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68 Long Acre, Nechells Ann Pinson, midwife

Nicholas

master brummie
I was just doing a little reading and discovered a somewhat vague reference to some old, now demolished, properties that lay at a point along the above mentioned thoroughfare. It was stated that, in July 1878, the skeletons of some 11 children were unearthed in the rear garden of one of the houses concerned..... On being questioned about the matter, the owner of the property is said to have suggested that they might have been the remains of still born babies.....???

Sadly, this is all that was said on the bizarre-sounding matter - so I was hoping a forum user might be able to shed some light on the subject, perhaps???

All the best,

Nick
 
hi nicholas how very interesting...my sister lives at longacre..i wonder if we can find out anymore info on this story....

lyn
 
Hi Nicholas, not sure if you will have already looked at Showells dictionary of Birmingham but there may be something in there - it's a mine of interesting info and free to access.
Good luck
Sue
 
Hi Astoness and SisterSue....

Thanks very much for the reples. Heathen that I am, I hadn't heard of Showells Dictionary before Sue, so thanks for the head-up on that front!! At a guess, this is going to be something along the lines of the riders Annuals that my historian mate Ian Bott is always gushing over!! Laugh, laugh!!!

All the best to you both....

Regards,

Nick
 
hi nick...i will see what i can find out about this later on today..would like to put an actual location on the property where the skeletons where found if that is at all possible...

lyn
 
Bless you Astoness!!!! I'd love to hear more on the matter if anyone could possibly 'uncover' anything!!! (Okay - pun intended, but I can be forgiven, I'm sure!? Laugh!!!)

What struck me as funny about the ref. I read - there is no real detail given...... it's all very vague indeed...... except for the specific 'July 1878' date??? Weird???

Regards,

Nick
 
As Sue says there is a reference in Showells,

Horrible.—The bodies of eleven children were found buried at back of 68, Long Acre, Nechells, where lived Ann Pinson, a midwife, who said they were all still-born, July, 1878.



Colin
 
thanks for that info col...so it looks like the midwife may have delivered these stillborn babies in houses around nechells and then took them to her house and buried them in the back garden...how sad is that..

lyn
 
Thanks very much Colin...... I had a cursory glance through Showells, but had to pop out to a poltergeist case down the road from me, so couldn't look properly!!! Laugh, laugh!!!! I was going to search when I got back!! Laugh!!!

Ahhh - the midwife connection makes sense of course........ but to bury stillborn infants in your own back garden!!!!! Shudder!!!!!

All the best to everyone,

Nick
 
I suppose it may have been to save the expense of a burial, especially if the area was a poorer one where stillbirths may have been more common? Perhaps Lyn knows more about that aspect, I am not familiar with the area at all.
Sue
 
I suppose it may have been to save the expense of a burial, especially if the area was a poorer one where stillbirths may have been more common? Perhaps Lyn knows more about that aspect, I am not familiar with the area at all.
Sue


hi sue..im not famillar with nechells that much but i would think that maybe this sort of thing accured in many areas ...as someone pointed out to me in those days many folk couldnt even afford a burial for family who lived for years let only these still births...
as i said earlier its all so sad..times were so hard for them...

lyn
 
Just found the following:

British Medical Journal
Saturday August 17th 1878

DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD BODIES OF NEWLY BORN INFANTS.

A CASE has recently occurred in Birmingham, which, like many similar ones noticed in these columns within the last few years, proves the necessity of some alteration in our present registration and burial system.
Ann Pinson, a midwife, fifty-four years of age, was charged before the Birmingham magistrates with concealing the birth of a 'child born in her house on the 15th January last. From the evidence given, it appeared that about. the 6th January last, a young woman named Harriet Leader, being pregnant, wet to the prisoner's house to be confined. A female child was born on the morning of the I5th, and on the same day, the sister of the mother saw the child alive, washed and dressed. Later on in the day,' the child died, and the question arose as to its burial. Prisoner sent out and purchased a soap-box, and placed in it the body of the dead child. At the back of the prisoner's house were recently found no fewer than eleven bodies of infants in similar boxes. After the child was placed in the box, the lid was fastened down, and, the box was handed by the prisoner to her
son, who wheeled it away on a barrow, and its whereabouts had not been discovered. Since being taken into custody, the prisoner had made several contradictory statements as to the disposal of the body; first that the mother of the child had taken it away and buried it herself, a statement which the prisoner subsequently declared to be incorrect; and that she had given it to a woman named Jane, who carried it to Aston or Saltley (suburbs of Birmingham), and had it buried there. Who this woman was, or where she lived, prisoner could not say. Ultimately, she was fined forty shillings for not registering the birth of the child, and it is to be hoped that this, in addition to the fourteen days she spent in gaol, will act as a deterrent to her and to others. The other cases were not gone into, the police being unable to trace their history. Thus ends another case of grave suspicion, and it is too much to be feared that similar cases will from time to time occur under the present system. Even if it be undesirable to register still-births, there can be no objection to a law requiring (under a
penalty) persons present at a birth, whether of a living or dead child, to give formal notice, within forty-eight hours, to the registrar of the district or some other authorised official.

All the best

Nick
 
Nick, that's a great bit of research, hadn't thought of medical lines - don't want to think nurses would do wrong lol!
But, like the article says it must have happened a lot in those days.
Sue
 
Thanks everyone...... please don't thank me for the research though - laugh - as all I did was type 'Ann Pinson, midwife, blah, blah, blah' into Google and one of the first things that popped up was the data from the medical journal. The hardest thing I had to do was sign up to the service concerned to get to see the piece!! Laugh!!!

All the best.

Nick
 
Just found this thread, wonderful, i guess deep down many of us, (Well me) are interested in Grisly stories.

But i believe that even now still born babies are "Disposed" of by being ignominiously buried in other peoples graves after mourners from that funeral have left.
There seems even now, in our enlightened times,to be questions as to what happens to the body of the poor child.
 
According to the 1878 directory Ann Pinson was back of 69 Long Acre.
In 1876 at the same address there was a Mrs Hannah Pinson, midwife. In 1873 there was no Ann Pinson, but , not far away, at 113 Cromwell St, there was a Mrs Hannah Pinson.. She is also there in the 1871 census , midwife, aged 46, head of family with 16 year old gunmaker son and a 7 year old son + lodger and child. Could not find her on the1881 census.
In 1861 she is living with her 68 year old gunmaker husband (she is now 36), while she is a tray polisher.
I wonder if they dug up the garden of 113 Cromwell St ?
 
According to the 1878 directory Ann Pinson was back of 69 Long Acre.
In 1876 at the same address there was a Mrs Hannah Pinson, midwife. In 1873 there was no Ann Pinson, but , not far away, at 113 Cromwell St, there was a Mrs Hannah Pinson.. She is also there in the 1871 census , midwife, aged 46, head of family with 16 year old gunmaker son and a 7 year old son + lodger and child. Could not find her on the1881 census.
In 1861 she is living with her 68 year old gunmaker husband (she is now 36), while she is a tray polisher.
I wonder if they dug up the garden of 113 Cromwell St ?
You continue to star Mike. Shades of the Wests ? Max
 
Thanks John
Max
I hadn't made the connection betwen the name of thwe street and the Wests till you mentioned it
Mike
 
According to the 1878 directory Ann Pinson was back of 69 Long Acre.
In 1876 at the same address there was a Mrs Hannah Pinson, midwife. In 1873 there was no Ann Pinson, but , not far away, at 113 Cromwell St, there was a Mrs Hannah Pinson.. She is also there in the 1871 census , midwife, aged 46, head of family with 16 year old gunmaker son and a 7 year old son + lodger and child. Could not find her on the1881 census.
In 1861 she is living with her 68 year old gunmaker husband (she is now 36), while she is a tray polisher.
I wonder if they dug up the garden of 113 Cromwell St ?

Thanks for that Mike - very intriguing!!!!

I think the 'midwife' situation in the past has always been a bit of a grey area....... When my Mother was born in the late 1940's - in Moxley - a local woman apparently turned up at the door, close to the time of birth, saying she was the appointed midwife, etc. It seems that she wasn't, as the doctor who attended - which occurred at home - did not know who she was or where she'd come from and so on. Interestingly, my mother was born with a caul, which duly vanished..... along with the mysterious midwife, not long after the delivery!!!! (Gran always told me that sailors would pay considerable amounts for a caul, apparently, as they protected against misfortune at sea, etc).

When looking at a host of bodies (for wont of a better term) like those at Nechells, it's easy for the mind to run away with itself, of course!! Laugh!! I'm reminded of such characters as Amelia Dyer, etc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Dyer

Just found this thread, wonderful, i guess deep down many of us, (Well me) are interested in Grisly stories.

Well, grisly and ghostly have always gone hand in hand and I think the bulk of people would profess an interest - albeit macabre (laugh!!) - in either or both? Laugh!! Needless to add, it's always an added kick when such things occurred 'just down the road', of course!! Laugh!!!

Hi Nicholas, not sure if you will have already looked at Showells dictionary of Birmingham but there may be something in there

Thanks heartily for suggesting that original reference, by the way Sue!! I'd never seen this book before and will admit that I've spent a good few hours checking through it, subsequently, resulting in the discovery of a host of intriguing matters !!! Laugh!!!

Best wishes to all...

Nick
 
Another matter of interest which gave rise from the intro. to Showells - thanks again - is the following:

"1864, while excavations were being made in the old "Castle Yard," in High Street the skeletons of three human beings were found in a huddled position about 2-1/2 ft. from the surface.—The Old Inkleys were noted for the peculiar character (or want thereof) of its inhabitants, though why they buried their dead beneath their cellar floors must remain a mystery. On October 29, 1879, the skeleton of a full-grown man was found underneath what had once been the site of a house in Court No. 25 of the Old Inkleys, where it must have lain at least 20 years".

The Inkleys has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum, but, of course (laugh!) the 'grisly' aspect of the region, mentioned above, elevates it, for me!! Laugh!!!!

All the best.
 
The inkleys event was covered in an inquest report in the Birmingham post, but the only things concerning the castle yard find are two letters

skeletonbp41179.jpg
skeletonBP11864A.jpg
skeletonBP14764A.jpg
 
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