As has been stated in the previous chapter, there was no need of the
resurrection-men, so long as the teaching of anatomy was confined to the
Company of Barbers and Surgeons. It has also been pointed out that, as
late as 1714, Cheselden was reprimanded for having anatomical
demonstrations at his private house. Soon after this date, however, began
the establishment of private schools. Mr. Nourse, of St. Bartholomew's,
was one of the first to deliver public lectures at his own house. After a
time this probably became inconvenient, as we find his advertisement, in
1739, worded thus:
"ANATOMY.
"Designing to have no more lectures at my own house, I think it
proper to advertise that I shall begin a Course of Anatomy,
Chirurgical Operations and Bandages on Monday, the 11th of Nov., at
St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
"EDW. NOURSE, Assistant Surgeon
and Lithotomist to the said Hospital."
Percivall Pott, who was apprenticed to Nourse, followed his master's
example, and lectured on Surgery. In 1737 we find Dr. Fr. Nicholls
advertising thus:
"On Wednesday, the 2nd of February, at the House below the Bull Head,
in Lincoln's Inn Fields, at five in the evening, will begin a Course
of Anatomy and Physiology, introductory to the study and practice of
Physick in all its branches by Fr. Nicholls, M.D. N.B. A compendium
referring to the several matters, explain'd in these Lectures, is
sold by John Clarke, under the Royal Exchange, and F. Woodward, at
the Half Moon, within Temple Bar, Booksellers."
The following is the advertisement of Caesar Hawkins, from a newspaper of
1739:
"In Pall Mall Court, in Pall Mall. On Thursday, the 5th of February
next, will begin a Course of Anatomy, with the principal Operations
in Surgery and their suitable Bandages, by Caesar Hawkins, Surgeon to
St. George's Hospital."
Joshua Brookes' advertisement, in 1814, ran as follows:
"THEATRE OF ANATOMY, BLENHEIM STREET,
GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
"The Summer Course of Lectures on Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery,
will be commenced on Monday, the 6th of June, at seven o'clock in
the morning. By Mr. Brookes.--Anatomical Converzationes will be held
weekly, when the different Subjects treated of will be discussed
familiarly, and the Students' views forwarded. To these none but
Pupils can be admitted. Spacious Apartments, thoroughly ventilated,
and replete with every convenience, will be open at five o'clock in
the morning, for the purposes of Dissecting and Injecting, when Mr.
Brookes attends to direct the Students and demonstrate the various
parts as they appear on Dissection.
"The inconveniences usually attending Anatomical Investigations, are
counteracted by an antiseptic process. Pupils may be accommodated in
the House. Gentlemen established in Practice, desirous of renewing
their Anatomical Knowledge, may be accommodated with an apartment to
dissect in privately."
A very interesting account of the old Anatomical Schools, by Mr. D'Arcy
Power, will be found in the _British Medical Journal_, 1895, vol. 2, p.
141. The paper is entitled "The Rise and Fall of the Private Medical
Schools in London." It has been reprinted, with other articles, in a
pamphlet, entitled _The Medical Institutions of London_.
In Great Britain, as no licence was required for opening an Anatomical
School, there was no limit to their number; there was also no regular
legal supply of subjects, except the bodies of murderers, executed in
London and the county of Middlesex, which came to the schools through the
College of Surgeons. In Paris a licence had to be obtained before opening
an Anatomical School, and bodies were regularly supplied to the licensed
places.
With the rise and competition of the Medical Schools in London, the
difficulty of getting an adequate number of bodies increased. The absolute
necessity of having a good supply for the use of students, so as to
prevent them from going off to rival schools, caused the teachers to offer
large prices, and thus made it worth while for men to devote themselves
entirely to obtaining bodies for this purpose. At first the trade was
carried on by a very few men, and without any public scandal, but the
inducements mentioned above enticed others into the business; these were
of the lowest class, often professed thieves, and the fights and disputes
of these men, one with the other, in churchyards, often made really more
scandal than the actual stealing of the bodies. It was stated by the
police in 1828 that the number of persons who, in London, lived regularly
on the profits of exhumation, did not exceed ten; but there were, in
addition to these, about two hundred who were occasionally employed. These
latter individuals were thieves of the lowest grade, and the most
desperate and abandoned class of the community. The men worked generally
in gangs, and would do anything to spoil the success of their opponents in
the business. If a body were bought by one of the teachers from an outside
source, the regular men would sometimes break into the dissecting-room and
cut the body in such a manner as to make it useless for anatomical
purposes. If this could not be done, they would give information to the
police that a stolen body was lying in a certain dissecting-room. Joshua
Brookes, the proprietor of the Blenheim Street, or Great Marlborough
Street, School, was a victim in this way; a body, for which he had paid 16
guineas, was taken away from his school through information of this kind,
and the police officer who carried out the business was, as a reward for
his efforts, presented with a silver staff, purchased by public
subscription. Brookes seems to have got on very badly with the
resurrection-men; at one time, because he refused five guineas as a
douceur at the beginning of the session, two dead bodies, in a high state
of decomposition, were dropped at night close to his school by the men
whom he had thus offended; one of these bodies was placed at the Poland
Street end of Great Marlborough Street, and the other at the end of
Blenheim Street. Two young ladies stumbled over one of these bodies, and
at once raised such a commotion that, had it not been for the prompt
assistance of Sir Robert Baker and the police, Brookes would have fared
very badly at the hands of the mob which soon collected. The fact of his
house being near to the Marlborough Police Court, on more than one
occasion saved Brookes from the popular fury.
A subject was brought to him one day in a sack, and paid for at once; soon
after it was discovered that the occupant of the sack was alive. This was
not a case of attempted murder; the "subject" was a confederate of those
from whom he had been purchased, and had, in all probability, been thus
introduced to the premises for purposes of burglary.
The competition of the schools had risen to such a height in the demand
for bodies, that Brookes stated that for a subject, which would have cost
two guineas in his student days, he had paid as much as sixteen guineas.
Nor was the cost of the body the only expense to the teacher. At the
beginning of each session he was waited upon by the resurrection-men, who
offered to supply him regularly with bodies at a fixed price, on the
condition that a douceur was paid down at once. The teachers were
powerless in the matter, and had either to accede to the offered terms, or
to lose their students through not having a sufficient supply of subjects.
The scarcity of bodies was most keenly felt at the beginning of the
session; the resurrection-men knew that they could command their own
terms, and would not supply any subjects until the teachers had conceded
all their demands. This was felt to be bad for the students, and Dr. James
Somerville, who was assistant to Brodie at the Great Windmill Street
School, in giving evidence before the Committee on Anatomy, said that
"the pupils not being able to proceed for a certain time lose their
ardour, and get into habits of idleness."
At the end of the session the resurrection-men again waited on the
proprietors of the schools, and demanded "finishing money." In some papers
relating to Sir Astley Cooper, which were referred to in a letter
published in the _Medical Times_, 1883, vol. 1, p. 343, we read: "May
10th, 1827, Paid Hollis, Vaughan, and Llewellyn, finishing money, L6 6s.
0d. 1829, June 18th, Paid Murphy, Wildes, & Naples, finishing money L6 6s.
0d."
The cost of the bodies in this way to the teachers was more than they
could charge to the students, and the deficiency thus created was made up
by increased fees for the lectures. The expenses, moreover, did not end
here. If one of the resurrection-men was unfortunate enough to get a term
of imprisonment, the teacher had to partly keep the man's wife and family
whilst he was serving his sentence. A solatium was also expected on his
release from gaol. Mr. R. D. Grainger spent L50 in this way for one man,
and several guineas in keeping the family of another Resurrectionist
whilst the latter was in gaol. Sir Astley Cooper is known to have spent
large sums of money for a similar purpose. The following may be cited as
examples: "January 29th, 1828, Paid Mr. Cock to pay Mr. South half the
expenses of bailing Vaughan from Yarmouth and going down L14 7s. 0d. 1829,
May 6th, Paid Vaughan's wife 6s. Paid Vaughan for twenty-six weeks'
confinement at 10s. per week, L13 0s. 0d."
If any independence were shown by the teachers, and the demands of the men
resisted, victory generally fell to the lot of the Resurrectionists. A
teacher, perhaps, would refuse to pay the exorbitant demands, and would
employ other men to obtain bodies for him. These were then watched by the
regular gang, and information to the police was laid against them on every
occasion. The bodies obtained by the irregular men were often taken from
them by those who considered they had a monopoly in the business; these
subjects were then hacked and cut about so as to make them quite useless
for anatomical purposes. So the supply at this particular school would be
very short, and great indignation would arise amongst the students, who
had paid their fees, and therefore demanded an adequate number of bodies
for dissection. The teacher was thus obliged to give way, and to accede to
the demands of the regular gang.
The teachers formed themselves into an Anatomical Club for their own
protection; by this means it was hoped to regulate the price to be paid
for bodies, by agreement amongst the members of the Club not to give more
than a certain amount. This agreement does not seem, according to Mr.
South, to have been very faithfully kept, and so, with new schools
springing up and giving rise to still greater competition, the teachers
were as much as ever in the hands of the resurrection-men.
It must not be supposed that all the bodies which were supplied to the
schools were exhumed. Many of them were stolen or obtained by false
pretences before burial. Glennon, the police officer, who has been before
mentioned in connection with Joshua Brookes, told the Committee that he
had recovered between fifty and a hundred bodies for persons who had had
their houses broken open, and bodies stolen from them whilst in the
coffin awaiting burial. The following case, tried at the London Sessions
in 1830, is an example of this:
"LONDON ADJOURNED SESSIONS.
"TUESDAY.--BODY-SNATCHING.--A well-known pilferer of graves, named Clarke,
was tried upon an indictment, charging him with having stolen the body of
a dead child, aged about four years, which had been under the care of a
nurse named Mary Hopkins. The facts which came out in evidence are as
follows: The deceased was the daughter of a woman of the town, residing in
Shire Lane, and had been kept at the nurse's lodging, which was in the
same neighbourhood. She died on a Friday, and Clarke, whose ears were
described as 'quick to the toll of the passing bell,' paid the nurse a
visit the next morning, under pretence of hiring a cellar under the house.
He took occasion to notice the poor woman's son; said it was a pity to see
the boy idle, and that he should have immediate employment, and called
again with evidences of still stronger interest in favour of the family.
'By the way,' said he, 'I understand you have had a death lately.' 'Yes,
sir,' said the nurse, 'a poor little girl is departed.' 'Poor little
dear,' cried the snatcher, 'I should like to look at the little innocent.'
He was forthwith led into the front parlour, where the body lay in a
coffin, and observing that its position was favourable to his intention,
he sympathized with the nurse, and said, 'We must all come to this sooner
or later,' and then he went to get a half-pint of summut to comfort them.
The nurse disposed of a glass, which presently set her in a profound
sleep, and when she awoke the body of the babe was gone. It appeared that
the snatcher, after having quitted the house, as if for good, returned,
and opening the parlour-window hooked out with a stick the corpse of the
child, and went off with it towards a market that is open at all hours,
near Bridgewater Square. However, a police officer, who knew his trade,
laid hands upon him, telling him he was wanted. The snatcher then threw
down the child and took to his heels, but was apprehended and lodged in
the Compter. The nurse proved the identity of the body. Upon her
cross-examination, by Mr. Payne, she stated that the mother had not been
to see the deceased for four or five days before the death. The Jury
returned a verdict of Guilty, but some of them audibly spoke of
recommending the prisoner to mercy, but made no appendage to that effect.
The Recorder sentenced the prisoner to be imprisoned for the space of six
calendar months."
Sometimes these stolen bodies were claimed after payment had been made to
the resurrection-men, but before any dissection had taken place. The
following refers to Guy's Hospital: "Returned to Vestry Clerk of
Newington, by order of the Treasurer, one male and two females, purchased
of Page, &c., on the 25th, who had broken open the dead-house to obtain
them."
Bodies of suicides, and of those who had met with an accidental death,
were frequently stolen whilst they were awaiting the coroner's inquest.
Often in these cases the body-thieves, after selling the subject to a
teacher of anatomy, secretly gave information to the police where the
missing body might be found. It was then seized by the police, and, after
the inquest, handed over to those who claimed to be relatives; these
supposed relatives were frequently confederates of the thieves, and by
them the body was at once taken off and again sold to another teacher.
* * * * *
The following case is from a newspaper of 1823:
"SUICIDE AND THE BODY STOLEN.--Tuesday evening last a young woman of
respectable and interesting appearance was observed for some time parading
the banks of the Surrey Canal, Camberwell, in a melancholy mood, and at
length she plunged into the water; on which a man rushed in after her and
dived several times, but failed in recovering the body, which was not
found till the following morning, when it was taken to the Albany Arms,
near the Canal, for the Coroner's inquest, which was to have taken place
on Thursday. On the landlord proceeding to the shed on Wednesday morning,
where the body had been deposited, he discovered, that in the course of
the night, it had been broken open, and the corpse of the female stolen
away. He instantly repaired to the Police Office, Union Street, and gave
information of the circumstance to the Magistrates, who gave orders that
immediate inquiry should be made at Mr. Brookes's, where the body has
since been discovered and given up. The poor woman was unclaimed, and the
verdict of the Coroner's Jury was 'Found Drowned.'"
A favourite trick, in the carrying out of which a woman was generally
necessary, was that of claiming the bodies of friendless persons who died
in workhouses, or similar institutions. Immediately it was found out that
such an one was dead a man and woman, decently clad in mourning, in great
grief, and often in tears, called at the workhouse to take away the body
of their dear departed relative. If the trick proved successful, as it
often did, the body was taken straight off to one of the schools and sold.
The parish authorities, probably, were not over particular about giving up
the body, if the deceased were a stranger, as by this means they saved the
cost of burial.
Subjects, too, were obtained from cheap undertakers, who kept the bodies
of the poor until the time for burial. The coffin was weighted so as to
conceal the fraud, and the mockery of reading the Burial Service over it
was gone through in the presence of the unsuspecting relatives.
That some bodies were obtained by murder there can be no doubt. The
exposure caused by the trials of Burke and Hare in Edinburgh, and Bishop
and Williams in London, proves this.
The facts previously stated, however, go very far to exonerate the
anatomists from the false charge (freely made at the time) of their being
privy to these murders. It has been frequently stated that signs of murder
could be easily seen, and that the fact of the body being fresh, and there
being no evidence of its having been interred, ought to have at once
suggested foul play, and to have caused the teacher to communicate with
the police. But it must be remembered that the murders were generally very
artfully contrived by suffocation, so as to leave no outward signs of
ill-treatment. It was also no uncommon thing, for the reasons just given,
to receive at the schools bodies in quite a fresh state, which had
evidently never received sepulture.
An account of the _post mortem_ on the Italian boy, for whose murder
Bishop and Williams were hanged,[11] has been preserved by Mr.
Clarke.[12] The examination of the body was carried out by Mr.
Wetherfield, of Southampton Street. There were also present Mr. Mayo,
Lecturer on Anatomy at King's College; Mr. Partridge, his demonstrator;
Mr. Beaman, Parish Surgeon; and his Assistant, Mr. D. Edwards, and Mr.
Clarke. The boy's teeth had been removed and sold to a dentist, but beyond
this there were no external marks of violence on any part of the body. The
internal organs were carefully examined, but no trace of injury or poison
could be found. Mr. Mayo, who had a peculiar way of standing very upright
with his hands in his breeches' pockets, said, with a kind of lisp he had,
"By Jove! the boy died a nathral death." Mr. Partridge and Mr. Beaman,
however, suggested that the spine had not been examined, and after a
consultation it was decided to do this. It was then found that one or more
of the upper cervical vertebrae were fractured. "By Jove!" said Mr. Mayo,
"this boy was murthered." The conviction of Bishop and Williams was due,
in a very great measure, to Mr. Partridge and Mr. Beaman.
At the present day it is well-nigh impossible to understand the relations
between men of honour and education, such as the teachers of anatomy were,
and the ruffians who carried on this ghastly trade. It must, however, be
borne in mind that, until the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832, there
was no provision for supplying the means by which the student might be
taught this necessary part of his professional education; the only way in
which teachers could get material for giving instruction was by dealing
with the resurrection-men.
It would have been quite impossible for the resurrection-men to have
obtained the number of bodies they frequently did, had they not been able
to bribe the custodians of the different burial-grounds. Sometimes they
met with a difficulty in the shape of a keeper newly appointed to replace
one who had been dismissed for being privy to these depredations. In most
instances this was soon overcome; if, at the outset, the custodian could
not be bribed, he could generally be induced to drink, and then, whilst he
was in a state of intoxication, the body which the resurrection-men wished
to obtain could be easily removed. After this first step there was
generally very little difficulty in the future.
Sometimes, too, the grave-diggers not only gave information to the
Resurrectionists, but acted as principals themselves. In Benson's
_Remarkable Trials_ is recorded the case of John Holmes, Peter Williams,
and Esther Donaldson. Holmes was grave-digger at St. George's, Bloomsbury;
Williams was his assistant, and Donaldson was charged as an accomplice.
They were prosecuted before Sir John Hawkins at the Guildhall,
Westminster, in December, 1777, for stealing the body of Mrs. Jane
Sainsbury, who died in the previous October, and was buried in the St.
George's burial-ground. Holmes and Williams were sentenced to six months'
imprisonment, and to be whipped on their bare backs from the end of
Kingsgate Street, Holborn, to Dyot Street, St. Giles. The sentence, says
Benson, was duly carried out amidst crowds of well-satisfied and approving
spectators. The woman Donaldson was acquitted.
The ranks of the resurrection-men were largely recruited from the keepers
of burial-grounds. When these men had lost their situations for
connivance at the stealing of bodies, they naturally joined their old
associates, and became part of the regular gang.
The bribery of the custodians will account for the large number of bodies
often obtained in one night. Had there been the slightest vigilance on the
part of the authorities, it would have been absolutely impossible for the
resurrection-men to have spent the time necessary for their work without
detection. The amount of time required for the work depended greatly on
the soil. One man told Bransby Cooper that he had taken two bodies from
separate graves of considerable depth, and had restored the coffins and
the earth to their former positions in an hour and a half. Another man
said that he had completed the exhumation of a body in a quarter of an
hour; but in this instance the grave was extremely shallow, and the earth
loose and without stones. If much gravel had to be dug through, the
resurrection-men had a peculiar way of using their spades, so that the
gravel was thrown out of the grave quite noiselessly.
On Thursday, February 20th, 1812, the Diary tells us that 15 large bodies
and one small one were obtained from St. Pancras. No doubt this was
simplified by the custom of burying several paupers in one grave. To
obtain these it was necessary to dig all the earth out, so that each
coffin could be dealt with; the men generally worked very soon after a
funeral, and so the earth was much more easily moved than it would have
been if they had been obliged to dig through undisturbed ground. When only
one body was to be had, a small opening was dug down to the head of the
coffin, which was then broken open, and the body was pulled up with a
rope, fastened either round the neck or under the armpits.
In a memoir of Thomas Wakley, the founder of _The Lancet_,[13] the
following account of the _modus operandi_ of the resurrection-men is
given: "In the case of a neat, or not quite new grave, the ingenuity of
the Resurrectionist came into play. Several feet--fifteen or twenty--away
from the head or foot of the grave, he would remove a square of turf,
about eighteen or twenty inches in diameter. This he would carefully put
by, and then commence to mine. Most pauper graves were of the same depth,
and, if the sepulchre was that of a person of importance, the depth of the
grave could be pretty well estimated by the nature of the soil thrown up.
Taking a five-foot grave, the coffin lid would be about four feet from the
surface. A rough slanting tunnel, some five yards long, would, therefore,
have to be constructed, so as to impinge exactly on the coffin head. This
being at last struck (no very simple task), the coffin was lugged up by
hooks to the surface, or, preferably, the end of the coffin was wrenched
off with hooks while still in the shelter of the tunnel, and the scalp or
feet of the corpse secured through the open end, and the body pulled out,
leaving the coffin almost intact and unmoved.
"The body once obtained, the narrow shaft was easily filled up and the sod
of turf accurately replaced. The friends of the deceased, seeing that the
earth _over_ his grave was not disturbed, would flatter themselves that
the body had escaped the Resurrectionist; but they seldom noticed the
neatly-placed square of turf, some feet away."
A somewhat similar account is given in the _Memorials of John Flint
South_.[14] This method is also referred to by Bransby Cooper,[15] who
states that it was told him by one "who fancied he had found out their
secret, but had, no doubt, been deceived by some of them purposely."
Bransby Cooper also says that he asked one of the principal
resurrection-men as to the feasibility of this method, and the man showed
him several objections to it, and stated that "it would never do." This
statement was made after the resurrection-days were over, when there could
be no advantage in keeping the true plan secret. It must be remembered
that there were some amateur body-snatchers, and that it was not at all
unlikely that the regular men would tell to them a plan as full of
difficulties as that quoted above. To make the tunnel as described, would
be impossible, and it is somewhat difficult to see how grappling-irons
were fastened to the coffin; a man could hardly get down a tunnel 18 in.
in diameter and 15 feet in length to do this; if he did succeed, his
difficulties in returning must have been still greater. To pull a body
out of the head or foot of a coffin, as described, is an impossibility. No
allowance is made, either, in digging the tunnel for obstacles, in the
shape of intervening graves or grave-stones. As regards the evidence on
the surface of a grave having been disturbed, it would be greater in one
opened in this manner than if the recently-disturbed earth had been again
dug out. It would be impossible to get back into the tunnel all the earth
dug out in the course of its construction, and this loose earth would at
once attract attention. Generally, bodies were removed before the graves
were finally tidied up, so that it was difficult to notice a fresh
disturbance.
The writer of the Diary was a cemetery-keeper when he first began his
resurrection proceedings; his _modus operandi_, in some cases, was to take
the body out of the coffin, and place it in a sack, before he began to
fill in the grave. Then, as he gradually threw the earth in, he kept
pulling the sack to the surface, so that when his work of filling in was
completed, he had the sack close to the top of the grave. He had then only
to wait until night, when he was able, under cover of the darkness, to
remove the body without fear of detection. When the resurrection-men had
been successful in their night's work, they were glad to find a temporary
shelter for the bodies, as near at hand as possible. This was generally an
out-house belonging to one of the schools which they regularly supplied;
the men were permitted to place the bodies there for the night, and to
fetch them away the next day. This explains some of the entries in the
Diary, such as "Took the whole to ----," and the next day, "Removed the
whole from ----." Before removing any of the bodies, the men would find
out exactly where they were wanted, and so would save much risk of being
arrested with the bodies in their possession.
If the following broadside could be believed, the resurrection-men
sometimes performed a valuable service to those who had been buried--
"MIRACULOUS CIRCUMSTANCE:
"_Being a full and particular account of John Macintire, who was buried
alive, in Edinburgh, on the 15th day of April, 1824, while in a trance,
and who was taken up by the resurrection-men, and sold to the doctors to
be dissected, with a full account of the many strange and wonderful things
which he saw and felt while he was in that state, the whole being taken
from his own words._
"I had been some time ill of a low and lingering fever. My strength
gradually wasted, and I could see by the doctor that I had nothing to
hope. One day, towards evening, I was seized with strange and
indescribable quiverings. I saw around my bed, innumerable strange faces;
they were bright and visionary, and without bodies. There was light and
solemnity, and I tried to move, but could not; I could recollect, with
perfectness, but the power of motion had departed. I heard the sound of
weeping at my pillow, and the voice of the nurse say, 'He is dead.' I
cannot describe what I felt at these words. I exerted my utmost power to
stir myself, but I could not move even an eyelid. My father drew his hand
over my face and closed my eyelids. The world was then darkened, but I
could still hear, and feel and suffer. For three days a number of friends
called to see me. I heard them in low accents speak of what I was, and
more than one touched me with his finger. The coffin was then procured,
and I was laid in it. I felt the coffin lifted and borne away. I heard and
felt it placed in the hearse; it halted, and the coffin was taken out. I
felt myself carried on the shoulders of men; I heard the cords of the
coffin moved. I felt it swing as dependent by them. It was lowered and
rested upon the bottom of the grave. Dreadful was the effort I then made
to exert the power of action, but my whole frame was immovable. The sound
of the rattling mould as it covered me, was far more tremendous than
thunder. This also ceased, and all was silent. This is death, thought I,
and soon the worms will be crawling about my flesh. In the contemplation
of this hideous thought, I heard a low sound in the earth over me, and I
fancied that the worms and reptiles were coming. The sound continued to
grow louder and nearer. Can it be possible, thought I, that my friends
suspect that they have buried me too soon? The hope was truly like
bursting through the gloom of death. The sound ceased. They dragged me out
of the coffin by the head, and carried me swiftly away. When borne to
some distance, I was thrown down like a clod, and by the interchange of
one or two brief sentences, I discovered that I was in the hands of two of
those robbers, who live by plundering the grave, and selling the bodies of
parents, and children, and friends. Being rudely stripped of my shroud, I
was placed naked on a table. In a short time I heard by the bustle in the
room that the doctors and students were assembling. When all was ready the
Demonstrator took his knife, and pierced my bosom. I felt a dreadful
crackling, as it were, throughout my whole frame; a convulsive shudder
instantly followed, and a shriek of horror rose from all present. The ice
of death was broken up; my trance was ended. The utmost exertions were
made to restore me, and in the course of an hour I was in full possession
of all my faculties.
"STEPHENSON, PRINTER, GATESHEAD."
* * * * *
It was quite necessary for the Committee on Anatomy to adopt some means to
protect the resurrection-men who gave evidence before it; this was done
by suppressing their names, and using letters of the alphabet to
distinguish the witnesses one from another. Popular feeling was so bitter
against these men that they were often severely handled by the mob.
Sometimes the mob made a mistake, and the innocent suffered for the
guilty. In 1823 a coach containing an empty coffin was being drawn along
the streets of Edinburgh; the people, suspecting that it was intended to
convey a body, taken from some churchyard, seized the coach; it was with
great difficulty that the police rescued the driver from the fury of the
mob. The coach they could not save; it was taken through the streets,
thrown over a mound, and smashed; the people then kindled a fire with the
fragments, and danced round it. It turned out that the coffin was intended
to convey to his house, in Edinburgh, the body of a physician who had died
in the country.
On another occasion two American gentlemen, who were looking at the Abbey
of Linlithgow after nightfall, were mistaken for resurrection-men, and
assaulted by the mob.
One of the witnesses, called "A. B.," but who was probably Ben Crouch
himself, stated that twenty-three in four nights was the greatest number
he had ever obtained. He added, "When I go to work, I like to get those of
poor people buried from the workhouses, because instead of working for one
subject, you may get three or four. I do not think, during the time I have
been in the habit of working for the schools, I got half a dozen of
wealthier people." Another witness, who is called "C. D.," but who was,
without doubt, the writer of the Diary, stated that, "according to my
book," in 1809 and 1810 the number of bodies disposed of in England was
305 adults and 44 small; but the same year 37 were sent to Edinburgh, and
the gang had 18 in hand, which were never used at all. In 1810-11, 312
adults were disposed of in the regular session, and 20 in the summer, in
addition to 47 smalls. In the Report of the Committee in 1828, it was
pointed out that, at that time, there were over 800 students attending the
Schools of Anatomy in London, but of these not more than 500 actually
worked at dissection. The number of subjects annually available for
instruction amounted to between 450 and 500, or rather less than one for
each student.
The average price of an adult body was stated to be L4 4s. 0d. It may be
here explained that a "small" was a body under three feet long; these were
sold at so much per inch and were generally classified as "large small,"
"small," and "foetus." The earnings of the resurrection-men may be
gathered from the above entry. To take the year 1810-11, the receipts for
bodies alone come to 1328 guineas; this is exclusive of "smalls," and
probably also of the teeth, in which these men did a large trade. Teeth,
in those days, were very valuable; the amounts received by some of the men
for teeth only will be dealt with in the chapter containing biographical
notices of some of the principal London resurrection-men. It may be here
mentioned that on one occasion Murphy obtained the entry to a vault
belonging to a meeting-house, on the pretence of selecting a burial-place
for his wife. Whilst in there he managed to slip back some bolts, so that
he could easily gain an entrance at another time; this he did at night,
and got possession of teeth by which he made L60.
From the statements of the teachers it is most likely that L4 4s. 0d. is
under the average price paid for bodies. It must be remembered, too, that
this amount does not include the retaining-fee paid at the beginning of
the session, nor the "finishing-money" which was demanded at its close.
The 1328 guineas spoken of above would be divided amongst six or seven
persons, and this, for men in their position, was a large income. The
biographical notes of the chief workers in this horrible trade will show
that some few of them did save money. Taking them, however, as a whole,
they were a dissolute and ruffianly gang; reference to the Diary proves
their drunken habits, and there is more than one entry to show that they
were often in pecuniary difficulties; so much so that on one occasion they
were obliged to have recourse to Mordecai, the Jew.
It was quite useless for those who had just buried a relative or friend to
depend either upon the custodian of the burial-ground, or upon the watch,
to see that the newly-made grave was not violated. The resurrection-men
often met with a guard, instituted by the friends of the deceased, who
would take it in turns to watch by the grave-side through the whole
night; these friends were frequently armed, and were not afraid to use
their arms if the resurrection-men gave them an opportunity. As a rule the
body-snatchers made off when they found a guard in the cemetery; it was to
their interest not to create a riot, and if they were strong enough to
drive off the watchers, the latter could soon raise a tumult, whereby the
bodily safety of the thieves would be endangered.
Matters did not always pass off so peaceably, particularly in Ireland, as
the following extract from an Irish newspaper for 1830 shows:
"DESPERATE ENGAGEMENT WITH BODY-SNATCHERS.--The remains of the late Edward
Barrett, Esq., having been interred in Glasnevin churchyard on the 27th of
last month (January), persons were appointed to remain in the churchyard
all night, to protect the corpse from 'the sack 'em-up gentlemen,' and it
seems the precaution was not unnecessary, for, on Saturday night last,
some of the gentry made their appearance, but soon decamped on finding
they were likely to be opposed. Nothing daunted, however, they returned on
Tuesday morning with augmented force, and well armed. About ten minutes
after two o'clock three or four of them were observed standing on the wall
of the churchyard, while several others were endeavouring to get on it
also. The party in the churchyard warned them off, and were replied to by
a discharge from fire-arms. This brought on a general engagement; the sack
'em-up gentlemen fired from behind the churchyard wall, by which they were
defended, while their opponents on the watch fired from behind the
tomb-stones. Upwards of 58 to 60 shots were fired. One of the assailants
was shot--he was seen to fall; his body was carried off by his companions.
Some of them are supposed to have been severely wounded, as a great
quantity of blood was observed outside the churchyard wall,
notwithstanding the ground was covered with snow. During the firing, which
continued for upwards of a quarter of an hour, the church bell was rung by
one of the watchmen, which, with the discharge from the fire-arms,
collected several of the townspeople and the police to the spot--several
of the former, notwithstanding the severity of the weather, in nearly a
state of nakedness; but the assailants were by this time defeated, and
effected their retreat. Several of the head-stones bear evident marks of
the conflict, being struck with the balls, &c."
[Illustration: MORTSAFE IN GREYFRIARS CHURCHYARD, EDINBURGH.]
Most of the disgraceful riots which took place in the burial-grounds, were
not between resurrection-men and friends guarding a grave, but between two
gangs of body-snatchers. In cases of this kind one gang would do all in
its power to bring its rival into disrepute; the stronger party, after
driving the weaker one away, would put the burial-ground into a most
disgraceful state, and then give information against their opponents.
Besides watching, many other devices were tried to prevent the
depredations of the resurrection-men; spring guns were set in many of the
cemeteries, but these were often rendered harmless. If the men intended
going to a certain grave at night, late in the afternoon a woman, in deep
mourning, would walk round the part of the cemetery in which the grave was
situated, and contrive to detach the wires from the guns. Loose stones
were placed on the walls of the grave-yard, so as to make scaling the
walls almost an impossibility; this was useless when the custodian had a
house with a window looking into the burial-place. If entrance could not
be obtained in this way, there was generally some other house through
which the men could gain admission to the grave-yard. Mort-safes, or
strong iron guards, were placed over newly-made graves for protection;
some of these can be seen at the present day in the Greyfriars Churchyard,
Edinburgh (see illustrations).
[Illustration: MORTSAFE IN GREYFRIARS CHURCHYARD, EDINBURGH.]
Iron coffins were also used by some persons to protect their friends from
the Resurrectionist. The following interesting advertisement appeared in
_Wooler's British Gazette_ for October 13th, 1822:
"Many hundred dead bodies will be dragged from their wooden coffins this
winter, for the anatomical lectures (which have just commenced), the
articulators, and for those who deal in the dead for the supply of the
country practitioner and the Scotch schools. The question of the right to
inter in iron is now decided. Lord Chief Justice Abbott declared he wished
they might be generally used; Justice Bailey declared that if the
Ecclesiastical Court was to grant a suit for a fee, they, the Court of
King's Bench, would grant a prohibition, knowing it had no such right. Sir
William Scott, now Lord Stowell, decided and directed the interment
without any extra fee, as this question was raised by an undertaker; those
undertakers who have IRON COFFINS must divide the profits of the funeral
with EDWARD LILLIE BRIDGMAN. TEN GUINEAS reward will be paid on the
conviction of any Parish Officer demanding an extra fee, whereby I shall
lose the sale of a coffin. The violation of the sanctity of the grave is
said to be needful, for the instruction of the medical pupil, but let each
one about to inter a mother, husband, child, or friend, say shall I devote
this object of my affection to such a purpose; if not, the only safe
coffin is Bridgman's PATENT WROUGHT-IRON ONE, charged the same price as a
wooden one, and is a superior substitute for lead. Edward Lillie Bridgman,
34, Fish Street Hill, and Goswell Street Road, performs funerals in any
part of the kingdom, and by attention to moderate charges insures the
recommendation of those who employ him. Twenty-five private grounds within
the Bills of Mortality receive them; dues from seven shillings to one
guinea. Patent cast-iron tombs and tablets, superior to stone."
The advertisement is headed by a rough cut, showing the coffin[16] and the
iron clamps by which it was fastened. There was another maker of patent
coffins, who is mentioned by Southey in his ballad called _The Surgeon's
Warning_. The ballad represents the fear of a dying surgeon, lest his
apprentices should serve him after death as he, during his life, has
served many other persons:
"And my 'prentices will surely come
And carve me bone from bone,
And I, who have rifled the dead man's grave,
Shall never rest in my own.
"Bury me in lead when I am dead,
My brethren, I entreat,
And see the coffin weigh'd I beg,
Lest the plumber should be a cheat.
"And let it be solder'd closely down
Strong as strong can be, I implore,
And put it in a patent coffin
That I may rise no more.
"If they carry me off in the patent coffin
Their labour will be in vain,
Let the undertaker see it bought of the maker,
Who lives in St. Martin's Lane."
[Illustration]
All the surgeon's wishes were duly carried out as regards his coffin;
money was also given to watchers to keep guard every night over the grave.
The "'prentices," however, were able easily to buy the watchers, and so
"They burst the patent coffin first,
And then cut through the lead,
And they laugh'd aloud when they saw the shroud,
Because they had got at the dead.
"And they allow'd the sexton the shroud
And they put the coffin back,
And nose and knees they then did squeeze,
The surgeon in a sack.
* * * *
"So they carried the sack pick-a-back,
And they carved him bone from bone,
But what became of the surgeon's soul,
Was never to mortal known."
The following extract from a Scotch paper shows the alarm felt for the
safety of the newly-buried:
"RESURRECTION-MEN.--Curiosity drew together a crowd of people on Monday,
at Dundee, to witness the funeral of a child, which was consigned to the
grave in a novel manner. The father, in terror of the resurrection-men,
had caused a small box, inclosing some deathful apparatus, communicating
by means of wires, with the four corners, to be fastened on the top of
the coffin. Immediately before it was lowered into the earth, a large
quantity of gunpowder was poured into the box, and the hidden machinery
put into a state of readiness for execution. The common opinion was, that
if any one attempted to raise the body he would be blown up. The sexton
seemed to dread an immediate explosion, for he started back in alarm after
throwing in the first shovelful of earth."
Friends and relatives often placed objects on the newly-made grave, such
as a flower or an oyster-shell, so that they might be able to tell if the
earth had been disturbed. These objects were generally carefully noted by
the resurrection-men, and were put back in their exact places after the
body had been removed and the grave re-filled.
In some burial-grounds, houses were built in which the bodies could be
kept until they were putrid, and therefore useless to the
resurrection-men. Such a house is still standing in the burial-ground at
Crail.[17]
[Illustration: HOUSE AT CRAIL (Described on page 80). Over the door is
the following inscription: "Erected for securing the Dead. Ann. Dom.
MDCCCXXVI."]
[Illustration: HOUSE AT CRAIL (Described on page 80). Over the door is
the following inscription: "Erected for securing the Dead. Ann. Dom.
MDCCCXXVI."]
As a rule, the resurrection-men were able not only to supply the
London schools from the grave-yards in and around the Metropolis, but also
to send bodies to some of the provincial schools; the Diary shows that
even Edinburgh received some of the proceeds of the work of this London
gang. If, however, from increased vigilance or other causes, the supply of
bodies ran short in London, recourse was had to the provinces. A case
occurred some seventy years ago at Yarmouth. A man died, and was buried in
St. Nicholas Churchyard. Not long after, his wife died also. On the
husband's grave being opened, it was discovered that the man's body had
been removed; this led to a panic amongst people in Yarmouth who had
recently buried friends in that churchyard. Many graves were opened, and,
in a large number of instances, were found to have been violated. This led
to a regular watch being established over newly-made graves in the
churchyard. It was the custom of the resurrection-men, when they had
bodies to send from the country to London, to forward them so that they
should, in outward appearance, correspond with the class of goods exported
from the place where the bodies had been obtained. If the goods usually
came to London in crates, crates were used by the body-snatchers; if
ordinary packing-cases, then the bodies were enclosed in like receptacles.
The proceeds of the exhumations at Yarmouth were probably packed in
barrels, and came through Billingsgate.
In 1826 three casks, labelled "Bitter Salts," were taken down to George's
Dock at Liverpool, to be shipped on board the _Latona_, bound for Leith; a
full description of this transaction was printed as a broadside, of which
the following is a copy:
"RESURRECTIONISTS AT LIVERPOOL.
"Discovery of 33 Human Bodies, in Casks, about to be shipped from
Liverpool for Edinburgh, on Monday last, October 9, 1826.
"Yesterday afternoon, a carter took down one of our quays three casks, to
be shipped on board the Carron Company's vessel, the _Latona_, addressed
to 'Mr. G. Ironson, Edinburgh.' The casks remained on the quay all night,
and this morning, previous to their being put on board, a horrible stench
was experienced by the mate of the _Latona_ and other persons, whose duty
it was to ship them. This caused some suspicion that their contents did
not agree with their superscription, which was 'Bitter Salts,' and which
the shipping note described they contained. The mate communicated his
suspicions to the agent of the Carron Company, and that gentleman very
promptly communicated the circumstances to the police. Socket, a
constable, was sent to the Quay, and he caused the casks to be opened,
when Eleven Dead Bodies were found therein, salted and pickled. The casks
were detained, and George Leech, the cart-man, readily went with the
officer to the cellar whence he carted them, which was situated under the
school of Dr. McGowan, at the back of his house in Hope Street; the cellar
was padlocked, but, by the aid of a crow-bar, Boughey, a police officer,
succeeded in forcing an entrance, and, on searching therein, he found 4
casks, all containing human bodies, salted as the others were, and three
sacks, each containing a dead body. He also found a syringe, of that
description used for injecting hot wax into the veins and arteries of the
dead bodies used for anatomization; he also found a variety of
smock-frocks, jackets, and trowsers, which, no doubt, were generally used
by the Resurrectionists to disguise themselves. In this cellar were found
twenty-two dead bodies, pickled and fresh, and in the casks on the quay,
eleven, making in the whole thirty-three. The carter described the persons
who employed him as of very respectable appearance, but he did not know
the names of any of them.
"Information of the above circumstances was speedily communicated to his
Worship, the Mayor, who sent for Dr. McGowan. This gentleman is a reverend
divine, and teacher of languages; he attended the Mayor immediately, and,
in answer to the questions put to him, we understand he said, that he let
his cellar in January last to a person named Henderson, who, he
understood, carried on the oil trade, and that he knew nothing about any
dead bodies being there. George Leech deposed that he plies for hire as a
carter (the cart belongs to his brother); yesterday afternoon, between
three and four o'clock, a tall, stout man asked him the charge of carting
three casks from Hope Street to George's Dock passage; he replied, 2s.
They then went to Hope Street, where the witness found two other men
getting the first cask out of a cellar under Dr. McGowan's schoolroom, and
witness assisted to get two other casks out of the cellar; the three were
then put into his cart, and the men who employed him gave him a shipping
note, describing the casks as containing 'Bitter Salts,' and told him to
be careful in laying them down upon the quay, and that they were to be
forwarded to Edinburgh by the _Latona_.
"Mr. Thomas Wm. Dawes, surgeon, of St. Paul's Square, deposed that he had
examined the bodies, by the direction of the Coroner. In one cask he had
found the bodies of two women and one man; in another, two women and two
men; in the third, three men and one woman, and in the other casks and
sacks he found 22 (_sic_) bodies, viz., nine men, five boys, and three
girls; the bodies were all in a perfect state; those in the casks appeared
to have been dead six or seven days, and three men found in the sacks
appeared to have been dead only three or four days. In each of the casks
was a large quantity of salt. There were no external marks of violence,
but there was a thread tied round the toes of one of the women, which is
usual for some families to do immediately after death. Witness had no
reason but to believe that they had died in a natural way, and he had no
doubt the bodies had all been disinterred. The Season for Lectures on
Anatomy is about to commence in the capital of Scotland.
"The police were ordered to be upon the alert to discover the persons who
had been engaged in this transaction, but as yet nothing further has been
ascertained. The bodies, by the direction of the Coroner, were buried this
morning in the parish cemetery, in casks, as they were found.
"It is not yet ascertained whence these bodies have been brought, but it
is supposed that the Liverpool Workhouse Cemetery has been the principal
sufferer. Some of them are so putrid, that it is extremely dangerous to
handle them.
BOAG, PRINTER."
* * * * *
The statements in this broadside are quite true, and agree with the
account which is to be found in the _Liverpool Mercury_ for October 13th,
1826. Henderson, who was a Greenock man, and the principal in this
business, escaped, and could not be brought to justice; but a man named
James Donaldson, who was a party to the transaction, was made to pay a
fine of L50, and was sent to Kirkdale Gaol for twelve months.
From Ireland very many bodies were exported, chiefly to Edinburgh; a
better price could be obtained there than in Dublin, and the consequence
was that the Irish schools were often very badly supplied with subjects.
In Dublin there were several ancient burial-grounds, all badly protected;
the poor were all buried in one part, and, as their friends were generally
unable to afford watchers, their bodies fell an easy prey to the
resurrection-men. In January, 1828, the detection of a body about to be
exported caused a tumult in the streets of Dublin, and led to the murder
of a man named Luke Redmond, a porter at the College of Surgeons.[18] The
body-snatchers in Dublin seem to have done more damage than the men
engaged in a like occupation in London; they were not content with taking
the bodies, but, in addition, they broke the tomb-stones, and played
general havoc in the grave-yards.
According to the following cutting from the _Universal Spectator and
Weekly Journal_, May 20th, 1732 (printed in _Notes and Queries_, 5th ser.
i. 65), bodies were sometimes taken for other than dissection purposes.
"John Loftas, the Grave Digger, committed to prison for robbing of dead
corpse, has confess'd to the plunder of above fifty, not only of their
coffins and burial cloaths, but of their fat, where bodies afforded any,
which he retail'd at a high price to certain people, who, it is believed,
will be call'd upon on account thereof. Since this discovery several
persons have had their friends dug up, who were found quite naked, and
some mangled in so horrible a manner as could scarcely be suppos'd to be
done by a human creature."
Southey also refers to this in the poem before quoted, where he makes the
surgeon say in his lamentation,
"I have made candles of infants' fat."