A supplementary report on the results of a special inquiry into the practice of interment in towns.Chadwick, Edwin
History
A supplementary report on the results of a special inquiry into the practice of interment in towns.
Chadwick, Edwin
Burial; Cemeteries -- Great Britain; Mortality -- Statistics; Public health -- Great Britain; Working class -- Great Britain
In January, 1837, a man named Clark, in George Gardens, in this
parish, having been kept a considerable length of time unburied (I
was informed beyond a fortnight), I was directed to visit the case,
and I found the house consisted of two small rooms, wherein resided
his wife and seven children. I remonstrated with them upon the
impropriety of keeping the body so long, and offered either to bury,
or to remove it, as it was then becoming very offensive. I was
informed it would be buried on the following Sunday, as it would not
be convenient for the whole of the relatives to attend the funeral
earlier, and I understood a very great number did attend. I find
that on the 30th of the same month (January) I was called again to
visit Ann Clark, one of the family, in the same miserable abode, who
was lying upon some rags, very ill of fever. I had her removed, but
she ultimately died; and I again remonstrated with the family
remaining in the same house, and offered to take them into the
workhouse, which was declined, stating, it was their intention to
remove in a few days to another house. And on the 20th of February,
my attention was called to the same family, who had then removed to
No. 3, Granby Row, not far from their former abode, and here I found
the mother and the whole of the children (as I had predicted to
them, if they persisted in their habits), all ill of fever without
much hopes of their recovery. I had five removed to the London Fever
Hospital immediately; but out of seven who were affected, two died.
My attention was shortly afterwards directed to Henry Clark, of
Barnet Street, who was a relative, and had taken fever (it was
stated) by having attended the funeral of his friend; he, it seems,
communicated it to his wife and two children, one of whom died; next
followed Stephen Clark, of Edward Street, who, having visited the
above-named relative, and attended the funeral of their infant
shortly afterwards, had fever; also his wife and three children, one
of whom died also. In August, 1837, I was called to visit the case
of Sarah Masterton, No. 11, Suffolk Street, whose husband lay dead
of fever; she was with two children in the same room, and the corpse
not in a coffin. They were in the most deplorable condition, and so
bad with fever that none of the neighbours would venture to enter
the room with me. I had the dead body removed in a shell to our
dead-house, and the woman and children to the infirmary in the
workhouse. Two of them ultimately recovered; one died. In the same
house, and in the upper room, I next found Robert Crisp, with a wife
and child, upon whom I could not prevail to leave the place, and my
urgent entreaties were treated with contempt and bad language.
Ultimately, however, his child died, and not until then could I
persuade him to get another place, neither would he have the infant
removed, or come into the workhouse himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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