Documents Archives - Northumberland Archives

James Forster’s Crime

08/10/2018 by Northumberland Archives

In the winter of 1855 Messrs. Smith and Appleford were executing a series of contracted works on Alnwick Castle. During the works large quantities of lead went missing and James Forster, a mason working for Messrs. Smith and Appleford, was accused of the crime. He was incriminated by a great quantity of lead found buried in his garden “under suspicious circumstances” by a policeman named P.C Marshall. Following a further search James was also charged with stealing a wedge and piece of zine from his masters.

James was 54 years old at the time of the theft. He had a wife, Marjory, and two children, Jane aged 19 and William aged 9. James was prosecuted for the theft by Hon. A Liddell and defended by Mr Blackwell. The contractor’s foreman and blacksmith were called to identify the wedge and piece of zine recovered from James’ person, but neither could positively confirm whether these were the missing articles. On this count James was found not guilty. He was then tried for “stealing three stones and a half weight of lead from the roof of Alnwick Castle, the property of his Grace the Duke of Northumberland.” According to newspaper reports “the lead in question was lying on the roof of the Castle, tied up in bundles, and the prisoner was observed by the foreman of the masons to go to one of the bundles and cut off a piece of lead, which he placed in his left jacket pocket.” The foreman immediately reported this to the contractors’ overseer and James’ premises were searched by PC. Marshall that same day. James was sentenced to six months hard labour for this crime.

In 1861, six years after the theft, James and Marjory were residing in Clayport Street with their unmarried daughter Jane (now a dress maker) and Marjory’s mother Jane Spours (aged 80). Jane the elder was listed on the 1861 census as being an Innkeeper from Ellingham. She was also familiar with the law, having been fined in 1857 for keeping her public house open and “selling exciseable liquors during prohibited hours on Sundays.”

The Forsters had been living in in Clayport Street since at least 1841, where they are listed in the census alongside their four young children:

Martha, then aged 12.

George, then aged 10.

John, then aged 8.

Jane, then aged 6.

Also living in the street in 1841, although not in the same property, was the 60 year old Jane Spours.

Another Forster child, who died in 1841 and most likely before the census, was Robert Spours Forster. He was less than a year old when he became the first Forster to be placed within their family burial plot in Alnwick. In 1849 George Forster, James’ eldest son, also died and was buried in the plot. He was followed in the same year by a third child, Eleanor Forster, who was seven years old. Martha, the Forster’s eldest daughter, became the fourth child to go to the grave young, dying in 1851 aged twenty-two. She was followed by her paternal grandmother, Ann Forster, aged eighty. Finally, in 1863, Jane Spours, the ever-present matriarch, was buried in the plot aged eighty-four.

Having such a large family to feed, and losing so many children in quick succession, may have driven James’ to extreme lengths – including stealing from his own employer. James and Margery’s death dates are not clear, but they were interred in the family plot with their children and mothers.

This blog was inspired by a document found within the Dickson, Archer and Thorp papers outlining the crimes of James Forster. We would like to thank the volunteers who have cataloged and researched this piece.

Fancy letters and famous faces

28/09/2016 by Northumberland Archives

Having previously looked at marks made by clerks and residents of the manors, we will now look beyond the doodles to decorative letters and drawings that are works of art in themselves. Though these had been commonly used in the medieval period their use declined through the centuries, and by the seventeenth century were reserved for a few areas of written texts, such as the legal documents like deeds. In those occasions where they remained they became less about the content of the text and more for decoration. as we go through our manorial documents we often come across examples that are eye-catching.

Below is a nice example of a letter done with shapes and swirls.

One that is a little more complicated…

More complicated still…

Or this one, from a document of Charles I, which takes it further…

This is so stylised it becomes difficult to make out the ‘C’ it represents.

However, many examples contain drawings. In the medieval manuscripts these are known as historiated initials and inhabited initials. A historiated initial relates to a picture in the letter that relates to the text, where an inhabited letter is purely decorative. The below sixteenth century example is an inhabited letter, which includes a rather unusual face. Perhaps he goes back to earlier traditions of the psalter and other illuminated works.

We start to see images of the monarch used in some documents such as deeds, and these historiated initials are very skilfully and professionally done. The monarch would be depicted in a cartouche, often attached to the first letter of their name. The earliest example we have come across is James I:

James is shown on his throne next to a stylised ‘J’. Under his cloak he appears to be shown in medieval dress. His shoes are certainly of a much older style, quite unlike the decorative heeled shoes he is usually depicted wearing. Next to the image are the symbols for England (rose), Scotland (thistle) and Wales (fleur-de-lis) joined together, illustrating that the three countries were united by his rule. The swirls turning to leaves may also hark back to an early style of decorating pages.

Next we have James’s son, Charles I.

We can see Charles I in a cartouche, surrounded with ornate patterned decoration and a panel showing roses, unicorns, and other emblems of state, with swirling rose leaves filling the space. The letters are also very ornately decorated. The image of Charles is very well drawn, and shows him with the crown, orb and sceptre.

We have also come across Charles’s granddaughter, Queen Anne. This, like many decorated examples, is an ‘Exemplification of Recovery’, which recorded the breaking or ‘barring’ of an entail (a passage of land solely down the family line), so that the land became fee simple and could be mortgaged, sold or willed to someone not in the entail. They became obsolete in 1833, but were often highly decorated with the monarch’s image and seal to show authenticity.

Queen Anne, from an Exemplification of Recovery, 1710.

Here we see Queen Anne in a cartouche, with her hair elaborately curled and wearing a chain of jewels. The pearl necklace she wears is perhaps the one still owned and worn by the royal family today.

Detail from the same Exemplification of Recovery, 1710.

Further along the top of the same document we see a great deal of detailed decoration. The swirling leaves in Charles I’s decoration have grown to become huge scrolling acanthus leaves, which support a rose, and cover much of the top section. Between the leaves we have the Royal coat of arms of Great Britain. This has Queen Anne’s own motto beneath it – ‘Semper Eadem’, meaning ‘always the same’.

These are some examples we have come across in our research, but there are a great many more in our collection, including this beautiful and ostentatious deed from the reign of George II. The decoration transforms an ordinary legal document into something fantastic and beautiful, and gives an added value to the claim that it upholds. We will be keeping our eyes peeled for more monarchs and interesting letters as the project continues.

Opening up the patient files and our new Flickr collection

21/12/202006/07/2016 by Northumberland Archives

We our happy to now announce at just past our halfway point in our repackaging and digitisation project of the 1944-1966 patient files we are launching a new collection of Flickr sets of some of the files. Our hope in this is that we can showcase some of the types of documents for those wishing to study the files.

We hold the patient files covering the period 1937 to 1966. The first files are pre-printed sheets, which were sorted and bound into books after the patient’s discharge. These give the medical and family history of the patient, the tests done, temperature charts and diagrams of the front and back of the torso to record observations on the chest. Additional sheets of temperature charts and diagrams could be pasted in once the first sets were used. The project’s first phase looked a lot at these and there is much about them in previous posts. We have chosen one as an example, which you can see here. In 1943 the staff transitioned to using files, which were also filed by the date of discharge until 1946.

first page in the discharge book for HOSP/STAN/07/01/01/476 — The first page in the discharge book for patient HOSP/STAN/07/01/01/476

We don’t find the same documents within each file, but wanted to show a range of what we commonly find, and have divided these into what we have described as ‘core’ and ‘non-core’. The core documents give an overview of each case and are appended to our online catalogue, available to search here. Non-core documents include temperature charts, correspondence and less common documents; these cannot be viewed via our catalogue. Our new Flickr page will give a glimpse of how the whole files and their associated radiographs look.

However, choosing which files to use has been difficult, as the cases and the contents of the files themselves are so varied. We have chosen two files from each of the three types of disease identified by the patient files – pulmonary (in a blue file), bones and joints (in a green file) and cases of Tuberculosis where tissues were affected (in a pink file). For each type we have shown an earlier case, around 1946-1948, and another from after the introduction of streptomycin and similar antibiotics at Stannington, around 1949-1953. After 1953 we have fewer radiographs, and we wanted to ensure these were included too. Each file has been redacted to remove the names and personal details of each patient, leaving details of treatment, condition and other aspects of their stay at Stannington. We have left out long runs of temperature charts, superfluous backs of documents, and included only a few of the radiographs where they are taken repeatedly over months and years. However we can always be contacted by emailing archives@northumberland.gov.uk if you have any further questions.

Rather than taking you through each file here when they can be explored fully on Flickr, we will look instead at some of the types of documents that are included in the files. We have divided the non-core documents into those we commonly find which are present in some combination in most files, and those we find less regularly, even rarely, in some of the files.

Treatment card from file HOSP/STAN/07/01/01/2654, showing stars indicating all three antibiotics were used.

Core documents:

The file – gives the patient’s name, address, date of birth, sex, age, local authority, religion, admission and discharge dates, whether notification was given before or after admission, when immunised for diphtheria, if permission was given for dental treatment and anaesthetic, diagnosis and result of treatment. On the inside of the file was recorded the patient’s family history, results of tests, sputum reports, other pathological reports and X-ray reports (which were later recorded on the X-ray card).
Patient history – a short summary of the patient’s family history and general condition on arrival, followed by details of their progress at Stannington, often quite similar to the treatment card.
Treatment card – written up by the doctors with changes in condition and treatment. Like the above image, later examples are often quite colourful, with streptomycin and other drugs written in red and a different coloured star given to show which drug a patient was given, as shown in the above example. Red stars were for streptomycin, blue for para-aminosalicylic acid (PAS) and green for isonicotinic acid hydrazide (INH). The three were often used together, forming an effective combination treatment.
Discharge report – written summary of the patient’s progress while at Stannington, and their condition on discharge. A copy would often be sent to their local doctor, clinic or the hospital that referred the patient to Stannington.
X-ray card – listing dates, serial numbers, locations and settings of X-rays.

Bacteriological report from file HOSP/STAN/07/01/012654, showing the results of a sputum test.

Commonly occurring Non-core documents:

Medical report to institution (from local authority or other source) – a short report of a patient’s condition before coming to Stannington. Pre-NHS (and for a short while afterwards) local authorities would ‘sponsor’ a bed for a patient from their area, and the appearance of the form differs depending on the area.
Permissions and medical history form – this appears in the late 1940s and alters very little over the years. It asks parents and guardians to give details of childhood illnesses, immunisations and permission for dental treatment and anaesthetic. We also find permissions slips for specific operations, vaguely for ‘an operation’, and other instances, such as day trips.
Bacteriological reports – reports from a bacteriological laboratory showing the results of tests from samples, for example samples of pus being checked for tubercle bacilli. These change through time and are found in two types, a small sheet that would be stuck to the file, document or separate sheet of paper, or a longer thin sheet. In earliest files these may be pathologist’s reports.
Dental card – showing condition of teeth and any treatment during the patient’s time at Stannington. Also sometimes optical or dermatological cards and check-ups.
Correspondence with other hospitals and doctors – from before admission, during their stay and after the patient’s discharge from the Sanatorium. Communication from before a child entered Stannington usually arranged their admission. During their stay correspondence may have arranged a transfer for procedures at another hospital. Any correspondence after a child left Stannington was often with local authorities or the doctor or clinic providing follow up care.
Temperature charts – most patients had their temperature taken twice a day throughout their stay and recorded on a chart, and bowel movements noted. On occasions a 4 hourly chart was used when a child was suffering from a high temperature.
Correspondence with parents and family – includes letters arranging visits and interviews with doctors about the patient’s condition, and the child’s discharge home. These letters sometimes give an insight into home and family conditions.
Out patients review reports – after discharge some patients, usually orthopaedic cases, might be reviewed to monitor progress, often on a three monthly or six monthly basis until the disease was quiescent.

Permissions slip for 'any operation necessary' from file HOSP/STAN/07/01/01/2558. — Permissions slip for ‘any operation necessary’ from file HOSP/STAN/07/01/01/2558.

Some of the other non-core documents that we sometimes find:

Transfer documentation, notes and charts from other hospitals – often enclosed in the file that was used at the other hospital.
Things written or drawn by the children – very occasionally the patients seem to have got a hold of their file and written or drawn on them. On other occasions little drawings or letters have ended up in the file. As can be seen in the Flickr set, the patient in file HOSP/STAN/07/01/01/2697 was an amateur fortune teller!
Newspaper cuttings – of stories about patients may later be put in the files, such as when patients later married etc.
Permissions forms – in addition to the general Permissions and medical form given on arrival we also find permissions slips for specific operations, vaguely for ‘an operation’ like the example above, and other instances, such as day trips.
Removal without medical consent slip – signed by a parent on removing their child from the sanatorium, either pre-typed or handwritten.
Sputum charts – recorded the amount and colour of sputum produced on each day, and found in the latter end of the period our files cover. These long thin coloured graphs could almost be works of art.
Artificial pneumothorax card – like an X-ray card, showing when an artificial pneumothorax was performed. This procedure collapses a lung, allowing it to rest and heal.
Drug charts – occasionally we see charts detailing the time and date drugs like streptomycin and PAS were given.
Diabetic charts – though these are a drug chart in that they record insulin intake, they also record sugar and keytones present in urine.
Diet menus and instructions – for some patients with specific requirements we might find a typewritten sheet giving instructions of what the patient should and shouldn’t eat, or menus for a diet.

We are hoping that making some of the patient files accessible will give an idea of the contents of the collection as a whole. The collection has great potential for academic study of the radiographs and treatments that were used during a time of great development in treating tuberculosis, but also gives a valuable insight into the life of a sanatorium and its patients, and the perception of tuberculosis in wider society. You can view the whole Flickr collection here, and search the online catalogue here through our website. We hope you find the files as interesting as we do, and that they give a little insight into life at the sanatorium.

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