The Ruptured Poor of Bromley

I have in the last year transcribed and prepared for future online publication two series of transcripts which relate to medical history in Bromley Kent.

• Thomas Ilott surgeon of High Street Bromley medical ledger from 1809-1915 contains several references to hernia repair and trusses.
• The Bromley Poor Law Union Lunatic registers contain examinations on admission to and discharge from the Workhouse.

In both records I was impressed by the frequency of encountering hernia cases medical practitioners described ruptures and repair (or in the Workhouse recording lack of surgery or provision of a truss).
Whilst I researched many recurring conditions found in Ilott in the first decade of the nineteenth century I came upon the National Truss Society founded in 1786 in London.
The object of the Society was to relieve the ruptured poor of both sexes and the illustration from a Commercial directory in the 1900's records the history of offering surgical relief "every necessary operation" as well as trusses "for every kind of rupture" for both sexes " throughout the kingdom". Strenuous labour was of course a cause of many hernias in both male and female and hernia repair would be commonplace for local surgeons like Ilott. Further research found the London society in 1817 estimated one in eight male workers  throughout the United Kingdom had need of surgery.

I found further information in one district of London via the UCL project for Bloomsbury Bloomsbury Rupture Society history. What is of interest from a Bromley perspective is that Thomas Ilott was like William Blair a surgeon and pro vaccination doctor whose large vaccination programme for the parishes in which he was parish doctor saved countless lives of children.
Doctor Alexander Shannon the Bromley Poor Law Union Medical Officer records in the surviving Lunatic registers his examinations (and those of his deputy Doctor Yolland) examinations on admission and discharge as pauper lunatics within the terms of the Lunacy Acts in late Victorian and Edwardian Workhouse records. One recurring theme of these examinations is the incidence of hernia both surgically treated and present but untreated. Whether wearing a truss or not the medical examinations identify those paupers in need of treatment either at the Workhouse Infirmary (expanded in the 1890's). Hernia needs as well as the Union's lack of suitable provision for children I have no doubt were a concern for both doctors. In 1908/9 the Union built separate provision for boys and girls; what is less clear is the provision for surgery. Certainly the Union Workhouse became increasingly oriented to development of medical services from the 1900's.
These glimpses of the  problem from these two archive records hint at medical attempts to assist work related health problems at both ends of the nineteenth century.
 © Henry Mantell Downe Online Parish Clerk 2015

Bromley Funerals in the Georgian and Regency period

Bromley Archives is fortunate to possess funeral accounts from 1803 to the twentieth century of the funeral business of Dunns. From the begining of the 1803 accounts until the summer of 1830 Edward Dunn organised his funeral trade. In 1830 the accounts begin to lack detail some accounts are found in both folios 4 and 5 and by December Edward Dunn has died and is buried in Bromley.
From the beginning Edward's funeral business is clearly unlike the 3 groups of the funeral trade of the period namely coffin makers undertakers and funeral furnishers.
Edward makes and covers his own coffins for child burials and also acts as bearer for infant and child burials in his accounts as late as 1830. Although he commissions coffins from local named tradesmen the Dunn family business were noted as cabinet and furniture makers by this time having traded in drapery furniture and were upholders familiar with the "death trade". Edward is perfectly able to run simultaneously a large funeral and a child burial at Bromley on the same day. His accounts show a wide variety of nails used to line wooden and lead coffins for which he employed local named plumbers.
Edward is quite secific about the size of coffins;specifying one inch elm coffins in several accounts.
Edward Dunn fulfilled pauper burials from the Bromley parish poorhouse throughout the 27 years of his work recorded in his accounts; however sometimes on the same day he was also capable of conducting large funerals with up to 80 male mourners who in the tradition of the period would wear black cloaks,gloves favours and hat bands provided by Edward who also supplied the clergy Parish clerk sexton and bearers with the requested gloves for the funeral service in the church and churchyard. His accounts include hiring 80 cloaks from benefit clubs at various Inns in Bromley and in one case a reference to Freemasonry in Bromley. The Benefit Clubs are also paying for burials at Bromley in this period.
In his later folios it is possible to see that in addition to using local glovers in Bromley that he purchased gloves from Palmer and Company 80 Wood Street Cheapside "Best Town made[that is London] round seamed gloves at 0shillings 11d a pair" and black funeral habits for women from Old City Road.
It is known from accounts that Edward had a funeral hearse in Bromley but for upper class funerals he hired hearse and black funeral coaches often from William Bignall Furnisher of Funeral Carriages in Westminster.
There are recorded collections of bodies from London houses for burial at Bromley and similarly burial at several London burial grounds involving hearses and coaches and these seem to be priced at Bignall's rates of charge in each account.
Edward also employs bearers, coachmen,coach pages in full dress and carrying wands truncheons or staffs as required;mutes are also employed in several funeral processions for the well to do and a lid of feathers is provided in many of these accounts as well as a featherman to walk before the procession.
Whereas it is possible in Georgian and Regency funerals to categorise those in the death trade as either undertaker or funeral furnisher Edward Dunn emerges as one whose family business had existed in Market Square Bromley since 1710 and was highly respected furnishing many large houses in North West Kent. His accounts indicate that he was fully conversant with conveying a body hearse coaches and mourners as far afield as Sussex, "six miles north of Hoddesdon" or parts of Essex with Edward on horseback accompanied by an assistant to personally supervise a burial. His accounts therefore demonstrate a detailed practical ability to accommodate the wishes of any class of person requesting burial.
Bromley was home at Bromley and Sheppards Colleges to the widows and orphans of deceased clergy. Funerals therefore not only involved parish clergy but the chaplains and the presence of the Bishops of Rochester at Bromley Palace added to the need to inter family members and Bishop's in vaults beneath the church.
Edward's accounts also detail work in the catacombs beneath the church to find burial for influential families as well as clergy including the Bishops of Rochester.
In the early years of his accounts burial in the churchyard is relatively conventional a grave being dug to a depth of 6 to eight feet to accommodate anticipated future family burials. However from around 1817 we see that Edward who was appointed sexton in that year adopt a process which ensures that no recent burial in the churchyard is disturbed.
I have blogged about the theft of burials at neighbouring Beckenham churchyard see The Beckenham Resurrectionists. To prevent such occurrence entering Bromley parish Edward adopts a strategy of having extra deep graves dug shored up by oak beams and the head end of the grave to have a hole to lower the coffin onto straw. in several accounts iron bars are also in place to secure the coffin and straw and earth are used to back fill the grave which is immediately returfed. Edward also pays the parish beadle to watch the church yard. The parish beadle in Bromley was armed; there are accounts of escorting felons from the Cage at Bromley to the Assizes armed with a blunderbuss and the lych gate at Bromley also could accommodate watchers for the churchyard which is close to the town centre.
Despite the challenges in excavating graves to a depth of sixteen or seventeen feet the accounts describe sealing the graves by a puddling in process;brick graves are also excavated to exact dimensions and Edward provides a timber centre for forming brick graves in the floor of the church or in the churchyard.
From 1817 the accounts record the work as sextons of both Mister  and Mrs Smith and Mister Carpenter. On several occasions Mrs Smith is paid sextons fees for both opening vaults in the church and graves in the churchyard.
Edward also regularly employs named women probably midwives to sit overnight with the deceased after washing and dressing bodies for burial.As we also have at Bromley Archives the medical practice ledger of Doctor Thomas Ilott who records using midwives to assist in delivery of children it appears that both Dunn and Ilott are paying the same women.
Mrs Dunn is also actively involved in the business. She makes mourning attire for several women and is responsible for fitting women with mourning dress and gloves of various materials.
Coffins for children and teenagers are made of elm and covered with material. Individual child burials specify white material or white coffin handles. Often in Bromley where a child or teenager is buried in a black material covered coffin white lace is attached to coffin handles and as I have transcribed all of the accounts the attention to detail of Edward and his wife has left an impression of care for the individual and grieving family.
Edward does not appear to be part of the trade at that period which used poor timber to construct coffins to be covered with cloth or material. His specifications repeatedly suggest that only "best" was to be used in nailing,timber,plates of inscription, lead coffins,coffin handles. Long after Edward the Dunn business continued to have a reputation for quality whether in the furniture trade. house removal furniture depository or it seems funeral business which grew on the foundation built by Edward.

A population record of Beckenham 1821

In the course of background research about Beckenham Parish in the 1800's to accompany my transcript of Doctor Thomas Ilott's practice prescription ledger I located the account about 1821 of the population record of Reverend Andrew Brandram curate to the parish. Brandram went on to become Rector of Beckenham and produced the following statistics. I think he was probably compiling a requisite report in 1821 as parishes were asked to do so every ten years for early population statistics. Bromley has a surviving return in one volume of its registers.
The population of Beckenham Parish is recorded as 1180 people 558 Males and 622 Females. Of the over 60 population Brandram records that there were 27 males and 39 females aged 60-70;16 males and 16 females aged 70-80 and 4 males and 6 females aged 80-90 years of age.
There were 196 inhabited houses and 15 houses "building" 3 of which were inhabited. The population contained 214 plowmans families 77 persons employed in agriculture and 46 employed in trade manufacture and handicraft the remainder of 91 not in these two categories.
This valuable population information lies behind the population figure for 1821 in published sources and the total figure on the Kent Online Parish Clerks Beckenham Parish page.
Beckenham had been the home of  William Merrick Surgeon who was highly regarded not least by the poor of the parish who mourned at his funeral in 1818.
From 1809 Doctor Thomas Ilott provides medical care to many of the major households and tradespeople of the village as well as being paid by the parish to care for the poor see Parish account transcript As I continue to transcribe household accounts it is evident that Doctor Ilott delivers the children of labourers and gentry alike and was inoculating children.
 Beckenham had from 1811 had many people suffer from typhus and scarlet fever as the burial register reflect.
Unfortunately research of Beckenham Baptisms and Burials prior to 1813 involves a heavily fire and water damaged register which has lost large areas of pages and water damage has washed away ink losing substantial areas  of information. The Ilott ledger records date of delivery of children and it is therefore possible to retrieve some partial entries from the Baptismal information where the date of birth is still visible. In one such example an older child of the family is baptised on the same day.
The Ilott ledger is therefore a significant record for searchers of Beckenham families in the early years of the nineteenth century.

The Bromley Mister Pickwick

Charles Dickens published the 20 monthly instalments of his first novel between April 1836 and November 1837entitled The Pickwick Papers or the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club,Containing a Faithful Record of the Perambulations,Perils,Travels,Adventures and Sporting Transactions of the Corresponding Members. Since then there has been a well documented tradition in Bromley that the original Mister Pickwick was based upon Robert Booth Rawes who with other mebers of his family lead a boarding school for boys.
The Pickwick Papers contains  within the Travels and Perambulations" an accurate description of coaching inns. Bromley had both stage coaching inns and several generations of the Weller family stage-coachmen. One wonders how familiar the 24 year old Charles Dickens may have been with Bromley and whether he had encountered the Wellers?
Rawes Academy was founded as a boarding school for boys as early as 1730 and was situated in Bromley High Street. There is no extant record of the founder however it is believed the Rawes family became involved in the 1780's. The Rates Books for  1787/8 assess messrs Booth and Rawes in the sum of £100 and various record sources identify Richard Rawes as churchwarden in 1789 so there is documentary evidence of his involvement in the school in the 1780's.
Other members of the family joined the school so that by the time of his retirement Richard had been succeeded by Robert Booth Rawes and William and Joseph Rawes and the Rawes Academy was a well established Bromley institution. Richard Rawes died aged 72 and his burial register entry in 1814 describes him as a Gentleman.
In the surviving 1801 Census of Bromley Kent Online Parish Clerks transcript  Richard Rawes Academy contained 124 males and 9 females and it is reasonable to conclude that over 100 boys were boarded. Bromley was a pleasant country town with good coach connections and had attracted reputable surgeons to the town and had attracted Jane Austen to describe the Bell Inn favourably in Pride and Prejudice.
Medical care for the Rawes Academy is documented in the dispensing and accounts ledger of Doctor Thomas Ilott whose surgery was in the High Street facing the Bell Inn.Doctor Ilott between 1809 and 1811 records treatment of many named pupils and occasionally staff members.The Rawes account is headed Messrs Rawes's Academy in the Folio C ledger deposited at Bromley Archive.
Whilst we may never know of Dickens familiarity with Bromley,the Wellers or Robert Booth Rawes there are many references in local history of the town to the tradition that the author drew upon Robert Booth Rawes in his first novel for Pickwick.

Kent Online Parish Clerks Bromley page

The concept of a single page for all parishes in Bromley Kent and transcripts for all registers is simple to say but has involved a great deal of effort to achieve.
Complete transcripts for Bromley Holy Trinity were completed in 2013 and as I begin proof reading the marriage registers for the last years of the nineteenth century in September 2014 the transcripts for Saints Peter and Saint Paul from 1558-1900's are on target to be completed by December 2014.
In addition the rare 1801 census and the growing "other records" links to the practice prescription and accounts ledger of Doctor Thomas Ilott 1809-1814 followed by the index to Doctor Ilott's day book of visits and consultations into the 1830's will be added in the year ahead.
I am about to begin to transcribe the Dunn and Company Funeral Directors Accounts ledgers from the early 1800s onwards.
Other parishes formed from the Ancient parish will then be transcribed and added.
Over time the Bromley page Kent Online Parish Clerks Bromley will offer researchers a comprehensive series of records from the early history of the town and parish to the twentieth century.
I echo the expression of the rumbustious actor Brian Blessed who said "You can feel them. It starts sinking into your DNA molecules.You can feel them growing within you". I believe that feeling is common to many who research their own family members but it certainly has been my experience as I have tried to decipher the witness signatures on marriage register entries or read other register volumes.
I am grateful to the staff at Bromley Archives and Local Studies Library for their support in undertaking work on dozens of volumes of registers and other records to produce the transcripts available online to a worldwide audience.
Now in my 45th year of transcribing records I am grateful to achieve this collection and receive emails from so many research organisations.

Prescription:Orange peas

As I complete the transcription of the prescription ledger of Doctor Thomas Ilott I came upon a Hayes Kent household where for several months alongside other treatments Orange Peas are prescribed.
Ilott was both an Apothecary and Surgeon and treats the unidentified "Miss" for most of 1810 in a number of visits.
When this blog first appeared I was contacted by someone who informed me that local pea growing included an old heritage seed variety of local pea which could be made into a soup or broth similar to lentils. They also offered to provide further information which did not arrive;nor has any response been forthcoming on subsequent enquiry. I have now discounted their suggestion.
The original and tantalising find lead me to question what medicinal prpoerties were in mind when this repeated prescription was made in 1810  along with other treatments?
I am indebted to Carol Westway Librarian at the Lindley Library of the Royal Horticultural Society for providing partial answers to these questions.
We are in 1810 referring to Citrus aurantium which is described in the Lexicon Pharmacetium as The Seville Orange Tree here. There is also an entry in the 1846 A Cyclopedia of Domestic Medicine and Surgery about the Seville Orange Tree here.
Carol also points that a modern title in the RHS Lindley Library Medicinal Plants of the World by Ben-Erik van Wyk (2004) says that parts of the Citrus aurantium (including fruits) come under the therapeutic category of  "appetite stimulant,aromatic,stomachic" and this appears to match other items prescribed by Ilott.
There remains no precise knowledge of the condition that Ilott was treating from entries in the ledger although each item is priced if supplied or prepared. There is also a puzzle as this female "Miss" (which Ilott applies to females 8 years and up in 1142 accounts)  is unique in having such a prescription.
Certainly the description of the phrase Orange Pea contained in one recent publication  referring to Orange Peas with an Oxford English Dictionary earliest reference in 1857 provides evidence that the knowledge of therapeutic or medicinal properties was not common and suggests that Ilott was using skills he had acquired in training to treat the young Hayes woman.

Doctor Thomas Ilott Surgeon Prescription Accounts Ledger

Bromley Archives and Kent Online Parish Clerks have entered into an agreement to transcribe the surviving accounts ledger which covers 1809-1812. The Project is scheduled for completion in 2015 and will involve online publication as well as providing searchers at the Archive with an electronic index of persons named in the practice accounts. The index will also describe some treatments offered. This additional index within years of the rare survival Bromley 1801 census will provide additional information about residents of the town and district.
Thomas Ilott came to Bromley in 1808/9 and Horsbrugh in Bromley: From the earliest times to the present century describes him as a surgeon.
One of the challenges facing me as I conduct a pilot sample of over 1100 named accounts in the ledger is to learn more of Thomas Ilott life before his successful practice in the town. The Ilott father and sons were to provide medical service to the town and district including the poor of several parishes for most of the 19th century. Thomas died in 1849 and was buried in the parish churchyard not far from his home. His will mentions the surgery coach house and stable and a fine Georgian House on the corner of Church Lane and Market Square . The footprint of this faces the Old Bell in Bromley High Street and part of the land forms a Bank to the present; the remainder was acquired to build Medhurst's department store.
His partner in the practice Doctor Robert's wife bequeathed to Ilott Beechfield in Widmore Lane which passed to one of Ilotts sons James William Ilott who made it his home until his death in 1897. Edward Ilott M.D. Surgeon another son lived at 2 Dunbar Villas according to an entry in Strongs Directory of Bromley 1866.
Thomas Ilott was born in 1780 at Broadwell in Oxfordshire and the parish register records his christening.
I am very grateful to  the Archivist and Records manager at the Royal College of Surgeons for establishing in the Societys Examinations Book 1800-1820 that Thomas Ilott  was examined for a Diploma on 16 March 1804  and paid a fee of 15,,15 (sic) which I take to mean 15 guineas.Some 4-5  years later he arrives as a surgeon in Bromley and the accounts and prescription register records that he possessed both skills as an apothecary, set fractured bones in plaster and was accomplished in obstetrics as he records the delivery of children as well as regularly carrying out dental extractions. It is known that one of his grandsons qualified at Barts and this is suggestive that this is where Thomas also trained.
In Hayes Ilott is conducting smallpox inoculations within 8 years of David Jenner writing of the efficacy of inoculation. The burial registers of parishes in the Bromley district indicate the scale of death from smallpox. Ilott was therefore well trained and aware and his work in parishes which employed him saved many young lives from disease.
There is also evidence of Ilott prescribing electrical therapy;this in years before the stethoscope was devised as a wooden stick to listen to the heart in action.
I have learned a good deal about the fairly primitive medical practice of the 1800's and Ilott had a substantial income.
The ledger is in good condition but had not been examined for several years and recent daily handling have reduced the initial dust and odour; I have found it essential to wear gloves as leather rust on the covers and the danger of paper cuts were present. The volume is large but the inks are well preserved and pose few challenges for the transcriber.
I am interested to try to discover how Ilott entered medical practice;it is quite difficult to trace medical qualification  in the 1800's as over 30 institutions may have trained a practitoner usually by apprentice to a surgeon or physician. Further research is being undertaken to try to identify if possible Ilott's career prior to Bromley.
The Transcripts of all record series relating to Ilott including correspondence with Lady Byron is available at the Bromley Parish page Kent Online Parish Clerks under "other Records". It is in three parts for household accounts.
© Henry Mantell Downe Online Parish Clerk 2015

The Bromley Kent medical practice of Doctors William Roberts and Thomas Ilott circa 1808

William Child was the town's medical practioner until his retirement in 1807 after William Roberts had joined him in practice. Thomas Ilott who came from Oxfordshire joined Roberts in 1808 ( it is believed).
The practice at this time covered a wide part of what is now referred to as South London and provided medical care to various parishes in the district.
Bromley Archive holds a fascinating glimpse of medical practice at that time as well as a valuable record of households and named individuals close to the rare survival 1801 Census of Bromley transcribed at Kent Online Parish Clerks.
The Archive holds a very large ledger book with 1141 entries and several other items arising from it under reference 617. The ledger is one of four and originally was catalogued as volume C but the label on the spine to denote this has been lost. The pages contain continued references to an earlier account referred to as "B" and carry over to a further volume "D". We therefore have one quarter of the known ledgers of the practice from this period of history.
Illott is named;Roberts is not and the ledger is catalogued as his accounts ledger. Medical practice is recorded in abbreviated medical Latin so a home visit is recorded as "iter" was not charged for and a limited number of recurring treatements are referred to.
The doctors charged one guinea for delivering a child "delivery" and 10 shillings and sixpence for smallpox inoculations. They syringed ears and extracted teeth "dent" and treated fractured bones or dislocations often referred to as reduc. or  medical latin reduco. Their limited range of medicinal prescriptions include pain relief tonics (robor. or roboro) plaster (emp. or emplastrum),drops,linctus,pills,powders,ointments,draughts,mixtures,purgatives and iron tonics or wines.
The doctors were contracted to provide care for the poor of several parishes including Cudham,Hayes,Keston,Knockholt and Orpington and the established tradesmen of the town and various parishes are named. Large households from Chislehurst, Downe,Keston,Leaves Green and Wickham are featured and patients in London,Newington and Dulwich are included.
Notable and titled householders including the Attorney General (Sir Vicary Gibbs) and the wife of the poet Lady Byron were attended by Doctor Ilott. In the collection of practice material under reference 617/25 a letter from Lady Byron from Hastings mentions her health and that of a daughter. She had at the time separated from her husband George 6th Baron Byron and stayed for a time in Beckenham with her daughter Ada. The practice has a loose account under reference 617/8 for Lord Byron who was the poets cousin George Anson Byron and the successor to the title on the poets death in 1824.
The neglected record provides a link to Bromley's census householders and named servants enable a picture to form of households of notable townspeople and families in surrounding parishes.
Under terms of an agreement between Bromley Archives and Kent Online Parish Clerks I will be transcribing this valuable record for online publication during 2015; the resulting index will also be available electronically for searchers at the Archive. The ledger has not been microfilmed.