Hatchment, ACHIEVEMENT, or FUNERAL ESCUTCHEON, the arms of a deceased person within a black lozenge-shaped frame meant to be placed on the front of his house. If the deceased was unmarried or a widower or widow the whole field of the escutcheon is black.
In the hatchment of a married person only that part is black which adjoins the side of it occupied by the arms of the deceased. Thus, in the hatchment of a husband the dexter side is black, the sinister side white; in that of a wife the reverse. The old funeral escutcheon of Scotland, similarly to that of Germany, had the seize quartiers of the deceased arranged round his personal arms, and in strictness no one, unless his ancestors on every side up to four generations had armorial rights, was entitled to a funeral escutcheon. Escutcheons of this kind are now seldom seen even in Scotland. The black frame is sometimes powdered with drops to repre- sent tears, and the skull and cross-bones at the corners are hardly out of use.