"The Italian Boy; A Tale of Murder and Body Snatching in 1830s London" by Sarah Wise. Metropolitan Books, 2004.
In the late autumn of 1831, Nova Scotia Gardens (a neighborhood of workers cottages in London's East End) became famous as the home of three body snatchers, or "resurrection men," who were charged with murdering a young boy in order to sell his body for dissection. This was three years subsequent to the Burke and Hare killings of the same type, when 16 victims were murdered in Edinburgh Scotland. The case sped the passage of the "The Anatomy Act"--an act of Parliament in 1832 that made the unclaimed bodies of the poor legally available for dissection, thus ending the "resurrection" trade.
The suspicions of Richard Partridge, anatomy "demonstrator" at King's College, had been aroused by an unusually fresh body of a young boy brought to him for sale by a group of professional body snatchers. Partridge delayed the men with a ruse, while the police were sent for. John Bishop, James May, Thomas Williams, and Michael Shields were arrested on suspicion of murder.
Bishop and Williams shared a cottage in Nova Scotia Gardens, located in Bethnal Green , to the northeast of "The City" and north of the better know Spitalfields, Shoreditch, and Whitechapel. They did much of their drinking at a pub called "Fortune of War," at Smithfield (near the famous meat market), which was a regular meeting place for London's "resurrection men."
The "Fortune of War," so named when the pub was bought by a man who had lost both legs and an arm in a sea battle, was the pub most associated with the resurrection trade. Snatchers could stash their stolen bodies under the benches, and talk openly about their unpopular trade.
The two men had met up with James May in the pub, who agreed to help them sell a "Thing" (corpse as sold to a medical school for purposes of dissection and teaching). The price of a Thing ranged from around 8-12 guineas, or close to what an East End silk weaver might earn in a year. The teeth could be sold separately, and those of the Italian boy went for 12 shillings (the price of 6 pints of porter).
In another pub deal, Michael Shields was hired to "carry a heavy load" between the various hospitals, while the others looked for a buyer. At King's College, the dissecting room porter, William Hill, sent for anatomist Richard Partridge, who authorized Hill to pay nine guineas for the as yet unseen body. Having struck a deal, the men fetched the body and returned with it to King's. The state of the body aroused Hill's suspicions; Hill alerted Partridge, who delayed the resurrection men by claiming to need change for a 50 pound note.
#
King's College first opened in October 1831, just one month before "the Italian boy" was delivered to its dissecting rooms. It had been build on Crown land, and founded in answer to "the godless institution" of University College (where Catholics, Jews, and dissenters were allowed to study). George IV was its patron.
Herbert Mayo was the first professor of anatomy at King's, assisted by his junior colleague, Richard Partridge. The medical journal Lancet was already publishing (as of October 1823), and often poked fun both at King's, and at Mayo personally. Among other things, he was criticized for taking out newspaper advertisements to publicize his book, "Observations on Injuries and Diseases of the Rectum", and for getting the enormous sum of 900 pounds for his jars and bottles of "interesting" specimens (human and animal). Three-hundred of that 900 pounds was for "assistance", which may have included resurrectionists.
After attaining a basic qualification, the next step in training for a surgeon was to become a "dresser", or paying apprentice to a surgeon. Each dresser paid around 50 guineas/year, and well-known surgeons typically had between 4 and 6 dressers, the surgeon could earn 200 pounds per annum in this way. Because of the expense, advancement in a medical career was essentially restricted to the wealthy, to relatives of the teaching surgeon, or to those who could otherwise take advantage of favoritism. The only other option was to become a surgeon in the army or navy, or to set up a practice in the provinces.
In 1831, there were around 800 medical students distributed between London's 4 hospital medical schools and 17 private anatomy schools. About 500 of those students dissected corpses as part of their training; each student was said to require two for learning anatomy and a third for practicing surgical techniques. The only legal source of corpses was executed murderers, but there simply weren't enough executions to supply the demand.
Body snatchers raided city graveyards or traveled to country villages to steal bodies and transport them back to London. Snatchers, or their wives, might also pose as relatives of dying (insensible) paupers--claiming the body of the deceased for private burial. Bodies were even stolen from the parlors of private homes where they had been laid out prior to burial. Even before the 1828 arrests of Edinburgh's Burke and Hare for the murder of victims to sell their bodies to anatomists, people seemed frightened that body snatchers might not wait for potential "produce" to die of its own accord.
The law did not define the human body as property, therefore "stealing" a dead body was classified as a "breach of common decency" rather than theft. Punishment was typically a fine or up to 6 months in jail. To avoid charges of theft, resurrection men took care to replace shrouds and coffin lids.
Resurrection men used wooden spades, or shovels, to dig down to the head of a coffin. Wood shovels were used as being quieter than metal for their clandestine work. Once the head end of the coffin was reached, large iron hooks attached to ropes were inserted under the lid of the coffin at the end to snap part of the lid off. The corpse was then pulled out through the hole.
From 1829, London, with the exception of the "City" (the "Square Mile") was patrolled by members of the Metropolitan Police, or "New Police" (with individual policemen referred to as "constable." The City continued an ancient system of "Charleys" and parish watchmen. By 1823, 215 miles of London Streets had been lit by gaslight.
#
Vendors, street artists, and colorful beggars were part of the sights in London's poorer areas. Some became well known for their unique qualities:
· Samuel Horsey, who without legs got around on a low, wheeled cart or sledge.
· Black Joe Johnson, a West Indian who wore a model of Nelson's ship, Victory, on his head. He would move alongside ground-floor windows, giving the impression that the ship sailed along the sill while he sang a sea shanty.
· The Dancing Doll Man of Lucca played a drum and flute as he worked dancing marionettes by a string tied to his knee.
· Children sold items such as paper flowers, or exhibited small animals such as white mice.
There were plenty of fakes as well.
More local color was provided by the live animal sales at Smithfield market. At Pye Corner, the location of the "Fortune of War" pub, the poorest-quality dead meat was sold to supplement the diets of the desperately poor.
#
Bishop and Williams were executed and their bodies given to anatomists for dissection: Bishop to King's College, and Williams to the Great Windmill Street School. Williams' body disappeared, while Bishops skeleton and the skin of his arms were displayed for many years in the college's pathological museum.
James May was transported to Botany Bay, Australia, though he died in route. Michael Shields was reprieved, but could no longer find work, and suffered mob abuse wherever he went.
William Hill, the dissecting room porter who first suspected a murder, was dismissed from King's without a reference. None of the London resurrectionists would do business with him, so the surgeons' supply of corpses had dried up.
Herbert Mayo was fired by King's College in 1836 for poor teaching schools, though he was later a cofounder of another anatomy school. Richard Partridge succeeded Mayo as King's College's professor of anatomy, he never did well as a surgeon, and eventually died in poverty.
In the late autumn of 1831, Nova Scotia Gardens (a neighborhood of workers cottages in London's East End) became famous as the home of three body snatchers, or "resurrection men," who were charged with murdering a young boy in order to sell his body for dissection. This was three years subsequent to the Burke and Hare killings of the same type, when 16 victims were murdered in Edinburgh Scotland. The case sped the passage of the "The Anatomy Act"--an act of Parliament in 1832 that made the unclaimed bodies of the poor legally available for dissection, thus ending the "resurrection" trade.
The suspicions of Richard Partridge, anatomy "demonstrator" at King's College, had been aroused by an unusually fresh body of a young boy brought to him for sale by a group of professional body snatchers. Partridge delayed the men with a ruse, while the police were sent for. John Bishop, James May, Thomas Williams, and Michael Shields were arrested on suspicion of murder.
Bishop and Williams shared a cottage in Nova Scotia Gardens, located in Bethnal Green , to the northeast of "The City" and north of the better know Spitalfields, Shoreditch, and Whitechapel. They did much of their drinking at a pub called "Fortune of War," at Smithfield (near the famous meat market), which was a regular meeting place for London's "resurrection men."
The "Fortune of War," so named when the pub was bought by a man who had lost both legs and an arm in a sea battle, was the pub most associated with the resurrection trade. Snatchers could stash their stolen bodies under the benches, and talk openly about their unpopular trade.
The two men had met up with James May in the pub, who agreed to help them sell a "Thing" (corpse as sold to a medical school for purposes of dissection and teaching). The price of a Thing ranged from around 8-12 guineas, or close to what an East End silk weaver might earn in a year. The teeth could be sold separately, and those of the Italian boy went for 12 shillings (the price of 6 pints of porter).
In another pub deal, Michael Shields was hired to "carry a heavy load" between the various hospitals, while the others looked for a buyer. At King's College, the dissecting room porter, William Hill, sent for anatomist Richard Partridge, who authorized Hill to pay nine guineas for the as yet unseen body. Having struck a deal, the men fetched the body and returned with it to King's. The state of the body aroused Hill's suspicions; Hill alerted Partridge, who delayed the resurrection men by claiming to need change for a 50 pound note.
#
King's College first opened in October 1831, just one month before "the Italian boy" was delivered to its dissecting rooms. It had been build on Crown land, and founded in answer to "the godless institution" of University College (where Catholics, Jews, and dissenters were allowed to study). George IV was its patron.
Herbert Mayo was the first professor of anatomy at King's, assisted by his junior colleague, Richard Partridge. The medical journal Lancet was already publishing (as of October 1823), and often poked fun both at King's, and at Mayo personally. Among other things, he was criticized for taking out newspaper advertisements to publicize his book, "Observations on Injuries and Diseases of the Rectum", and for getting the enormous sum of 900 pounds for his jars and bottles of "interesting" specimens (human and animal). Three-hundred of that 900 pounds was for "assistance", which may have included resurrectionists.
After attaining a basic qualification, the next step in training for a surgeon was to become a "dresser", or paying apprentice to a surgeon. Each dresser paid around 50 guineas/year, and well-known surgeons typically had between 4 and 6 dressers, the surgeon could earn 200 pounds per annum in this way. Because of the expense, advancement in a medical career was essentially restricted to the wealthy, to relatives of the teaching surgeon, or to those who could otherwise take advantage of favoritism. The only other option was to become a surgeon in the army or navy, or to set up a practice in the provinces.
In 1831, there were around 800 medical students distributed between London's 4 hospital medical schools and 17 private anatomy schools. About 500 of those students dissected corpses as part of their training; each student was said to require two for learning anatomy and a third for practicing surgical techniques. The only legal source of corpses was executed murderers, but there simply weren't enough executions to supply the demand.
Body snatchers raided city graveyards or traveled to country villages to steal bodies and transport them back to London. Snatchers, or their wives, might also pose as relatives of dying (insensible) paupers--claiming the body of the deceased for private burial. Bodies were even stolen from the parlors of private homes where they had been laid out prior to burial. Even before the 1828 arrests of Edinburgh's Burke and Hare for the murder of victims to sell their bodies to anatomists, people seemed frightened that body snatchers might not wait for potential "produce" to die of its own accord.
The law did not define the human body as property, therefore "stealing" a dead body was classified as a "breach of common decency" rather than theft. Punishment was typically a fine or up to 6 months in jail. To avoid charges of theft, resurrection men took care to replace shrouds and coffin lids.
Resurrection men used wooden spades, or shovels, to dig down to the head of a coffin. Wood shovels were used as being quieter than metal for their clandestine work. Once the head end of the coffin was reached, large iron hooks attached to ropes were inserted under the lid of the coffin at the end to snap part of the lid off. The corpse was then pulled out through the hole.
From 1829, London, with the exception of the "City" (the "Square Mile") was patrolled by members of the Metropolitan Police, or "New Police" (with individual policemen referred to as "constable." The City continued an ancient system of "Charleys" and parish watchmen. By 1823, 215 miles of London Streets had been lit by gaslight.
#
Vendors, street artists, and colorful beggars were part of the sights in London's poorer areas. Some became well known for their unique qualities:
· Samuel Horsey, who without legs got around on a low, wheeled cart or sledge.
· Black Joe Johnson, a West Indian who wore a model of Nelson's ship, Victory, on his head. He would move alongside ground-floor windows, giving the impression that the ship sailed along the sill while he sang a sea shanty.
· The Dancing Doll Man of Lucca played a drum and flute as he worked dancing marionettes by a string tied to his knee.
· Children sold items such as paper flowers, or exhibited small animals such as white mice.
There were plenty of fakes as well.
More local color was provided by the live animal sales at Smithfield market. At Pye Corner, the location of the "Fortune of War" pub, the poorest-quality dead meat was sold to supplement the diets of the desperately poor.
#
Bishop and Williams were executed and their bodies given to anatomists for dissection: Bishop to King's College, and Williams to the Great Windmill Street School. Williams' body disappeared, while Bishops skeleton and the skin of his arms were displayed for many years in the college's pathological museum.
James May was transported to Botany Bay, Australia, though he died in route. Michael Shields was reprieved, but could no longer find work, and suffered mob abuse wherever he went.
William Hill, the dissecting room porter who first suspected a murder, was dismissed from King's without a reference. None of the London resurrectionists would do business with him, so the surgeons' supply of corpses had dried up.
Herbert Mayo was fired by King's College in 1836 for poor teaching schools, though he was later a cofounder of another anatomy school. Richard Partridge succeeded Mayo as King's College's professor of anatomy, he never did well as a surgeon, and eventually died in poverty.
posted by Marlissa | 2:59 PM
