Vaccinations (Debate)
| Charlie M |
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Wed 23 Dec 2020, 13:59 This is how it appeared in The Charlbury Chronicle of June 1997: Smallpox was a deadly scourge for centuries. Queen Elizabeth was badly pockmarked by it, and Queen Mary II died of it in 1694. Charlbury benefited from the arrival here in 1766 of an apothecary, Edward Lyster (died 1804), who advertised his skill in inoculating against it, and set up an isolation house in Patch Riding, Finstock. Edward Jenner of Berkeley, Glos (1749-1823) is always credited with the discovery that scratching the skin with a tool impregnated with calf lymph produced antibodies to fight the disease, but Edward Lyster among others had discovered it first. In 1853 the vaccination of children was made compulsory by law. Poor hygiene meant that many died as a result, and by 1896 mounting opposition resulted in the setting up of a Royal Commission of Enquiry into its effects. Before its report was published the law continued to be enforced, and ten Charlbury parents were fined 13/6d for failure to obey. They refused to pay, and on February 6th 1897 a Superintendent of Police and nine constables descended simultaneously on the homes of nine of the parents, marking items to sell to cover the fine and costs. The Town Cryer was sent round to announce that the auction would begin at 12.30, and a large crowd, accompanied by the Charlbury Brass Band, gathered at the bottom of Church Street, outside Dan Kitching's house. The noise was so great that no bids could be heard, and the Chief Constable decided that no sale had been made. The band played 'Rule Britannia' almost non-stop, and the crowd moved up to The Bull where items belonging to W. H. Baughan, Thomas Lainchbury and F. T. Horniblow were held up. The only bid made was £1 for a Horniblow table, but the bidder was nearly lynched. Before order could be restored an enthusiastic bandsman blew his cornet into a constable's ear and in the resulting scuffle the mouthpiece was broken off and a window was broken. The crowd then moved quietly along Sheep Street where a young man was lying gravely ill, but at Hixet Wood the noise broke out again, and rotten eggs, mud, flour and rice were thrown about. Marked furniture from the homes of Winter and Siford had to be returned, and the crowd and the now perspiring band marched through Fishers lane to the Playing Close. At blacksmith Walter Widdows' (Anvil Cottage) the noise was augmented by two of his men beating a sheet of iron, and his double perambulator was not sold. At Edward Widdows' (Elmstead), to the great amusement of the crowd, a bag of flour burst on the head of the auctioneer, who took on a piebald appearance. No sale was made, nor was there a bid for a sewing machine owned by Haynes on Market Street. That was the last on the list and everyone trooped down Dyers' Hill to Sgt. Timms' police station in Church Lane. The auctioneer (E. J. Brooks of Oxford) escaped out of the back door, reached his conveyance and returned to Oxford. The same evening, effigies of the auctioneer and the cattle dealer who had made the only bid were burnt on a bonfire in the Playing Close along with a dead calf, signifying the vaccine. At the Oxford Summer Assizes, 19 men were brought before the Lord Chief Justice accused of riotous assembly and 12 of them were accused of conspiracy to defeat the course of justice. Defence Counsel argued that most of them had only come to listen to the band. They all pleaded guilty to unlawful assembly, and the Judge bound them over to keep the peace. Shortly after, the law on compulsory vaccination was repealed. (A fuller and rather amusing report of this event in the Oxford Times of 13 February 1897 can be seen in the museum.) |