Manchester Mummy
Encyclopedia
Hannah Beswick of Birchin Bower, Hollinwood, Oldham
, England, was a wealthy woman who had a pathological fear of premature burial
. Following her death in 1758 her body was embalmed
and kept above ground, to be periodically checked for signs of life.
The method of embalming was not recorded, but it probably involved replacing the blood with a mixture of turpentine
and vermilion
. The body was then put in an old clock case and stored in the house of Beswick's family physician, Dr Charles White
. Beswick's apparently eccentric will made her a local celebrity, and visitors were allowed to view her at White's house.
Beswick's mummified body was eventually bequeathed to the Museum of the Manchester Natural History Society
, where she was put on display and acquired the soubriquet of the Manchester Mummy, or the Mummy of Birchin Bower. The museum's collection was later transferred to Manchester University, when it was decided, with the permission of the Bishop of Manchester
, that Beswick should finally be buried. The ceremony took place at Harpurhey
Cemetery on 22 July 1868, more than 110 years after her death; the grave is unmarked.
The mid-18th century saw an upsurge in the public's fear of being mistakenly buried alive, and much debate about the uncertainty of the signs of death. Various suggestions were made to test for signs of life before burial, ranging from pouring vinegar and pepper into the corpse's mouth to applying red hot pokers to the feet, or even into the rectum
. Writing in 1895, the physician J. C. Ouseley claimed that as many as 2700 people were buried prematurely each year in England and Wales, although others estimated the figure to be closer to 800.
Hannah Beswick was born in 1688 and inherited considerable wealth from her father, John Beswick of Failsworth
. Some years before her own death, one of Hannah's brothers, John, had shown signs of life just as his coffin lid had been about to be closed. A mourner noticed that John's eyelids appeared to be flickering, and on examination the family physician, Dr Charles White, confirmed that he was still alive. John regained consciousness a few days later, and lived for many more years.
Jessie Dobson, Recorder of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
, has said that there appear to be many "inaccuracies and contradictions" in accounts of the events following Beswick's death in 1758. Many suggest that she left £25,000 (equivalent to about £ as of ) to White, a pioneer of obstetrics
and one of the founders of the Manchester Royal Infirmary
, on the condition that her body was kept above ground, and that periodically she was to be checked for signs of life. Beswick's will
however, dated 25 July 1757 (less than a year before her death), states only that White was to receive £100 (£ as of ), and that £400 (£ as of ) was to be allocated for funeral expenses. Some accounts have suggested that White was an executor
of Beswick's will and that he received the £400 himself, from which he was permitted to keep any surplus after the funeral expenses had been paid. Having Beswick embalmed therefore allowed him to keep the whole amount. Alternatively it has been suggested that White was considerably in debt to Beswick, a debt that would have to be repaid after the funeral, which was avoided by her embalming, but Beswick's will names Mary Graeme and Esther Robinson as her executors, not White. In 1866, more than 100 years after her death, the details of Beswick's will were still being disputed.
. It has been suggested that White had been asked to keep Beswick above ground only until it became obvious that she was actually dead, but that he was unable to resist the temptation to add a mummy to his collection of "wet and dry" exhibits, and so made the decision to embalm her. White had developed a particular interest in anatomy while studying medicine in London and was building up a collection of "curiosities", which by the time of his death included the skeleton of Thomas Higgins, a highwayman
and sheep-stealer hanged for burglary, as well as Hannah Beswick's mummy.
The method of embalming used by White is unrecorded, but in 1748 he had studied under the anatomist William Hunter
, who had developed an early system of arterial embalming, therefore it is likely that White used the same method. The veins and arteries would have been injected with a mixture of turpentine
and vermilion
, after which the organs
would have been removed from the chest and abdomen and placed in water, to clean them and to reduce their bulk. As much blood as possible would then have been squeezed out of the corpse, and the whole body washed with alcohol. The next stage would have been to replace the organs and to repeat the injection of turpentine and vermilion. The body cavities would then have been filled with a mixture of camphor
, nitre
and resin
, before the body was sewn up and all openings filled with camphor. After a final washing, the body would have been packed into a box containing plaster of Paris
, to absorb any moisture, and then probably coated with tar, to preserve it.
Hall, the home of another Beswick family member, but it was soon moved to a room in Dr White's home in Sale
, where it was stored in an old clock case.
Beswick's apparently eccentric will made her a celebrity; the author Thomas de Quincey
was one of those who went to view her at White's house. Following White's death in 1813, Beswick's body was bequeathed to a Dr Ollier, on whose death in 1828 it was donated to the Museum of the Manchester Natural History Society
, where she became known as the Manchester Mummy, or the Mummy of Birchin Bower. She was displayed in the museum's entrance hall, next to a Peruvian and an Egyptian mummy
, and her relatives were allowed free access to visit her as they wished. She was described by a visitor in 1844 as "one of the most remarkable objects in the museum". The "cold dark shadow of her mummy hung over Manchester in the middle of the eighteenth century", according to writer Edith Sitwell
.
There are no pictures of Hannah Beswick. One of the few contemporary accounts of her is provided by Philip Wentworth, a local historian:
Shortly after the museum's transfer to Manchester University in 1867 it was decided that as Beswick was "irrevocably and unmistakably dead", the time had come for her to be buried. But since 1837 UK law had required that a medical examiner issue a certificate of death
before a burial could take place; as Beswick had died in 1758 an appeal had to be made to the Secretary of State, who issued an order for her burial. With the permission of the Bishop of Manchester
, Hannah Beswick was interred in an unmarked grave in Harpurhey
Cemetery on 22 July 1868, more than 110 years after her death.
entered Manchester at the head of his invading army in 1745, causing Beswick some apprehension over the safety of her money, which she therefore decided to bury. Shortly before her death she promised to show her relatives where the treasure was hidden, but she did not survive long enough to do so. Her home, Birchin Bower, was converted into workers' tenements following her death. Several of those living there claimed to have seen a figure dressed in a black silk gown and a white cap, and described it as Hannah Beswick. After gliding across the house's parlour, the apparition would vanish at one particular flagstone. It is claimed that while digging to fit a new loom, a weaver living there discovered Beswick's hoard of gold, hidden underneath that same flagstone. Oliphant's, a Manchester gold dealer, paid the weaver £3 10s
for each gold piece, the equivalent of almost £ as of .
Birchin Bower was eventually demolished to make way for a Ferranti
factory, but sightings of the apparition were still reported.
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
, England, was a wealthy woman who had a pathological fear of premature burial
Premature burial
Premature burial, also known as live burial, burial alive, or vivisepulture, means to be buried while still alive. Animals or humans may be buried alive accidentally or intentionally...
. Following her death in 1758 her body was embalmed
Embalming
Embalming, in most modern cultures, is the art and science of temporarily preserving human remains to forestall decomposition and to make them suitable for public display at a funeral. The three goals of embalming are thus sanitization, presentation and preservation of a corpse to achieve this...
and kept above ground, to be periodically checked for signs of life.
The method of embalming was not recorded, but it probably involved replacing the blood with a mixture of turpentine
Turpentine
Turpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees. It is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene...
and vermilion
Vermilion
Vermilion is an opaque orangish red pigment, similar to scarlet. As a naturally occurring mineral pigment, it is known as cinnabar, and was in use around the world before the Common Era began. Most naturally produced vermilion comes from cinnabar mined in China, and vermilion is nowadays commonly...
. The body was then put in an old clock case and stored in the house of Beswick's family physician, Dr Charles White
Charles White (physician)
Charles White FRS was an English physician and a co-founder of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, along with local industrialist Joseph Bancroft...
. Beswick's apparently eccentric will made her a local celebrity, and visitors were allowed to view her at White's house.
Beswick's mummified body was eventually bequeathed to the Museum of the Manchester Natural History Society
Manchester Museum
The Manchester Museum is owned by the University of Manchester. Sited on Oxford Road at the heart of the university's group of neo-Gothic buildings, it provides access to about six million items from every continent and serves both as a resource for academic research and teaching and as a regional...
, where she was put on display and acquired the soubriquet of the Manchester Mummy, or the Mummy of Birchin Bower. The museum's collection was later transferred to Manchester University, when it was decided, with the permission of the Bishop of Manchester
Bishop of Manchester
The Bishop of Manchester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Manchester in the Province of York.The current bishop is the Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch, the 11th Lord Bishop of Manchester, who signs Nigel Manchester. The bishop's official residence is Bishopscourt, Bury New Road,...
, that Beswick should finally be buried. The ceremony took place at Harpurhey
Harpurhey
-Landmarks:Harpurhey Edwardian Swimming Baths, situated on Rochdale Road was built between 1909-10 by Henry Price, Manchester's first City Architect. Listed grade II in, the baths were closed to the public in 2001 after serious defects were discovered and the entrance building is currently being...
Cemetery on 22 July 1868, more than 110 years after her death; the grave is unmarked.
Background
Rectum
The rectum is the final straight portion of the large intestine in some mammals, and the gut in others, terminating in the anus. The human rectum is about 12 cm long...
. Writing in 1895, the physician J. C. Ouseley claimed that as many as 2700 people were buried prematurely each year in England and Wales, although others estimated the figure to be closer to 800.
Hannah Beswick was born in 1688 and inherited considerable wealth from her father, John Beswick of Failsworth
Failsworth
At Failsworth lies north-northwest of London. It shares common boundaries with Manchester and Oldham, on its west and northeast respectively. Failsworth is traversed by the A62 road, from Manchester to Oldham, the heavy rail line of the Oldham Loop and the Rochdale Canal, which crosses the...
. Some years before her own death, one of Hannah's brothers, John, had shown signs of life just as his coffin lid had been about to be closed. A mourner noticed that John's eyelids appeared to be flickering, and on examination the family physician, Dr Charles White, confirmed that he was still alive. John regained consciousness a few days later, and lived for many more years.
Jessie Dobson, Recorder of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...
, has said that there appear to be many "inaccuracies and contradictions" in accounts of the events following Beswick's death in 1758. Many suggest that she left £25,000 (equivalent to about £ as of ) to White, a pioneer of obstetrics
Obstetrics
Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...
and one of the founders of the Manchester Royal Infirmary
Manchester Royal Infirmary
The Manchester Royal Infirmary is a hospital in Manchester, England which was founded by Charles White in 1752 as a cottage hospital capable of caring for twelve patients. Manchester Royal Infirmary is part of a larger NHS Trust incorporating several hospitals called Central Manchester University...
, on the condition that her body was kept above ground, and that periodically she was to be checked for signs of life. Beswick's will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
however, dated 25 July 1757 (less than a year before her death), states only that White was to receive £100 (£ as of ), and that £400 (£ as of ) was to be allocated for funeral expenses. Some accounts have suggested that White was an executor
Executor
An executor, in the broadest sense, is one who carries something out .-Overview:...
of Beswick's will and that he received the £400 himself, from which he was permitted to keep any surplus after the funeral expenses had been paid. Having Beswick embalmed therefore allowed him to keep the whole amount. Alternatively it has been suggested that White was considerably in debt to Beswick, a debt that would have to be repaid after the funeral, which was avoided by her embalming, but Beswick's will names Mary Graeme and Esther Robinson as her executors, not White. In 1866, more than 100 years after her death, the details of Beswick's will were still being disputed.
Embalming
There is no mention in Beswick's 1757 will of her desire to be embalmedEmbalming
Embalming, in most modern cultures, is the art and science of temporarily preserving human remains to forestall decomposition and to make them suitable for public display at a funeral. The three goals of embalming are thus sanitization, presentation and preservation of a corpse to achieve this...
. It has been suggested that White had been asked to keep Beswick above ground only until it became obvious that she was actually dead, but that he was unable to resist the temptation to add a mummy to his collection of "wet and dry" exhibits, and so made the decision to embalm her. White had developed a particular interest in anatomy while studying medicine in London and was building up a collection of "curiosities", which by the time of his death included the skeleton of Thomas Higgins, a highwayman
Highwayman
A highwayman was a thief and brigand who preyed on travellers. This type of outlaw, usually, travelled and robbed by horse, as compared to a footpad who traveled and robbed on foot. Mounted robbers were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads...
and sheep-stealer hanged for burglary, as well as Hannah Beswick's mummy.
The method of embalming used by White is unrecorded, but in 1748 he had studied under the anatomist William Hunter
William Hunter (anatomist)
William Hunter FRS was a Scottish anatomist and physician. He was a leading teacher of anatomy, and the outstanding obstetrician of his day...
, who had developed an early system of arterial embalming, therefore it is likely that White used the same method. The veins and arteries would have been injected with a mixture of turpentine
Turpentine
Turpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees. It is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene...
and vermilion
Vermilion
Vermilion is an opaque orangish red pigment, similar to scarlet. As a naturally occurring mineral pigment, it is known as cinnabar, and was in use around the world before the Common Era began. Most naturally produced vermilion comes from cinnabar mined in China, and vermilion is nowadays commonly...
, after which the organs
Viscus
In anatomy, a viscus is an internal organ, and viscera is the plural form. The viscera, when removed from a butchered animal, are known collectively as offal...
would have been removed from the chest and abdomen and placed in water, to clean them and to reduce their bulk. As much blood as possible would then have been squeezed out of the corpse, and the whole body washed with alcohol. The next stage would have been to replace the organs and to repeat the injection of turpentine and vermilion. The body cavities would then have been filled with a mixture of camphor
Camphor
Camphor is a waxy, white or transparent solid with a strong, aromatic odor. It is a terpenoid with the chemical formula C10H16O. It is found in wood of the camphor laurel , a large evergreen tree found in Asia and also of Dryobalanops aromatica, a giant of the Bornean forests...
, nitre
Niter
Niter or nitre is the mineral form of potassium nitrate, KNO3, also known as saltpeter or saltpetre . Historically, the term "niter" – cognate with "natrium", a Latin word for sodium – has been very vaguely defined, and it has been applied to a variety of other minerals and chemical compounds,...
and resin
Resin
Resin in the most specific use of the term is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly coniferous trees. Resins are valued for their chemical properties and associated uses, such as the production of varnishes, adhesives, and food glazing agents; as an important source of raw materials...
, before the body was sewn up and all openings filled with camphor. After a final washing, the body would have been packed into a box containing plaster of Paris
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...
, to absorb any moisture, and then probably coated with tar, to preserve it.
Display
Beswick's mummified body was initially kept at AncoatsAncoats
Ancoats is an inner city area of Manchester, in North West England, next to the Northern Quarter and the northern part of Manchester's commercial centre....
Hall, the home of another Beswick family member, but it was soon moved to a room in Dr White's home in Sale
Sale, Greater Manchester
Sale is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Historically part of Cheshire, the town lies on flat ground on the south bank of the River Mersey, south of Stretford, northeast of Altrincham, and southwest of the city of Manchester...
, where it was stored in an old clock case.
Beswick's apparently eccentric will made her a celebrity; the author Thomas de Quincey
Thomas de Quincey
Thomas Penson de Quincey was an English esssayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater .-Child and student:...
was one of those who went to view her at White's house. Following White's death in 1813, Beswick's body was bequeathed to a Dr Ollier, on whose death in 1828 it was donated to the Museum of the Manchester Natural History Society
Manchester Museum
The Manchester Museum is owned by the University of Manchester. Sited on Oxford Road at the heart of the university's group of neo-Gothic buildings, it provides access to about six million items from every continent and serves both as a resource for academic research and teaching and as a regional...
, where she became known as the Manchester Mummy, or the Mummy of Birchin Bower. She was displayed in the museum's entrance hall, next to a Peruvian and an Egyptian mummy
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
, and her relatives were allowed free access to visit her as they wished. She was described by a visitor in 1844 as "one of the most remarkable objects in the museum". The "cold dark shadow of her mummy hung over Manchester in the middle of the eighteenth century", according to writer Edith Sitwell
Edith Sitwell
Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell DBE was a British poet and critic.-Background:Edith Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the oldest child and only daughter of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall; he was an expert on genealogy and landscaping...
.
There are no pictures of Hannah Beswick. One of the few contemporary accounts of her is provided by Philip Wentworth, a local historian:
Shortly after the museum's transfer to Manchester University in 1867 it was decided that as Beswick was "irrevocably and unmistakably dead", the time had come for her to be buried. But since 1837 UK law had required that a medical examiner issue a certificate of death
Death certificate
The phrase death certificate can describe either a document issued by a medical practitioner certifying the deceased state of a person or popularly to a document issued by a person such as a registrar of vital statistics that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death as later...
before a burial could take place; as Beswick had died in 1758 an appeal had to be made to the Secretary of State, who issued an order for her burial. With the permission of the Bishop of Manchester
Bishop of Manchester
The Bishop of Manchester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Manchester in the Province of York.The current bishop is the Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch, the 11th Lord Bishop of Manchester, who signs Nigel Manchester. The bishop's official residence is Bishopscourt, Bury New Road,...
, Hannah Beswick was interred in an unmarked grave in Harpurhey
Harpurhey
-Landmarks:Harpurhey Edwardian Swimming Baths, situated on Rochdale Road was built between 1909-10 by Henry Price, Manchester's first City Architect. Listed grade II in, the baths were closed to the public in 2001 after serious defects were discovered and the entrance building is currently being...
Cemetery on 22 July 1868, more than 110 years after her death.
Treasure and apparitions
Bonnie Prince CharlieCharles Edward Stuart
Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...
entered Manchester at the head of his invading army in 1745, causing Beswick some apprehension over the safety of her money, which she therefore decided to bury. Shortly before her death she promised to show her relatives where the treasure was hidden, but she did not survive long enough to do so. Her home, Birchin Bower, was converted into workers' tenements following her death. Several of those living there claimed to have seen a figure dressed in a black silk gown and a white cap, and described it as Hannah Beswick. After gliding across the house's parlour, the apparition would vanish at one particular flagstone. It is claimed that while digging to fit a new loom, a weaver living there discovered Beswick's hoard of gold, hidden underneath that same flagstone. Oliphant's, a Manchester gold dealer, paid the weaver £3 10s
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
for each gold piece, the equivalent of almost £ as of .
Birchin Bower was eventually demolished to make way for a Ferranti
Ferranti
Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. Known primarily for defence electronics, the Company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but ceased trading in 1993.The...
factory, but sightings of the apparition were still reported.