Category Archives: Children

1854: Jim Saville dodges child sex charge

In the summer of 1854, Jim Saville appeared in an Essex court charged with sexual offences against a 13-year-old girl. The case against Saville collapsed after the victim was cross-examined by the grand jury and gave evidence that conflicted with her testimony at an earlier hearing. The jury was discharged and charges against Saville were dropped.

saville

Source: The Essex Standard and General Advertiser for the Eastern Counties, Colchester, July 21st 1854. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1831: Strengthen Junior’s teeth with fresh rabbit brains

In 1831, Prudence Smith authored a household guide titled Modern American Cookery, with a List of Family Medical Receipts and a Valuable Miscellany. As the title suggests it was primarily a book of recipes, followed by a short chapter containing homespun medical treatments and preventatives.

Many of these were herbal treatments and concoctions typical for their time. Some were more unusual and drew on frontier remedies. For example, for a bed-wetting child, Miss Smith recommends:

“..regular serves [of] rat legs, fried until crisp, served hot or cold.”

And to strength the teeth and gums of a baby or infant, rub them with:

“..the rattle taken whole from a rattlesnake [or] the fresh brains of a rabbit.”

Source: Miss Prudence Smith, Modern American Cookery &c., 1831. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1683: Dutch wife delivers black children, thanks to statue

Stephanus Blankaart (1650-1704) was a Dutch physician, medical researcher and author. One of his interests was unusual physical deformities, particularly those found in newborn children. Blankaart’s research in this field caught the attention of Russian emperor Peter the Great, who later assembled his own collection of deformed foetuses and body parts.

In a 1683 text, Blankaart recorded several cases of physical deformity he had encountered, including a ten-year-old boy covered in fish scales and another child with an ear growing in the middle of the forehead.

He also recalled that a married woman in Amsterdam had given birth to two children who were:

“..otherwise healthy, but with the colours and features of a Moor [North African].”

According to Blankaart the woman was treated by Nicolaas Tulp, another well known physician. After some investigation Tulp offered an explanation for the woman’s coloured children: she kept a large statue of a naked Moor in her house and had often “gazed upon it”.

Source: Stephanus Blankaart, Collectanea Medico-Physica, 1683. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1612: Umbilical cord length determines other appendages

Jacques Guillemeau was a French surgeon who specialised in obstetrics, a prolific writer and a physician to the Bourbon monarchy. Writing in 1612 Guillemeau says the amount of umbilical cord left untrimmed after birth will determine the size of a man’s tongue and penis:

“…the navel must be tied longer or shorter, according to the difference of the sex, allowing more measure to the males… because this length doth make their tongue and privy members the longer, whereby they may both speak the plainer and be more serviceable to ladies… the gossips commonly say merrily to the midwife; if it be a boy, make him good measure… but if it be a wench, tie it short.”

Source: Jacques Guillemeau, Child-Birth or the Happy Delivery of Women, trans. 1612. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1478: Waiting crowd shown the newborn prince and his testicles

Philip, the future king of Castile, was born on June 22nd 1478. The following day Margaret of York, the child’s godmother, carried baby Philip into the market square in Bruges, where a large crowd had gathered. According to a Flemish chronicler Margaret proudly stripped the baby and showed him to the crowd:

“…She took his testicles in her hands and spoke: ‘Children, see here your newborn lord Philip, from the emperor’s side’. The crowd, seeing that it was a son, was overwhelmingly happy, thanking and praising our beloved God that he had granted them a young prince.”

Margaret’s display was a response to rumours, circulated by agents of French king Louis XI, that baby Philip was actually a girl. Philip became King of Castile shortly before his 28th birthday but died suddenly just three months later. His obsessive and unstable wife Joanna, who at the time of Philip’s death was pregnant with their sixth child, became even more erratic. She refused to surrender Philip’s body for burial, keeping it in her apartments for several months. According to some chroniclers, she sometimes opened Philip’s casket to kiss and stroke his corpse.

Source: Cited in W. Appe Alberts, Dit sijn die wonderlijke oorloghen van den doorluchtigen hoochgheboren prince, &tc., 1978. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1802: Southern gent, 97, marries “amiable” 14-year-old

In March 1802, a Virginian newspaper reported on a marriage in the county of New Kent, just east of Richmond. The details of this union speak for themselves. The capitalisation is the newspaper’s own:

“Lately married in New Kent, county, Michael Sherman, aged NINETY-SEVEN YEARS and FOUR DAYS, to the amiable and accomplished Miss Eliza Poindexter, aged FOURTEEN.”

In other reports, the bride was described as “the amiable and accomplished Miss Eliza Poindexter”. Nothing is recorded of either the length or success of their marriage.

Source: The Richmond Recorder, March 27th 1802. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.