Now! Then! Mary Frances Heaton is gaoled at Doncaster for a breach of the peace and later sent to the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum

7 September 1837: Mary Frances Heaton is gaoled at Doncaster for a breach of the peace and later sent to the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Mary Frances Heaton. 1851. [Sampler Addressed to the British Government]. West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Get it:

Excerpt

I had 4 excellent teachers for French before I was 21. My father being a good French scholar was desirous about it, the last, a professor, took especial care to inform everyone that he had had the honor to read Raçine to George 4, when Prince Regent, from him, acquired a good knowledge of the author of Britannicus etc. but knew nothing of the other Raçine until 1830 when I read his Esther, and referring to the old text, there traced a most curious resemblance between 3 of its foremost passages, and 3 of the most remarkable events of my life. The office of “Mayor of Doncaster,” was filled in 1837 by a fellow [Thomas Walker] for whose crimes the punishment awarded to the assassin of Henry 4 [who wasn’t murdered] would not be disproportioned, and I solemnly believe that the British Government will be of this opinion should I live to relate my story. Having purposely & distinctly remarked in the presence of half a dozen persons including the then mayor that I wished the vicar would submit to arbitration, my claim against him for music lessons given to his daughters regularly twice a week during the years 1834 and 1835. Great was my astonishment when 2 or 3 weeks afterwards, the mayor said to me with an air of the utmost misery and mauvaise honte, “you have no means of subsistence.” My first impulse was laughter, but on reflection, actuated by the most noble motives, I addressed to him a few words dated Esther 2.16, and signed as below. If I should be told that because I was not known to him I had no right to expect that he should allow me to explain myself, my answer is, “that at all events there are 2 points on which he ought to be strictly examined.” These, viewed as precedent, are of such import, that vols. might be devoted to the subject. They are, 1st the source from whence the fellow obtained his information concerning the poverty of a woman who had been 15 years mistress of her own castle, 2ndly the right whereby, and the group whereupon, he refused me half an hour in which to procure bail in the street where the most friendly of men had lived for more than 30 years. Throwing to the clerks the fatal letter, intended for his private information, through them it passes to the canaille, and the drunken wife of a ranter parson, countenanced, as I have reason to suspect, by “Sir Oracle de Twopenny,” takes upon herself to dispose of the private affairs of a nobleman’s governess.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

This is the work of a lunatic, but what was Mary Heaton’s mental state in late summer 1837? The reports of the legal dispute between Doncaster and the West Riding as to who should maintain her in the West Riding Asylum reveal that she was declared insane on 16 September, but had previously been jailed for a breach of the peace (Carrington 1872). I am taking that to have occurred on 7 September, the date referred to by her here and in several other samplers. Forgotten Women of Wakefield seem to have found a trial report – I assume this is the source of their “a whited sepulchre, a thief, a villain, a liar and a hypocrite” quote re Rector Sharpe – but unfortunately don’t tell us where or when. They also only publish short excerpts from Heaton’s case notes, and suggest that she wasn’t actually mad on incarceration (Sherwood 2020/11/08). The more extensive case notes published in David Scrimgeour’s meticulously documented book (Scrimgeour 2015) suggest that she was, and that FWoW may have engaged in cherrrypicking. Their argument seems to be that she wasn’t mad, and that her imprisonment was a favour of the Doncaster patriarchy to the Revd. Sharpe (Sherwood’s headline: “locked in asylum for calling vicar a liar”!). But why then did Doncaster fight to transfer responsibility for the bills for her upkeep to the West Riding authorities, who, if she were sane, would surely have re-examined and released her, perpetuating the problems for the Revd. Sharpe?

Several observations among many:

“Mrs Seymour”: she believes she had a relationship with Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset, who I think she claims elsewhere had employed her.
Illogical it may be in its context, but “Melbourne” is, not the Australian city, but Lord Melbourne, who was Prime Minister at the time of her incarceration, fond of spanking aristocratic ladies and the orphan girls he took in (but Heaton probably wouldn’t have known this), and involved in a sex scandal shortly before (of which she probably was aware).
From the Book of Esther:

16 So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king.

19 And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king’s gate. 20 Esther had not yet shewed her kindred nor her people; as Mordecai had charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him.

21 In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. 22 And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai’s name. 23 And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king.
I thought that Racine was only Raçine in German, but haven’t investigated.

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Original

[The sampler]
British Government
Doncaster Sep. 7 1837, Thursday

Lord Nugent & Life
1840

Treason against the State

Welsh Paupers & Death
1840

In its blackest, most heart sickening, most confirmed, most important, most unequivocal, and most extraordinary form, whereby the world is reduced to a blank, and the brevity of human life the only consolation the heart can ever know, such its dire effects.

Mrs Seymour deposes on oath thus, I had 4 excellent teachers for French before I was 21. My father being a good French scholar was desirous about it, the last, a professor, took especial care to inform everyone that he had had the honor to read Raçine to George 4, when Prince Regent, from him, acquired a good knowledge of the author of Britannicus etc. but knew nothing of the other Raçine until 1830 when I read his Esther, and referring to the old text, there traced a most curious resemblance between 3 of its foremost passages, and 3 of the most remarkable events of my life. The office of “Mayor of Doncaster”, was filled in 1837 by a fellow [Thomas Walker] for whose crimes the punishment awarded to the assassin of Henry 4 [he wasn’t murdered] would not be disproportioned, and I solemnly believe that the British Government will be of this opinion should I live to relate my story. Having purposely & distinctly remarked in the presence of half a dozen persons including the then Mayor that I wished the vicar would submit to arbitration, my claim against him for music lessons given to his daughters regularly twice a week during the years 1834 and 1835. Great was my astonishment when 2 or 3 weeks afterwards, the mayor said to me with an air of the utmost misery & mauvaise honte, “you have no means of subsistence” my first impulse was laughter, but on reflection, actuated by the most noble motives, I addressed to him a few words dated Esther 2.16 and signed as below. If I should be told that because I was not known to him I had no right to expect that he should allow me to explain myself, my answer is, “that at all events there are 2 points on which he ought to be strictly examined”, these, viewed as precedent, are of such import, that vols might be devoted to the subject, they are, 1st the source from whence the fellow obtained his information concerning the poverty of a woman who had been 15 years mistress of her own castle, 2ndly the right whereby, & the group whereupon, he refused me half an hour in which to procure bail in the street where the most friendly of men had lived for more than 30 years. Throwing to the clerks the fatal letter, intended for his private information, through them it passes to the canaille, and the drunken wife of a ranter parson, countenanced, as I have reason to suspect, by “Sir Oracle de Twopenny”, takes upon herself to dispose of the private affairs of a nobleman’s governess.

Time’s great periods

The three lustres

Esther Aurelia of the Trinity

Expression’s last receding ray

From 1837 to 1851

Lord Morpeth and my last ball
Dec. 1834