The Undertakers of Eighteenth-Century Bath

The late eighteenth-century play, Better Late Than Never, features three quarrelsome undertakers from the city of Bath. In a furious dispute Mr Finis, Mr Coffin and Mr Grimly assert their appropriateness to undertake funerals, whilst belittling the talents of their rivals. In this comedic depiction of Bath, the undertaking trade was shown to be established, busy, and competitive. The chapter uses the characters of Better Late Than Never as a starting point to consider their counterparts in eighteenth-century Bath. It examines the background, development, and the competitive behaviour of Bath’s earliest undertaking businesses. Attention is given to the variety of different trades from which the city’s undertakers originated and the ways in which the supplementary nature of the trade influenced its early operation. Establishing an undertaking business involved risk and it is therefore necessary to identify what contributed to the success of those who thrived in Bath. Most significantly, the chapter considers how the play’s depiction of competition compares to the reality of advertising and promotion in the trade. The real undertakers of Bath did not fight on the streets, but they sought to engage the custom of Bathonians through the language of their advertisements and their use of retail space.