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n“I want to know what faith you have in thenmiracle at Guildford … All London is upon this occasion … divided into factionsnabout it.”n
nLetter from Alexander Pope to John Caryll, Dec 5 1726.n
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nThis affair has “… almost alarmed England, and inna manner persuaded several people of sound judgment that it was true.”nnn
nLord Onslow, note to Sir Hans Sloane.n
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n Everyone was talking about it. News of it spreadnlike wildfire. Mary Toft was a sensation. On Sunday November 20thn1726, Mr Cyriacus Ahlers, physician to the German household of King George I,nwent to Guilford to meet her. On arrival, Mr Howard’s nurse brought news thatnMrs Toft was once again in labour.
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| Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits |
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nAhlers, assisted by Howard, presided overnthe delivery of the loins and lower limbs of a young rabbit and was convincednthat this could not have been introduced into her uterus earlier. He gave Toftna guinea and promised her a pension from the King then, claiming a headache andna sore throat, at 5 pm he departed back for London. Doctors, surgeons andnobstetricians shuttled between London and Guilford and, inevitably, theirnopinions differed. Sir Richard Manningham was convinced it was all an elaboratenfraud; Dr St André was convinced it was a miracle.
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| John Maubray – The Female Physician – 1724 |
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nOn November 29th,nMary Toft was brought to London and was lodged at Lacey’s bagnio (bathnhouse) in Leicester Fields, to where even more doctors flocked to see her.nAmongst them was John Maubray, author of The Female Physician, a work innwhich he describes the phenomena of ‘maternal impression’, a belief that women,nparticularly pregnant women, could be influenced by exterior experiences thatnwere reflected on the bodies of their offspring.
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| An Elephant Man |
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nJohn Merrick, the famousn‘Elephant Man’, was convinced that his own condition was the result of hisnmother being frightened by a circus elephant when she was carrying him. Medicalnliterature of the day contains many examples of monstrous births that werenbrought about by the encounters of mothers-to-be with various creatures, orneven, in some cases, by dreaming about animals.
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| God only knows … |
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nMaubray wrote about somethingncalled a suyger, a word he translates as sooterkin, and describesnhow, on a voyage to Holland, he witnessed the birth of just such a monster,
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n“Uponnwhich occafion, in fhort I immediately lent her a helping Hand and upon thenmembranes giving way, this forementioned Animal made its wonderful Egrefsnfilling my Ears with difmal Shrieks, and my Mind with greater CONSTERNATION.”n
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| Maubray –The Female Physician – 1724 |
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nMore disconcertingly, Maubray also describes how the wives of the sea-faringnDutch expected at least one in three births to result in the production of ansuyger, and how the women prepared for these births
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n“…to receive itnwarmly, And throw it into the Fire; holding Sheets before the Chimney that itnmay not get off as it always endeavours to fave itfelf by getting into fomendark Hole or Corner. They properly call it de Suyger which is (in our Language)nthe Sucker, becaufe, like a Leech it sucks up the Infant’s Blood and Aliment.”n
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| Your guess is as good as mine … |
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nAt Lacey’s, Manningham sat by Toft’s bedside as she went in labour yet again;nhe examined her externally and internally, and although she exhibited labournpains, there was nothing to indicate that she was about to give birth. Thesenpains continued for several days, with the sceptical Manningham in closenattention; he noted how she moved in and out of the pains, how she sleptnfitfully, and how she ate beef, rabbit and (ironically) red herrings.
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| Mary Toft |
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nThen, onnDecember 4th, Mr Thomas Howard, a porter at Lacey’s bagnio,ngave a sworn statement to Sir Thomas Clarges, Justice of the Peace, that Toft’snsister-in-law, Margaret, had clandestinely approached him with a request tonprocure a rabbit. Clarges immediately placed Toft under arrest and she wasnclosely questioned, but swore that the rabbit had been asked for as food. Hernsister-in-law, who was there to assist with the birth, also swore under oathnthat the rabbit had solely been intended for eating.
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| The Surrey Rabbit Breeder |
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nUnimpressed, Clargesnintended to imprison Toft until Manningham intervened, urging caution on thenoff chance that Toft was still about to deliver more animal parts, regardlessnof their origins, and with great difficulty he managed to persuade Clarges tonallow her to remain under the custody of the High Constable of Westminster atnLacey’s. Two days later, Clarges threatened Toft with much more severentreatment, which seems to have worked as, in the presence of Manningham, DrnDuncan, Lord Baltimore and the Duke of Montague, Mary Toft began hernconfession.
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| Much Ado About Nothing – 1727 |
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nShe had, she said, miscarried her natural child and it was then,nwhen her cervix was dilated, that an unnamed accomplice had introduced thenmonster (as she termed it) into her uterus. This was the body of a cat and thenhead of a rabbit, and the accomplice had assured Mary that she would never neednwork again if she continued with the imposture, and she would put her into angood livelihood for a share in the profits. To make the miracle convincing, shenhad been told that she had to produce the same number in a litter as a femalenrabbit would deliver, maybe thirteen in all. The introduction and delivery ofnall these rabbit parts had caused her great pain and discomfort, she hadnsimulated some of the pains but the rest had been genuine agony.
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| Several Depositions – 1727 |
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nAt the samentime, Lord Onslow took depositions from six people, who all said that they hadnsold rabbits to Joshua Toft. Under a statute of Edward III, Mary Toft wasncharged with being a vile cheat and impostor, and sent for a short while to thenBridewell at Tothill Fields. Great crowds sought entry to see her but none ofnthe public was admitted; she was attended solely by the gaoler’s wife andnwhenever Joshua Toft visited her, he was closely searched before being allowedninto her cell. However, the prosecution was not proceeded with, and Marynreturned home to Godalming.
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nThis wasn’t the end of her criminality – in 1740,nshe was served a sentence in Guilford gaol for receiving stolen goods. She diednin January 1763.
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nThe repercussions of the Toft case resounded throughoutnGeorgian England, and it is these I will turn to next.
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nTomorrow – Repercussions and so forth … nn
