North Sides of Churchyards

In a chapter on the custom of burying on the south side of churches, in Thompson's *History of Swine*, published 1824, I find the following mention of the north side being appropriated to felons: "The writer hereof remembers, that between fifty and sixty years ago, a man who was executed at Lincoln, was brought to Swine, and buried on the north side of the church, as the proper place in which to bury a felon." I have heard it stated by several inhabitants of the parish, that it is only within a few years that burials began to be made irrespectively on the north side. Whilst speaking of things…