Mary Ann Wigginton has featured on our blog before, as a footnote to a story about suspected fraudulent voting in the 1831 election and relating to a fraud case involving her father James Lee. (See the post here for the full story)
But today we are going to pierce together the events of Mary Ann's sad death in 1865 as it's caused a minor sensation in the town. And it also tells us something about how ordinary people managed chronic sickness before the days of the National Health Service.
Mary Ann seems to have suffered ill health for several years, in particular in the two before her untimely death aged 52. She was still running her father's former shop in Dean Street, as she had done for more than 30 years. She lived on the premises, with her husband William, a bargeman and timber dealer. It was not possible for Mary Ann to take extended time away from her work. The couple had suffered financial ups and downs and presumably could not manage on Williams income alone. Mary Ann believed she was suffering from a liver complaint and had periodically sought treatment for it from one doctor or another. The doctors agreed with the idea of a diseased liver, which also explained her "dropsy" or swollen legs. Mary Ann did not however take regular medication for her trouble, despite the fact she was gradually becoming weaker and weaker. Perhaps she could not afford another regular expense or perhaps she was in denial about the fragility of her health.
The sad truth is, Mary Ann was described as virtually skeletal on her death. Her condition had deteriorated but for several months she did not see a doctor despite this.
Nor does it seem did she try to self medicate with any of the very many patent medicines available within Marlow chemists and booksellers (yes booksellers) at the time. Liver pills were very popular based on the number of them promoted within Marlow. Whether any of them could actually have helped Mary is hard to tell, as the unfortunate woman had other as yet unseen health problems.
One week in December 1865, Mary found her legs were swollen more than usual. She felt unwell and asked her husband to send for a doctor who had assisted her successfully before, Dr Oliver (he may be from either Henley or Marlow, reports differ. I will try and trace him in the future). Dr Oliver was due to attend another case so could not attend Mary until later in the morning. He seemed to have been most concerned with the fact she had been constipated for 3 days and prescribed medication for that as well as her liver. She was also told to eat some nourishing food. When Dr Oliver arrived, Mary Ann had been taking tea with her son, and Dr Oliver asked the son to leave so he could ask some more delicate questions about Mary's health. He does not seem to have actually examined her though. Victorian doctors were keen to behave in a proper manner to ladies even if this was not unfortunately conducive to helping them. But when Dr Oliver later did attempt some sort of exam on the seriously ill but still fully dressed Mary, her husband objected to his manner of putting his hands "down her bosom and pressing her" . William suspected him of drunkenness however at this point, so perhaps Dr Oliver did need to improve his bedside technique!
Oliver prescribed some medicine, which he would also supply and make up himself. A draught to be drunk and two pills. Mary Ann's daughter Emma Wigginton would collect this from him later. The doctor advised Mary to take the first dose promptly but this did not happen immediately. For Mary Ann went to work in the shop and was seen there by her husband on his return home. He then left again to keep an appointment. William's name was above the door, but the work was Mary's, as it had been when she managed the grocers shop for her father.
Mary took her first dose of medicine sometime later, and immediately felt worse. Within 15 minutes, she felt icy cold all over, sick to her stomach and her throat was burning. She was put to bed, and her sister Hannah Croxon came to attend her. Hannah believed on seeing poor Mary that the ill woman was dying. Dr Oliver was called back, but again there was some delay with him getting the message. It was not possible to quickly alert William to his wife's decline as he was out of town. When he returned, he found Dr Oliver present, and William was not at all happy with what he saw. He noticed that the doctor staggered as he crossed the room and had a strong smell of alcohol on his breath. He told the doctor he did not consider him in a fit state to care for his sick wife and insisted on calling another medical man, Marlow surgeon Mr George Robson. Surgeons were more expensive than doctors and were more often the first port of call if an accident occurred for example.
When Robson arrived at the door, it was opened by the anxious daughter Emma who said Dr Oliver was under the influence of alcohol. Robson said at the inquest that he thought this accusation to be absolutely true. Once he had arrived, William Wigginton ordered Oliver out of the house. But Robson asked him to wait a while as he was coming late to what looked a hopeless case. But William insisted Oliver leave as soon as he had debriefed Robson. William had found Mary Ann unconscious on his return from work and sadly she never regained consciousness. She passed away late that evening, aged 52.
William could not help but connect the sudden end in his eyes of his wife with the medicine she had taken. He believed that the doctor had hastened her end by prescribing it to her. This was clearly a serious charge. He wrote a note to the police at Marlow and also mentioned the drunkenness of Oliver. The police contacted the coroner who would host a coroner's inquest at the Greyhound Inn. He ordered a post mortem for Mary, and the bottle containing the medicine she drank was held as evidence. The post mortem was conducted by a doctor from Slough.
It was discovered that Mary had severe heart disease and old lesions on her lungs. The post mortem doctor said it was a miracle poor Mary had survived so long, and sudden death was not unexpected. The timing of the medicine dose was coincidence. He said the medicine given was appropriate for the condition she had presented with and analysis of the remains showed it to have been properly made up. So the doctor was exonerated for immediate blame for Mary's death by the coroner's jury. This comprised of 18 men - led by Henry Stallwood. Oliver denied drunkenness strongly but his reputation must have suffered from several witnesses evidence to the contrary. It seems it was concluded that by the time the tipsy Oliver had arrived, Mary was beyond help and that he had been sober at the crucial earlier visit when he had diagnosed her medical needs, albeit not fully.
OTHER INFO
In 1839 two men broke the window and forced entry through the shutters of Mary's shop. She heard a noise and cane downstairs and confronted the burglars. She said she recognised them as fellow Dean Street residents and warned then of that fact. They had already made a mess of the shop and taken some tobacco. They did leave the premises and thankfully without hurting Mary. One of the pair, Richard Clarke /Clerk was subsequently transported for this theft.
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© MarlowAncestors.
Written and researched by Kathryn Day.
Sources include:
South Bucks Free Press 22 & 23 December 1865, Reading Mercury 23 December 1865. Windsor and Eton Express 23 December 1865.
Census 1851,1861, Jane Pullinger from microfilm.
Harvey's Medical and Chemical Cyclopaedia ( F Harvey, c1860)
Croxon family research by Kathryn.
© MarlowAncestors.
