William Burdett's Last Ten Days

My immigrant ancestor, William Burdett (1791-1841), was a great-great-great grandfather on my mother’s side. According to his son’s (John Henry Burdett) marriage record, William was a lacemaker. He might have born in Leicestershire, near Hinkley, where he married Catherine Smith (1798-1876) in 1818, and where the family lived before moving to Nottingham.

William Burdett's name appears on line 17 from the
bottom of this page of the Goodwin's manifest

William and Catherine had six children. The youngest, William, Jr., was not quite 7 years old when William boarded the ship Goodwin at Liverpool, bound for Philadelphia, on March 21, 1841. Philadelphia had a number of textile mills, and William probably intended to find work at one of them, establish a residence, and eventually bring Catherine and at least the three youngest children to America.

Alas, none of that was meant to be. The Burdett family monument in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia says William Burdett died on May 27, 1841 “in his 50^th year”. The Goodwin’s manifesto gives May 17, 1841 as the date it arrived in Philadelphia. William died ten days after disembarking.

Two days after arriving in Philadelphia, William was admitted to the Philadelphia Almshouse hospital, later known as Blockley Hospital. The reason why, and the outcome, are detailed in the June, 1842 (v. 1, no. 12) issue of The American Medical Intelligencer:

ART. IV.-CASE OF SCIRRHOUS PYLORUS. [p. 248]

Reported by E. J.Bee, M. D., Resident Physician at the Philadelphia Almshouse in 1842.

[In the following interesting case, obscurity arose in the diagnosis owing to the existence of a bellows-sound in the epigastric region, which, at one time, suggested the idea of aneurism of the abdominal aorta. The disease was soon, however, diagnosticated to be scirrhous of the stomach, which, by pressing on the aorta, gave occasion to the sound in question.-Ed.]

William Burdett was admitted into the Men's Med. Ward No.3, May 19th, 1841. He came from Nottinghamshire, England, and was landed at Philadelphia, May 17th, 1841. When I first saw him, he was vomiting, and complained of gnawing and shooting pain in the epigastric region. No abdominal tender-ness. No cough, nor pain in the chest. No cephalalgia. Countenance not sallow, but highly florid. Breath very fetid. Never had had vomiting before he came on shipboard; and his appetite was good. Was attacked with vomiting immediately after setting sail , and vomited continually during the whole passage. Not conscious of having had any pain in the epigastric region before his attack at sea.

Weighed at the time he left England thirteen stone; is now very much emaciated, and supposes he would weigh about seventy-five pounds. Had a passage over of about fifty-six days. By applying a stethoscope over the stomach, a well marked bruit de soufflet was heard, but no purring sound. Vomited his food imperfectly digested five or ten minutes after taking it. Diagnosis Scirrhus. Treatment-Aqua calcis, and milk for diet. Bowels opened by common injection. May 20-Much the same, breath not so fetid. The lime water and milk checked his vomiting for a few hours only. Complains of, disagreeable taste in his mouth.

Rx Tinct. Kreasot. f.[3]ss.

Aquae f.[3] iv. ft. collutor.

The mouth to be washed with it several times daily.

21st.-Stomach much distended with wind. Twenty leeches were directed to

the epigastrium. Rx. Tinct. Menth. pip. F. [3]j dropped on sugar. This gave him considerable relief.

22d.-:Complained of pain shooting through the left side. A Burgundy plaster was applied over the left side, as a placebo, and the neutral mixture was directed.

23d.-Examined by Dr. Pennock. Diagnosis-Scirrhus of the stomach. Lime water and milk were continued. Injections of essence of beef were added, and also that he should use as much as he could by the mouth. All the food he swallowed was generally rejected. Small quantities of Tinct. opii were added to the injection. Wine whey was given him, but it was rejected.

Died on the 28th. [This should be the 27^th, the date on his burial record and his gravestone.] Twelve hours before death said something had given way in his stomach.

Autopsy, l8 hours after death by Dr. Pennock. [William must have died in the early hours of the 27^th.] Lungs normal. Heart and head not examined. Liver cirrhosed. Spleen nearly natural. Intestines not examined. Kidneys normal. Stomach almost a solid scirrhous mass from the cardiac to the pyloric orifice. Greater curvature not as thick by one half as the smaller. About one-third from the pyloric orifice along greater curvature there was an ulcerated opening, as large as a quarter of a dollar. The contents of the stomach which had been effused through this opening were found in the abdomen.

Mensuration,—Length of the stomach, following the curvature, three inches. Thickness of coat at cardia, along greater curvature, quarter of an inch. Middle half an inch, and at pylorus three quarter of an inch. The stomach would contain about five ounces. When removed from the body, it collapsed very little, and retained perfectly the outline and form of one which was distended.

                                                                                                                     E. J. Bee, M.D.

Blockley Hospital, site of the Philadelphia Almshouse
where William Burdett died

I don’t know how many times I’ve read this article, and thought about how agonizing and terrifying those last days were for Great-Great-Great-Grandfather. He was among strangers; I don’t know of any kin who might have been in Philadelphia at that time. I can only hope there was kindness shown him in those last days. It’s probably too much to hope anyone was with him in his last moments. I also wonder how and when Catherine and the children learned of his death, and the shock they would have suffered. Over the next 18 years, Catherine and at least four of the children emigrated to Philadelphia.

Asbury Methodist Church’s Burial Record Book. William Burdett's
burial is recorded at the top of the left-hand page

Asbury Methodist Church, nearby Blockley, buried the almshouse and hospital’s unclaimed dead.  William’s name appears in the church’s burial records under the heading "Interments in Breakage"*. In the 1880's when a new church was to be built over the burial ground, the bodies were removed to Mount Moriah. My guess is they are buried in a common, unmarked grave since, among Mount Moriah’s 75,000 internment records, the names of only two Burdetts--William’s wife, Catherine, and their son, John Henry Burdett—are recorded. Regardless of where his body is buried, William Burdett is commemorated on the family monument erected by William’s and Catherine’s daughter, Elizabeth (Burdett) Godber.**

*I can’t find any reference to this term, but it probably refers to autopsied bodies.

**See “What’s In a Word…Or Lack Thereof
”