This week I shall say a prayer for the late Elizabeth Mitchell, and maybe go to mass for her. You will probably never have heard of her. I had not either, until last week.

Elizabeth died on 15^th August 1851 on the Magdalene Ward of the St Thomas Hospital, Southwark. She was a tiny thing, just four feet seven inches tall. You see, her growth had been stunted by rickets caused by lack of proper food. She almost certainly died alone, and hungry. She was also suffering from stage three/tertiary syphilis which had grossly disfigured her face with pustules, although she had received some therapy in the form of treatment with mercury. One of the side effects of that would have been her badly rotted teeth, and she would have lost her hair, probably. Upon her death she was given a cursory burial in a pauper’s grave at the nearby, notorious and grimly named called “Cross Bones” cemetery.

She was just 19 years of age.

Until very recently no one knew about Elizabeth.  I would not have known about her either but for a rather well made and interesting television programme called “History Cold Case.” I don’t watch much television, but last week, having finished my Zumba class and being much refreshed I settled down with a supper and a glass of port wine, whilst waiting for my girlfriend Sister Eva to come back from her regular Mixed Martial Arts class.

Anyway, when surfing the channels I came across the “Yesterday” Channel on my “free view” box. There was a documentary about a forensic investigation into the bones of a man who had been buried in Stirling Castle way, way back in medieval times. It was the programme called “History Cold Case” from the BBC. The premise of the show is very simple. There is a leading department of forensic science at the University in Dundee. The programme investigates historic cadavers and the mystery of their fate using its modern day skills; in short, forensic archaeology.

All television shows are played for dramatic tension but the team is a serious one, and self evidently of high expertise. On the forensic scientific/medical front it is headed up by the formidably robust and professional Professor Sue Black. There is a handy German scientist called Wolfram (“the grandfather of all stabilizer isotope analysts”) who can discover details of the person’s diet and location through their life. If you want carbon dating, he is your man. On the historical research front there is the rather super Dr Xanthe Mallet, a biological anthropologist and now a lecturer in the School of Behavioral Sciences at the University of New England. There is also forensic anthropologist Dr Caroline Wilkinson, who has the particular skill of reconstructing the faces of the long dead to create a real likeness; a skill used by police forces across the world.

Thus armed with a great deal modern technology and a great deal of nous, the team are presented with a historic “Cold Case”, and their aim is to establish the cause of death and as much of the context as possible.

Now, having caught the gist of the investigation into a burly medieval gentleman who was probably a knight, I was most intrigued, and as is the modern way of things toddled off to youtube, where I was able to find the rest of the episodes, and I was hooked.

Can I just say at once that although it is an entertaining programme, it does not disrespect the dead. All the professionals involved have the ferocious curiosity of inquiring minds but are acutely aware that they are, after all, dealing with real people, who lived, loved and sometimes died in the most unhappy and awful circumstances. They are professionals doing the same job they would do for the police in any investigation, but they treat their subjects with the utmost respect. There are not too many episodes for the obvious reason that there will not be many suitable cases.

I was fine with most of the episodes; I suppose a knight dying in a battle or people being killed in a civil war was the kind of trauma I could kind of cope with. But there were two or three cases which I found acutely sad, because something of the situation or plight of the deceased really upset me.

Such as the case of the Romano British or Celtic woman who died around 100 AD and was buried with her three babies. She had a big, strong, rather wise face. For reasons I will not reveal for those who may wish to watch the episode, it seems clear her husband loved her very much. Similarly there is the sinister case of a child whose body was used for medical display. That, too, was a little distressing.

And then there were the bones of a woman at Cross Bones cemetery…

Cross Bones in Southwark, South London, had been a medieval burial ground. It was a lawless place outside the rule of the City of London proper, and since those times it had been associated with “Single Women” (a euphemism for prostitutes). Southwark was a Mecca for prostitutes who were even licensed by the Bishop of Winchester, and received the famous nickname of “the Winchester Geese.”

By the late 18^th Century it had become a pauper’s burial ground where the underclass of London would be interred, but its reputation for association with prostitution remained. By the time it was shut down in 1853 more than 15,000 people were buried there. Many remain on what looks like a piece of scrappy waste ground now.

As I understand it between 1992 and 1998 there were works done to extend the Jubilee Line, and the Museum of London Archaeology was given permission to excavate and re-house the bodies in the way. Tests showed that the bodies buried there were largely the very young, or the very old. The dig in 1992 found 148 graves, a third of which were perinatal, between 22 weeks gestation and seven days of birth. Most of the adults were over 36 and they displayed signs of smallpox, tuberculosis, Paget’s disease, osteoarthritis and Vitamin D deficiency. The bodies had been buried in coffins, but they were cheap and flimsy. They had been piled close together and on top of each other, crammed in 8 or 10 deep. One coffin contained the bones of an unknown, unnamed and forgotten woman. Who was she? What was her story?

Enter the History Cold Case team, and their forensic skills. They were able to piece together the details of her pitiful life and death, and even put a name to the body with reasonable certainty, because the Victorians kept good records, even of the poor.

She had vanished from history in August 1851 when Mr. Day the Minister buried her in the cheapest of wooden boxes.  She had had a brief, unhappy life. She was probably a prostitute, but she would have had no other way of fending for herself in the ruthless Victorian world.

There was one particular detail of Elizabeth’s fate and face which upset me greatly. You see, Elizabeth was just 19 when she died, and had tertiary syphilis. That means she must have been infected a number of years before, perhaps 10. Which in turn would mean that she must have been infected as a child. I understand that it was believed in Victorian Times that sleeping with a virgin was a cure for syphilis.

She was not dealt a good hand in life. Indeed, she died before she could have a life.

I will leave the politics and social significance which might be read into the life and death of Elizabeth to those who may read this post.

One night a month, a group of volunteers gather at the site of Cross Bones Cemetery and hold a non denominational service to remember the Outcast Dead. I commend them. And it seems strange that more than 160 years since Elizabeth Mitchell was crudely laid to rest, a middle aged man can type words into a machine which she could never have imagined and express his grief at her passing and her suffering to the world. And with the strokes of a keyboard, potentially bring her plight to the attention of many people.

I have no idea really why her story upsets me so. I have no idea whether my prayer on her behalf will have the slightest resonance in whatever realm she inhabits now, if any. But I hope in some wider sense that it means that even if she died alone she will not be eternally forgotten, like some worthless piece of rag. And perhaps in the great scheme of things there is a sense that she did not die alone, after all.

A link to the programme can be found here:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hftGJbPXo2w

 Gildas the Monk    

Catherine M November 24, 2012 at 16:10

I too don’t watch much television, but also saw this episode-it was
fascinating, and very sad. I too have not forgotten this young woman, and the
miserable life she must have had. People [myself included] hark back to the
past as a ”gentler, more pleasant place” but of course, for many , especially
the poor, it was very tough indeed. Modern medicine has cured so many of the
old killers, like Siphylis and T.B [which killed my mother] except they are
now making a comeback.

Elena ‘andcart
November 24, 2012 at 16:55

TB killed my mother as well. And yes, it is making a comeback. Although I
don’t think it ever actually went away.

Elena ‘andcart
November 21, 2012 at 17:31

My maternal grandmother had bone malformation of her legs which I assumed
was rickets, although it’s hard to see why because she wasn’t poverty
stricken, so I have since wondered if it was lack of sunlight. Not something
that I or my children have ever suffered from because we spent a lot of time
out in the Sun. But there are now warnings afoot that children are spending
far too much time indoors for various reasons, and when outside are covered in
sun tan oil, and an increase in rickets symptoms are being seen. To this day I
still get my dose of Sun, when it is possible, of course.

I wonder if Elizabeth Mitchell was a forbearer of mine. Not that impossible
as so many Mitchells went to England from Ireland. If so, I am so sorry that
she had no one to care about her, although it is sad whoever she
was.
Eleanor Mitchell.

Cascadian November 21, 2012 at 23:33

Lack of sun, shows up as low levels of vitamin D, which I believe the
bone analysis showed (cannot be bothered to watch again-pretty
unimpressed)..

Allowed your children to play outside in the sun did you? Hope they
appreciated it, todays generation are far too fragile for exposure to
nature..

Elena
‘andcart November 22, 2012 at 14:45

I don’t think anyone ever got around to analysing my grandmother’s
bones, but who cared anyway? There was a War on. Some prat Doctor told her
to treat my migraine with Sal Volatile, but then they didn’t know about
allergic reactions to food in those days, and for many years after. I
could explain, but it would bore you all witless.
And yes, my children
spent a lot of time running wild, and rarely was I hot foot behind them,
except when I insisted that they return the Wild Life they so frequently
collected, to it’s natural habitat, which was at least a mile away.
Basically I got pissed off with half grown Frogs inhabiting my bathroom.
But everything has a right to live. So put them back you little
horrors.

Elizabeth Mitchell? She might be pleased to know that a lot of us
survived, albeit mostly in Australia and America. There are so very few
Mitchells left in Ireland or Scotland. But we are a tough old breed of
Celts, which is just about my only claim to fame.

Moor Larkin November 20, 2012 at 16:07

There’s a sort of tragic parallel of present-day suffering in silence here
to go with your ongoing Duncroft/Savile reportage.

I noticed that the officer in charge of Operation Yewtree is the same
officer who was leader of the “Metroplitan Police Child Abuse Investigation
Command”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/allinthemind_20040803.shtml

Then I noticed this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/08/07/fgm-met-police-jenny-jones-daughters-of-eve-met-police-child-abuse-investigation-command_n_1752634.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

And I wondered about the huge fuss made over things that may have happened
forty years ago, and the fact that: “British police are facing questions over
why there have been no convictions for female genital mutilation in the UK,
after it emerged senior officers have not discussed how to enforce the law and
protect children over the past year.”

The woman who tried for London mayor (green candidate) has at least tried
to raise the issue:
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/jj1.pdf

166 complaints since 2008 apparently. Not one single attempt at
prosecution.

GildasTheMonk
November 20, 2012 at 16:48

Very interesting….

I love the BBC
November 19, 2012 at 16:24

I saw the programme and was moved by it too. Now I am curious about the
Romano British episode, which I have somehow contrived to miss. Thanks for not
spilling the beans!

Derek November 19, 2012 at 13:31

One of thousands in just one burial site, and each with their own story. So
sad, but thank you for enlarging the viewfinder for this person. I know London
quite well having worked on the streets as messenger for more than two
decades, but am always amazed at what lay beneath the surface physically as
well as historically. If only the tourists knew.

cascadian November 19, 2012 at 01:13

One cannot help but be saddened by this unfortunate girl’s life, but was it
really untypical of many in that age in dockland London? I was surprised by
the intersections of data with a well-known documenter of working-class
neglect in that age-Charles Dickens. He too came from Portsea, lived in
Southwark, experienced childhood deprivation, and worked in a field not
unrelated to boot-making, though he probably preceded Elizabeth in Southwark
by twenty-odd years and escaped his circumstances by good fortune.

The television program is both interesting and informative, yet I came away
uneasy. All the modern heartstrings were pulled on flimsy evidence. From a
sampling of 148 graves, Elizabeth was chosen-why? did it fulfil a narrative?
Were any of the other skeletons examined to determine the prevalence of ill
health? Despite the revelation she contracted syphilis in her early life she
eventually died from pneumonia though it could easily have been malnutrition,
hypothermia (not likely in August), TB (hard to prove without lung tissue) or
a combination of general neglect. The presence of syphilis was presumed to
signify she was a child prostitute-could be, could just as easily have been a
early fling with a handsome soldier, who are we to judge? Life was short and
brutish, who says a well developed twelve year-old (and that point was flimsy
too) should not be having sex when her life expectancy might not extend beyond
forty? Unlike others I was not convinced by the facial reconstruction either,
while clever, I would expect after a lifetime of deprivation a more pinched
and discoloured face, in a word far more hideous. Once again, I came away with
a feeling I was being led by a sympathetic team to believe something that is
currently fashionable that facts of the time Elizabeth lived in would not
support-very much like the Jimmy Savile saga. That, or I could just be a
hopeless cynic.

Thank you Gildas for your excellent exposition, this is not criticism of
you merely a dissenting and possibly incorrect view.

GildasTheMonk
November 19, 2012 at 08:41

Possibilities. Cascadian. But I think the reconstruction is probably
quite close to the mark. Even though it is a TV show, I have the sense that
the people involved are professionals and at the top of their game; I think
they would try to get it as near the mark as possible. And thank you for
your kind response!

Jonathan Mason
November 19, 2012 at 13:57

The author Thomas Hardy is believed according to one theory, to have
transmitted syphilis to his wife who was insane for many years before her
death. Hardy is known to have frequented prostitutes in London and it seems
entirely likely to me that the character of Tess of the
D’Urbevilles–subtitled A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented may have been
partly inspired by the stories he will have heard from London prostitutes
who had started life as simple country maids and been seduced by scoundrels’
leading to pregnancy and having to leave their homes and move to the
anonymity of larger cities like Portsmouth or London after their situation
rendered them unmarriagable. (In Far From The Madding Crowd we also have the
dashing soldier-seducer who turns out to be a bad lot.)

http://anthology.aqa.org.uk/index.php?currmenu=hardy

Amfortas
November 19, 2012 at 14:11

I might just have done a bit of sword-play with Julie Christie m’self.
In a pleasant and gentlemanly manner of course.

Jonathan
Mason November 19, 2012 at 14:27

She was only a farmer’s daughter, but three men fought to plough her
furrow.

Mewsical November 19, 2012 at 00:16

Absolutely fascinating Gildas. I watched the entire show – I guessed that
Elizabeth Mitchell had ultimately died from pneumonia, poor girl. Unbelievable
the plague of syphilis that killed so many of all classes in the 1800s, let
alone treating it with mercury! Ugh. Thank heavens for the work of Alexander
Fleming, which changed everything.

I love Caroline Wilkinson’s cranial reconstructions – she’s a genius. Now,
I’m going to check out the others that are available on YouTube.

Frankie November 18, 2012 at 20:57

Another excellent post from Gildas. Thought provoking. My cousin and I were
recently in receipt of details of our grandfather’s family history, going back
and it appears there were some very odd goings on, which made me very grateful
that I am around today, instead of then…

Edna Fletcher
November 18, 2012 at 20:29

Your daughter, my daughter, somebody’s daughter, friend…….lest we forget
that people come from persons and places, whether dark or happy, they do not
come into the world alone, but why they die alone as this poor girl and many
even today is the shame of modern humanity? She needed prayers and ones that
were answered by someone in her young and short life. I am now an agnostic
bordering on atheist.

GildasTheMonk
November 18, 2012 at 19:05

Thanks all for some really sensitive and kind comments.

Bunny November 18, 2012 at 18:42

Thanks for the post a thought provoking post.

Demetrius November
18, 2012 at 15:59

Amongst the choices the most likely one seems to be the Elizabeth Mitchell
in Mint Street, Southwark in the 1851 Census. She is listed as a Shoe Binder
with another girl as a Stay Maker. They are the only two persons in that
household, both young females and this is not usual. Elizabeth is given as
born in Portsmouth, and in 1841 could well have been the one listed for
William and Mary Mitchell in Portsea Island at the time. He was a sawyer and
it looks to be one of the poorer streets. From the death listings she might
well have lost both parents quite young. Portsmouth in 1841 was not simply a
naval town, in Portsea Island there was a major Army garrison. There would
have been many sailors and soldiers around at the time. Now she is not
forgotten.

Anna
Raccoon November 18, 2012 at
16:33

The research that readers of this blog carry out is nothing short of
amazing at times – this is one of those times. Well done Demetrius!

GildasTheMonk
November 18, 2012 at 19:04

Blooming heck – and I thought I was thorough! Bravo!

Illiterate Prat
November 18, 2012 at 23:29

The Intellectual power of some people in this blog leaves me astonished.
And it is matched by humility both sides of my screen.

StormInATeacup
November 20, 2012 at 22:00

I’m a bit late to the party, but living in Portsmouth I’m now curious as
to which street – I’ve got a fair amount of local history books &
knowledge through my dad! I could even take a little trip to look at parish
records…

Robert Edwards
November 18, 2012 at 15:30

I also saw the programme and entirely concur with your conclusions, Gildas.
The salient conclusion at which I arrived was the essential decency of all
concerned.in this depressing (and revealing) exercise. It isn’t often that one
learns much from the telly, but this was an exceptionally well-made piece of
work in which the participants did not allow ‘distance’ to interfere with
their clear distress at the plight of this poor girl.

I also saw the one about the Knight – it was clear that the females rather
liked the look of him!

GildasTheMonk
November 18, 2012 at 19:04

Excellent observations!

Mudplugger November 18, 2012 at 15:10

In my neck of the woods is a former lunatic asylum, from Victorian times
until 20 years ago, with a graveyard containing more than 3000
largely-forgotten unfortunates – ‘unfortunate’ because they had the bad luck
to suffer their conditions (from serious mental health isues to mere
out-of-wedlock pregnancy) in those days rather than now.
Recently some
caring conservators have taken up the cause of this graveyard, ensuring that
the many victims laid there are finally gaining a level of recognition and
respect long after death which they had been denied in life.

Extrapolate the numbers from that one place, plus many of the type so
eloquently covered here by Gildas, and huge numbers of people, in a
comparatively wealthy nation even then, were clearly condemned to lives which
were nothing but nasty, brutish and short. We may have our moans and groans
about our own current lives’ imperfections but, on that scale, we really don’t
know we’re born.

Engineer November 18, 2012 at 14:55

A very sobering post, Gildas, and written with the genuine human feeling
one would expect of a man of God. It does put into perspective today’s debates
around poverty.

Some years ago, I worked for an Indian gentleman, brought up in Mysore. His
son gained a place on a course to study medicine, and my boss determined to
supply him with a skeleton (all medical students were expected to have one in
days gone by; a plastic model suffices these days). We asked him where he was
going to get a skeleton from. He told us that in Mysore, and many other large
Indian cities, it was customary for someone to make early morning rouds of the
slums and pick up the Untouchables who had passed away during the previous
night. Their corpses were treated in lime pits, and the cleaned skeletons
wired together and sold on market stalls for much the same purposes that the
medical students of old in this country had them. This, in India, was not seen
as at all out of course, neither did he seem at all bothered about buying
one.

Really made me think, I can tell you.

(We did point out to him that bringing a skeleton through Customs at
Manchester Airport might raise an eyebrow or two. The side we heard of his
subsequent phone call to Customs at Manchester to inform them that he would be
is one of my most prized memories. Needless to say, he ended up buying a
plastic model like everyone else.)

Woman on a
Raft November 18, 2012 at 13:37

Thank you for a thoughtful post.

I hate to mention this, but it is relevant since the belief that sex with a
virgin can cure illness occurs across societies. It is perhaps surprising that
this would be believed in England in the 1830s rather than dismissed as a
primitive belief from the colonies, but it is worth noting if the superstition
can be shown to be operating at that time. Otherwise I’m inclined to dismiss
it even then as just another cover-story for having sex with children.

Alas, the belief persists and is a factor in the spread of AIDS
(2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6076758.stm

Joe Public November 18, 2012 at 13:21

Thank you Gildas.

The sadness of a story, 30 minutes ago I would never have imagined reading,
illustrates the wonders of the Internet, and humble scribes such as
yourself.

Brian November 18,
2012 at 13:16

Gildas,
Another excellent, tender post. Syphillis can also be congenital. What a sad inheritance..

GildasTheMonk
November 18, 2012 at 19:02

They did the tests and this wasnt – thank you by the way!

Ed P November 18, 2012 at 13:14

If only other “cultures” had made such progress in the last 160 years. We
are rightly appalled at nine year old girls suffering sexual activity, whereas
millions still think it was OK for Ayesha.

GildasTheMonk
November 18, 2012 at 11:39

Thanks one and all

JuliaM November
18, 2012 at 11:36

Excellent post! And, although I mostly watch movies and new run US shows on
Sky, I do have a great weakness for the ‘Crime and Investigation’ and
‘History’ channels, alongside the NatGeo and Animal Planet offerings.

Who needs the BBC?

Illiterate Prat
November 18, 2012 at 10:13

Allow me to share this quiet grief for someone who, at the start, was
someone’s little girl.

Friend of Dog
November 18, 2012 at 09:57

Thank you for this thought provoking and sad little post. My prayers will
join with yours.