In 1671 the couple were plaintiffs in litigation brought in relation to property in Basingstoke[2] but Mrs Blunden's notability rests entirely upon the circumstances of her death.
[5] According to this urtext, William Blunden was a maltster and his wife was “a fat, gross woman”, who “had accustomed herself many times to drink brandy”.
Being unable to detect any continuing signs of life, those present at the scene lowered Alice back into the grave overnight, with a view to summoning the coroner the next day.
On their return, “they found she had torn off great part of her winding sheet, scratched herself first in several places, and ripped off her own mouth , it was all in gore blood.” She was at least definitely dead.
A critical view of the accuracy of this narrative (and also of other accounts of premature burial) is taken by Professor Jan Bondeson in Buried Alive: the terrifying history of our most primal fear.