Eliza Esdaile's Burial Record

My great grandfather, Louis Albert Thomas, wrote that Eliza Esdaile was buried in Chichester Cathedral. We descendants have been bothering them for generations about her grave, in person and by mail. Now the personnel at the Cathedral can put their feet up. Familysearch.com has posted  her burial record: New Fishbourne, Sussex, 9 January 1835. Look out New Fishbourne!

Bishop's transcripts for New Fishbourne, 1591-1911, Church of England. Parish of New Fishbourne (Sussex). Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1981. FHL BRITISH Film 1041593 Item 1

New Fishbourne not far from Chichester

Still Waiting for Carlos Finlay

Adult Yellow Fever Mosquito

Cousins, our ancestor William Grant's death was evidence in the heated debate over whether yellow fever was spread by contagion or by miasma. The argument was fueled by economic interest as well as by medicos defending their dogma. Where the contagion faction prevailed, quarantines and consequent trade disruption followed. One expert arguing for miasma was Dr. Musgrave of Angtigua in the West Indies.

To bolster his argument (and unwittingly to flesh out our family story) Dr. Musgrave includes an appendix with the report of Dr. Hartle, the Navy medical officer on shore in Antigua when the Pyramus landed with its crew of yellow fever victims early on the first of November 1821.

“I immediately went on board, and was surprised to find that an officer (lieutenant) had died the day before with only a few hours illness—that the purser [Eliza Esdaile's son-in-law William Grant, though he is never named in this article] and six men lay dangerously ill. . .”

The ship’s surgeon was ill himself, so a loblolly boy had attended them. “He had bled them, and given them some cathartic medicine, but it did not appear to me that the bleeding had been either to a sufficient extent or from a proper orifice, and unfortunately , the time for its repetition was passed as the disease was in its second stage. To this, therefore I attribute the misfortune of losing the three first attacked, (purser and two of the men) for organic derangement had already taken place.”

“The purser had nausea but no vomiting; he bled profusely from the nose, and, a little before he died, he passed, involuntarily, a large quantity of black fetid blood, per anum.”

People by the dozens kept getting yellow fever on the Pyramus.  On inspection, the Pyramus looked like a nice clean ship, but Dr. Hartel, suspecting miasma, had the limber boards pulled up. Underneath was rotting wood debris from a refitting job done at Portsmouth just before the ship left port. The wood scraps mixed with coal tar had clogged the limber holes, leaving nine inches of stagnant water and muck that couldn’t reach the pump wells. The stench was horrific, not possible to describe. Everyone involved in the inspection and subsequent clean up, including  Dr. Hartel and, remarkably, even some black men, became ill. Yet nobody on shore caught yellow fever. This proved that miasma caused yellow fever. At least it proved it to Dr. Musgrave of Antigua. 

You can follow the yellow fever controversy as it unfolded using Google Books.  This blog post is from:

Musgrave, Anthony.  Facts and Observations in Refutation of Sir Gilbert Blane’s  Doctrines as to the contagious Nature of Yellow Fever. The Medico-Chirurgical Review, and Journal of Medical Science Quarterly , Volume IV, No 16  (March 1824) p. 979. (Available on Google Books)

Yellow Fever on the Pyramus

Eliza Esdaile's daughter Louisa Green first married William Grant, a purser in the Royal Navy (December 1816). My great-grandfather wrote that William Grant died of yellow fever in Antigua. William Grant's will was proved 16 December 1822, but it doesn't say where he died. The Navy List shows William Grant to be the purser on the Pyramus in December 1821 and J Jones to be the purser by March 1822. Between December 1821 and March 1822 the Pyramus was indeed in the West Indies. While not proving anything, this google book deals specifically with the terrible outbreak of yellow fever on the Pyramus in 1822: The Medico-chirurgical review, Volume 6 by James Johnson.

Eliza Green and Thomas Esdaile's Parish Registry Entry 8 July 1809

Cousins, we see here that Eliza was sometimes called Elizabeth. The witness William Green may have been Eliza's son William Goodall Green. Or maybe not. 
This is a form they filled out. I'll put the handwritten part in italics.
from the Parish Registry of Marlebon page 34, year 1809, FHL British film 584228

No. 101 Thomas Esdaile esq of Bognor in the County of Sussex Bachelor and Elizabeth Green of this Parish Widow
were Married in this Church by Licence this Eight Day of July in the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and nine By me Benj'm Lawrence Curate This Marriage was solemnized between Us Thos Esdaile Elizabeth Esdaile

in the Presence of Samuel Elliott 
Eliz Eliott
Willm Green

The Crypt at St. Martin in the Fields

     For my birthday I received Bill Bryson's book, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, Doubleday, Random House: New York, 2010 (thanks Chuck & Joey!). I think anyone interested in English genealogy  will also be interested in the factual matter of this book, and Bryson is a good story teller. Bryson cites a passage describing the crypt of St. Martin in the Fields church in 1859 as being full of thousands of coffins stored every which way (p. 270-271). No footnote, but the bibliography led me to the charming book by Malcolm Johnson, St Martin-in-the-Fields, published in Chichester, West Sussex by Phillimor in 2005.
    According to Johnson, the vaults were cleaned in 1817, and in 1841 3,250 coffins were re-stacked. No new burials were allowed after 1853. In 1859 the church wardens put ads in the newspapers asking relatives to remove coffins. After 1 Feb 1859, the remaining coffins went to St. Martin's cemetery in Camden town or they (1,857 of them ) were bricked up in three new vaults in the south-east corner of the crypt under Adelaide Street and Duncannon Street.  All but 246 of them were listed by name (Johnson p. 35-36). Here Johnson cites Westminster City Archives, St Martin's Parish Records, F6102, so let's check that out!
     In 1938 three thousand lead coffins and other human remains from the crypt were taken (by night) to the Brookwood cemetery in Surrey to make way for office space (Johnson p. 62).
     If you're a descendant of Eliza Esdaile, you may also be a descendant of Richard Thomas who was buried in St. Martin's crypt in 1826. Richard's son George Thomas married Eliza Esdaile's granddaughter Kate Grant. I will think of the neatest way to document this and give you some citations in another post.

Mrs. Esdaile's House Moved from Aldwick

"Bognor Cottage adjoins Sudley Lodge, and was erected by Mrs. Esdaile, having been removed from Aldwick in consequence of the encroachment of the sea. It is now the property and residence of Christopher Teesdale, Esq."

The Bognor Guide, Containing the History of Bognor, and the History and Antiquities of Several Adjoining Parishes, including and Account of Goodwood, Arundel Castle, etc., etc. and the Roman Remains at Bignor , Petworth: Printed by John Phillips, 1838, page 16.

Check out the Earl of Arran's 1830's resort development plan on google books:
Bognor Guide

Eliza Esdaile hits up Her Royal Highness in 1831

A copy of a letter to Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle is signed by Eliza Esdaile. It is dated "Sudley Cottage, Bognor, May 8th 1831". Eliza makes the following statements:
*She encloses documents showing that she and her family were friends with Edward Duke of Kent as of 1793 in Canada.
*Her husband, Mr. Esdaile, left her with plenty of money.
*But her house was going to be washed into the sea so she had to move it to the Earl of Arran's and now she's broke.
*And she got her husband & his friends to lend the Duke money several times, and in particular, when the Duke was going to Belgium in 1817 she lent him 500 pounds of her own of which he paid back 200 and gave his word he'd get her the other 300.
*But not in writing, and then he died.

Ref. no:RA pp/vic/1/5855

http://www.royal.gov.uk/The%20Royal%20Collection%20and%20other%20collections/TheRoyalArchives/TheRoyalArchives.aspx

The registrar in 2004, Miss Pamela Clark, kindly wrote that the archives have no further correspondence with or about  Eliza Esdaile, and Miss Clark was not able to say if Mrs. Esdaile got any more money.
 
Five hundred 1818 pounds is a bit over $38.6 thousand now. http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/numimage/currency.htm

I learned about the existence of this letter from the journalist Mollie Gillen's book, The Prince and His Lady, published in paperback in 1985 by Goodread Biographies of Toronto, Canada. Her book has a bibliography and footnotes, but I've found them to be either inaccurate or not detailed enough to check on. This is an exception. I found out about Gillen's book from  a cousin's husband, Steve Hayes (Thanks Steve!) at http://www.gencircles.com/users/hayesst.