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To the memory of Thomas Salt Esq, surgeon and apothecary, late of this parish who died January 17th 1852 age 45. This monument is erected by his patients of the labouring class assisted by their friends as a tribute of gratitude for sympathy and aid in the hour of sickness. |
This memorial caught my eye firstly because its lettering was rough & ready and, secondly, because it is very unusual to find a church memorial put up by (or for) someone of the labouring class. I sensed that Thomas Salts story might be special and decided to investigate it.
Great Dunmow is large enough to have a local history society/experts who might well have already researched Dr Salts life and works.
1. I started by checking books on Dunmow history in the Local Studies library in Colchester. I found the following -
2. I checked Salt in the Victoria County History bibliography. This gave
a reference to Hastings Worrin, Dunmow and its Doctors Essex
Review xx 144.
This paper begins by saying the doctors in this small Essex town
seem to have been rather interesting people and goes on to feature
William Swallow, Dr Reyner and Dr Sims, the latter a Quaker surgeon apothecary
practicing in Dunmow from 1722-1812. There is no mention of Thomas Salt.
I also checked the Essex Review index which threw no light on Thomas Salt but did produce a 1939 paper entitled Poor Relief in Great Dunmow during the Napoleonic wars which I photocopied. This mentioned a riot that took place in Dunmow in 1812 over the re-positioning of a water pump, suggesting that the labouring classes might not be calmly accepting their poverty in early 19th century Dunmow.
So far, no-one seems to have picked up on Thomas Salt. My preliminary search has suggested that Dunmow has extensive sources on the poor of the period and that its doctors had a certain reputation.
3. I asked for the 1851 census for Great Dunmow at the Local Studies Library, not having been able to find it in the drawer and was told that it was lost in the PRO.
4. I checked the Wills index in the Colchester ERO but Thomas Salt was not listed. This probably means he had not written a will (he died aged 45). He might have owned property outside Essex so it would be worth checking the PRO Canterbury wills index. If he died without leaving a will, the intestacy records should be checked.
5. I checked the Great Dunmow burial records (ERO D/P 11/1/10) on a dreadful microfiche in Colchester branch of the ERO but could not find Thomas Salts burial listed. In view of 6 below I must check again! (See 14 below)
6. I checked the Chelmsford Chronicle (23rd January 1852) in Chelmsford ERO and found the following under the Died column -
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17th inst age 43 Thomas Salt Esq, surgeon of Great Dunmow. The
deceased who after an illness of a few weeks only was thus cut off
in the prime of manhood, had been a medical practitioner at Dunmow
for twenty years and his loss is deeply regretted by a large circle
of patients by whom he was esteemed as an untiring and skilled adviser,
a courteous neighbour, a kind and intelligent friend and a benevolent
attender to the poor. The funeral of the late Mr Salt, whose much lamented death was recorded last week, and occasioned universal regret, casting a gloom over the whole town and neighbourhood, took place at the parish church on Saturday. The relatives and friends who occupied the mourning coaches were C.C. Lewis Esq and son, -- Brown Esq, C.L. Foakes Esq, the Rev H.L. Majendie, Mr Clapham, Mr Wake, Dr Miller, Dr Baker, --May Esq (Maldon), --Cribb Esq (Stortford), S. Wood Esq and William Johnson Esq, the last six gentlemen bearing the pall at the church and to the grave. To prove the estimation in which the deceased was held, it need only be said that a spontaneous respect was manifested by all the shops in the town being closed during the time of the mournful ceremony, while on the line of the procession, private houses also showed every outward respect. Although the weather was very unfavourable, there was a numerous attendance at the church and especially of the poorer classes. |
These newspaper accounts help to explain the origin of the monument in the church; so much regret and respect for untiring skill and kindness needs a public statement.
7. Salts name was not included in Venn or Foster, so he was not an alumnus of Oxford or Cambridge universities. The Wellcome Institute library might have helpful suggestions about medical qualifications c 1820.
8. I entered Thomas Salt in the Essex Record Office on line catalogue SEAX, firstly under the personal names choice which would not proceed, then under the general search. 11 pages came up, most of the wrong dates or for salt as in salt marsh and Thomas other surname. However, there were 5 items listed which seemed to relate to Dunmows Thomas Salt.
a) (ERO D/F 35/3/34) an auctioneers notebook (Franklin & Son) dated 1851 listing Cows belonging to the late Thomas Salt, Great Dunmow
b) (ERO D/F 35/2/199) valuers notebook dated 1851-52 property of late Thomas Salt, Gt Dunmow
c) (ERO D/F 35/3/135) auctioneers notebook dated 1852 property belonging to the late Thomas Salt, Gt Dunmow including c1000 books (titles given listed under headings miscellaneous, theological, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, medical etc)
d) (ERO D/DU 454/3/40) a mortgage deed dated 21st April 1830. This was
for a freehold messuage and farm of 47 acres in Barling and Gt Wakering
and land called Ruddocks (16a) copyhold of the manor of L Wakering in
the occupation of John Lambert. The mortgage was between George May of
Maldon, surgeon and Thomas Salt lately residing at Maldon but now of Guys
Hospital, Southwark, surgeon, son of William Salt deceased and nephew/beneficiary
of John Neve Salt of Teignmouth, deceased.
This does not necessarily refer to our Thomas Salt, but, since Dowsett
(see note 1 above) says he was appointed parish surgeon in 1832, he could
have been in Maldon/Southwark c 1830 and still achieve the twenty
years surgeon in Dunmow claimed in the newspaper report. It would
be worth checking Maldon, Teignmouth and Guys hospital sources.
e) (ERO D/DU 454/3/41) a mortgage deed dated 3 October 183(sic) re Thomas Salt of Great Dunmow.
Thus SEAX index suggests several ideas -
Next visit to SEAX I tried an Advanced search, putting in Thomas Salt with the dates 1807-1860. 2 pages appeared with several items that had not been on the first search -
f) D/DU 454/3/35 admission of John Neve Salt to 15 acres of copyhold land of the manor of Little Wakering, 16th June 1824.
g) D/DU 454/3/38 admission of Margaret Mary Maria Salt of Teignmouth, widow, to 16acres in Little Wakering to fulfil the terms of her deceased husbands will dated 9th November 1825.
h) D/DU 454/3/33 a bond concerning JNS
i) D/P 233/1/2 Loughton parish register 1732-1812 including notes concerning Rev John Salts family and his burial, 1805.
Time to look at some of these documents, identified on the SEAX catalogue.
9. D/F 35/3/135
This was an auctioneers notebook containing details of the sale
of Thomas Salts property in four days March 8th, 16th &
April 5th & 6th 1852. The sales were held at Park Farm, Dunmow, which
TS was late of.
The right hand pages had cut out pieces from the printed sale catalogue
pasted in and the left hand pages, in handwriting, recorded who bought
which item and the sum bid.
The first day sold live and dead stock, 4 stacks of excellent meadow
hay, a heap of good manure, 40 tons of mangold, 300 bushels of parsnips
and carrots and other effects. The sale made £545.4s.10d less
auctioneer expenses of £35. One of the items sold was a very
neat and well made double bodied 4 wheel phaeton, complete for one or
two horses, which sold for £34.
The second day sold implements and 6 more horses (10 had gone in the first
sale), making £91 less £7.3s.6d in expenses.
The third and fourth days addressed part of the neat household furniture,
electrifying machine, 100 dozen of very choice old wine, 1000 volumes
of books.
The sale proceeds through the house, room by room, from the brew house
to the yard via the breakfast room (where some medical works, handsomely
bound in calf, were sold), to the nursery, assistants room, boys
room and servants room upstairs. These two days raised £963.
17s 4d less expenses of £27. 18s.
I noticed that Foakes and Cribb, both names mentioned in the funeral report,
were buyers of books.
10. D/F 35/3/34
Another auctioneers notebook, this time auctioning TSs cows
10 cows (all named) and a 2½ year old bull. 2 cows were
in milk having calved in December, 3 were down calving,
2 were in calf, 2 were empty and 1 was forward.
They sold for £83.15s less expenses of £13. 7s. 6d. The cheque
was sent to Mr C.L.Foakes re an acknowledgement dated 18th February 1852.
11. D/F 35/2/199
This was the valuers notebook the pre-catalogue calculations
dated 30th January 1852, just two weeks after TSs death. The farm
is scattered with heaps of manure and night soil, all of which is valued
along with the stock, tillage, hay etc to total £1384.12 which was
nearly £350 less than what was collected at the auctions. Mr Francis
Cates is referred to in the document. (He appears on the parish tithe
map as an occupier of land.)
These three notebooks add some valuable facts to Dr Salts story.
When he died, aged 43, he owned £1600 worth of property (perhaps
£160,000 in todays money) but (apparently) not the house he
lived in which had four rooms on two floors plus attics and several barns
and outhouses for farm produce, animals and equipment. He may also have
had savings which were not part of the auction. The contents of his house
were for comfortable living but, apart from an electrical machine, his
medical books and an assistants room there is no evidence that he
saw his patients in his own house.
12. D/CT 119
Now we know the name of the farm that Dr Salt occupied, we can check on
the Great Dunmow Tithe Map, dated 9th June 1840, to see how many acres
he held. At this date, 12 years before his death, when he was 31 years
old, he owned and occupied just over 3 acres, including a house and garden
on the eastern side of Park Corner.
Has Dr Salt, sometime during the last 12 years of his life, moved to Park
Farm, changing his life style significantly, or has he merely leased land
in Dunmow while remaining in the village street dwelling with two small
fields behind? The name Park Farm did not appear on the 1840 tithe map.
This will need to be investigated. I hope Dunmow has good manor court
records.
13. D/DU 454/3/38
This is a manor court copy of court roll recording the admission, on 13th
June 1827 of widow Margaret Mary Maria Salt of Teignmouth, via her attorney,
to 15acres 3 rood and 29 perch of land in Little Wakering to which her
husband, John Neve Salt, had been admitted on 16th June 1824. The latters
death had been reported to the court on 24th May and his will leaves his
Essex possessions to his widow, then to the use of my nephew TS
(son of my late brother William).
(See note 8d above).
14. I checked the burial records again and this time found:
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Thomas Salt, abode Dunmow, buried 24 January 1852 aged 43 by H.
L. Majendie. There was no evidence of epidemic in December or January
records. |
I then turned to the baptismal records 1839-50 and found:
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August 8th 1841 Matilda, daughter of Thomas & Matilda Salt,
surgeon |
So when Dr Salt died, he may have left a wife and 4 children under the age of 10.
On my next trip to the ERO I checked the following -
The Dunmow baptismal register from 1840-1853 & found no more Salt baptisms.
15. The burial register for the same dates (D/P 11/1/10) and found:
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Mary Salt, abode Dunmow, buried 12th July 1843 age 73 |
; perhaps Thomas sister or aunt (see 19 below, will of spinster
MS of Dunmow).
None of his children was in the register so presumably they were alive
when their father died.
16. I also checked the marriage register from 1832 (the date Thomas Salt began at Dunmow) and found nothing relevant. His wife Matilda was evidently not a Dunmow woman.
Next I looked at the originals of some of the primary sources listed under 8d-h above which were within one bundle of documents. These gave something of the history of the Salt familys involvement with Burtons Farm and Ruddocks. John Neve Salt (Thomas Salts uncle) bought the property from Robert Burton Hayward and his wife for £833 5s and was enrolled in Little Wakering manors records on 16th June 1824. Ten days later he signed a lease for 14 years allowing John Lambert to farm the property for £120 pa. According to the documents, the previous four tenants had been Ruth Smith, Robert Burton, Ann Burton and William Burton. John Salt enjoyed his property for less than two years. By his will, proved 16th February 1826, he left it to his wife and, after her death to his nephew Thomas Salt, son of his deceased brother William (of Maldon). Thomas Salt came into this inheritance in 1830 after he had moved from Maldon to Guys hospital, and promptly mortgaged it to Maldon surgeon George May. It appears from the document that Thomas was already £500 in debt to Dr May. Perhaps the mortgage allowed him to borrow more money, or perhaps it was security for the sum already borrowed. In any event the £500 is repaid with interest in 1832 (the year Thomas arrives in Dunmow) when Thomas received £646 14s from the estate of his aunt, John Neve Salts widow.
As I checked through the bundle of documents I discovered more Salt sources that had not been listed in my SEAX catalogue searches.
17. (ERO D/DU 454/3/45) This was the will of James Salt (extracted from the registry of the Prerogative court of Canterbury) dated 5th January 1824 and proved 26th January 1824. His bequests were as follows -
Executors were to be John N Salt of Teignmouth, sister Mary Salt &
Rev Vivian, warden of the minor canons of St Pauls, appointed on
account of the infirmities of the two former.
The will is signed James Salt, vicar of Barling, and witnessed by Thomas
Swaine MD, J Browne of Barling, gent & John Grabham of Rochford, surgeon.
This immediately calls into question my reading of D/DU 454/3/38 which suggested John Neve Salt had bought his Barling farm in 1824. His brothers will suggests otherwise. It also suggests an unmarried, comfortably situated, gentleman vicar (with two adult illegitimate children by different women), whose residence is not named. If he had been living in Barling vicarage and farming the glebe, this would explain why his house does not feature in the will. Alternatively, he may have leased an appropriate residence anywhere, installed a curate in Barling and lived like a gentleman. The fact that he had a (deceased) brother and a sister in Essex suggests the Salts may have been an Essex family and suggest 8i might be worth reading possibly Rev Salt of Loughton was this testators father? Alternatively, the Cambridge/Ely lands may have been inherited or brought into the Salt family as dowry.
18. (ERO D/DU 454/3/37) This is the will of John Neve Salt dated 9th November 1825 and proved 16th February 1826. His bequests were as follows:
Executors were his wife, WPR & JCT and the witnesses Charlotte Cartwright, John Martin Pitts & Sarah White.
This will suggests that brothers James and John Salt had each inherited land in Cambridge which they passed on to their unmarried sister Mary. The nieces mentioned in the will may be Thomas Salts sisters. The brother in law may be JNSs wifes brother. The Teignmouth estate may originally have been her dowry, explaining John Salts departure from Essex.
19. ERO D/454/3/46 This is a copy memorandum of Agreement
between JN Salt Esq of Teignmouth & Mr John Lambert of Barling, farmer,
dated 26th July 1824.
This is a fourteen year lease from 29th September next of Burtons Farm
in Barling 63 acres 1 rood 37 perches for £120 pa payable quarterly.
It contains a list of required farming practice dealing with timber, fallows,
use of barns, manure etc.
It is now possible to draw up Thomas Salts provisional family tree.
Rev John Salt
?- 1805
of Loughton
John Neve=Margaret William =?Mary RevJames Mary
of Teignmouth of Maldon 1770-1843 of Barling of Witham
?- 1826 ?-1824
Thomas = Matilda Audry Margaret Eliza Sarah Wright
of Dunmow James Brown
1809-1852
Matilda Henry Mary George
1841- 1842- 1844- 1845-
Neil Wiffen, one of the archivists at the ERO, had suggested I check the Public Record Office online service for the existence of Salt wills
I found the search our collections/documents on line/search the wills links and asked for Salt 1740-1850. 75 wills were listed for these criteria. Among these I found the following
Rev James Salt, rector Hildersham Cambs 23 June 1797 PROB 11/1293
Rev Thomas Salt 13 May 1806 11/1443
Susanna Salt spinster of Chesterton 17 July 1759 11/848
Rev James Salt clerk of 3 May 1758 11/838
Mary Salt widow of Witham 7 December 1811 11/1528
Mary Salt spinster of Great Dunmow 12 August 1843 11/1984
Margaret MMSalt widow of East Teignmouth 31March 1841 11/1943
I followed a link on the web site to the Wellcome Institute and emailed a query about how to access Thomas Salts Guys Hospital training.
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I am researching an Essex surgeon practising in Great Dunmow, Essex 1832-52. His name was Thomas Salt and he was at Guys hospital in 1830 when he was 21 years of age. I assume he was undergoing training. How can I find out about his years at Guys? |
I received the following reply.
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The Wellcome Library and The National Archives (formerly the Public
Record Office) jointly maintain a database of hospital records held
throughout the UK, which is searchable online at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/.
According to the database, the main body of records for Guy's Hospital
are held at the London Metropolitan Archives, including staff records
for 1739-1935. You can find the email and website addresses of all
the repositories which hold records for Guy's from ARCHON, an online
directory of repositories at http://www.archon.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archon/. |
In due course I received a reply from Douglas Knock, Assistant Librarian -
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Thank you for your enquiry concerning Thomas Salt which was forwarded
to the Reader Services Department by the Archives and Manuscripts
Department. I have checked within our printed sources with limited
success. Thomas Salt appears in the Medical Directory for 1847 (p243)
although the entry is very brief Bridget Howlett Senior Archivist Thank you for your enquiry. Thomas Salts name appears in the Index to Pupils of Guys (G/FP7/1). The index runs from 1823 to 1878 and includes a number and date for each subject taken as well as a cross reference to the folio numbers in the volumes recording the entry of physicians, surgeons pupils and dressers. Salt also appears in Guys Hospital General Entry of Pupils 1823-32, in an entry dated 23rd July 1829. I hope this information is useful to you. You should be able to
find out more by coming to consult the materials in person. If you
wish to do this, I suggest you take a look at the detailed catalogue
for Guys on our website, if you have not already done so.
We are open five days a week, from 9.30 to 5.30. Yours, Mark Smith |
Visit to Kings Archive 22 June 2006
G/FP7/1 Index to Pupils at Guys
Thomas Salt is listed as enrolled for these lectures
Medical Practice he was student no 14, entered 1829)
Surgical Practice 382 1829
Not entered for surgery
Anatomy 382 1829
Dissections 382 1829
Practice of medicine 553 1829
407 1830
Materia Medica 382 1829
Chemistry 382 1829
G/FP2/2 General Entry of Pupils 1823-1832
This lists pupil names, where educated (not always filled in) and fees
per course.
Most pupils give a school masters name and place (Dr Nunn, Colchester),
one or two came from uni (Cambridge, Pennsylvania) and a few from imfirmaries.
P123 TS enters July 23rd 1829, the 14th student that month. The numbers
553 & 382 are written after his name (see above). He pays£12.13s
to be a physician pupil. The pupil above him on the list was Edward Wallis
apprenticed at Manchester Hospital.
P138 TS enters 6th Feb 1830, student no 407 for 533; pays 2 guineas for
Medicine.
Also met John Ford at the archive who suggested I contact the Society
of Apothecaries and ask for the Exam book
College of Surgeons MRCS register & exam book.
(? RSP might be more applicable for TS?)
HC Cameron Mr Guys Hospital 1726-1948 (Longman, 1954)
P165 The Guys School under Mr Harrison 1825-1848
Since the passing of the Apothecaries Act in 1815 and the consequent
demand for medical as distinct from surgical teaching..
In 1825 the education of the student went little beyond attendance at
lectures in every school of medicine in the country medicine and
surgery were still taught almost entirely by lecture. Joseph Lister appointed
to Chair of Surgery in Glasgow in 1860 had no simultaneous hospital appointment;
his predecessor did not teach at the bedside; Edinburgh 1840, Syme brought
patients into the lecture theatre. Practical work was wholly confined
to the dissecting room and was not obligatory.
The London Surgeons had always kept apprentices & dressers were also
taught their duties by the surgeon. Astly Cooper did surgical rounds in
the wards for these trainees. Pupils paid extra for this and to witness
ops.
Physicians were slower re bedside teaching small numbers of pupils
even at Guys where the lectures on medicine and materia medica were
attended by every student.
1815 Apothecaries Act required all candidates for the LSA Diploma which
alone qualified for registration as a practitioner in physic to
produce certificates that they had attended the medical practice of an
approved hospital for a stated period; initially 6 months but after a
few years 2 years. This demand forced the physicians at Guys & elsewhere
to do teaching rounds in hospital.
In 1825 Guys split from St Thomas. It already had an operating theatre
& a lecture theatre built in 1770 & built its own med school in
1825 with a new Anatomy Dept & a museum for Astly Coopers collection.
Wakley (Lancet editor) attacked this move on grounds of nepotism (Coopers
relatives in post)
Xerox pp183-7 re Clinical.
John MT Ford, A Medical Student at St Thomas Hospital 1801-1802;
the Weekes Family Letters (Wellcome, 1987)
It probably cost £150-175 for a years residence & tuition
at St Thomas/Guys in 1801.
So Thomas, age 20, enters Guys medical school in July 1829 and stays for
about one year following lectures in medicine. He got his LSA in 1831.
Was this the date he left Guys? According to Dowsett, Salt appears in
o/s records on March 26th 1832 (wanting more money to be pauper doctor
with Dr Grice). Need to check Dunmow records to see if that really is
the first time his name appears there. He may have served an apprenticeship
with the Maldon surgeon George May prior to 1829. Might be worth checking
if GM had been trained at Guys. Interesting that Thomas goes for physician
route rather than surgery. Is he adding to his range or avoiding the disadvantages
of surgery?
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR THE UNFOLDING STORY! IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD INFORMATION
OR SUGGESTIONS PLEASE EMAIL drjanepearson@hotmail.com.
Better still, spend some time in the ERO having
fun with the records and recovering an Essex story.
Researched by Mrs Pat Lewis.
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