Obs. Also corps(e-presand, -ant, -aunt, -prisaunt, -aunce.
A customary gift due to the clergy from the chattels of a householder at his death and burial; a mortuary.
1393. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), I. 185. I wyte for my corspresent the best garment that I for my body ordand. Ibid. (1497), IV. 124. My best horse, with bridell, sadill, and oder apparell, in the name of my mortuary, corspresand.
1529. Act 21 Hen. VIII., c. 6. Mortuaries, otherwise called corse presentes.
1552. Lyndesay, Monarche, 4479. He did nocht bid thame seik nor craif Cors presentis nor offerandis.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 120 a. The parson and vicar wyll haue for a mortuary or a coarse present the best thynge that is about the house.
1659. H. L’Estrange, Alliance Div. Off., 459. Mortuaries … because they were usually represented with the corpse at the burial, were therefore called corpse-presents.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 425. It was antiently usual in this kingdom to bring the mortuary to church along with the corpse when it came to be buried; and thence it is sometimes called a corse-present.
1777. Brand, Pop. Antiq. (1870), II. 199.
1882. F. J. Furnivall, E. E. Wills, 139. Sometimes called Mortuary, Corse-present, or Foredrove.
