premature Burial and the Only True Signs of Death.”