Resume

This chapter concentrates on the sons and daughters of mariner Matthew Nosworthy who settled in the North East of England in the fifth decade of the nineteenth century. His two marriages were the foundation of the Nessworthy dynasty of Tyneside. The first part of this article (The Nessworthys of Tyneside: Chapter 2. Brothers and Sisters Part 1: The children of Matthew Nessworthy and Mary Ridley) dealt with the children of his first wife who died in August 1866. As has been mentioned previously, Victorian and Edwardian Britain saw that the typical family were large but infant and childhood mortality tended to be very high This second part charts the history of the offspring from Matthew's second marriage. The glossary at the end will attempt to make sense of some of the archaeic medical terms which were used to explain away these deaths.

The children of Matthew Nessworthy and Mary Bainbridge

Matthew Nessworthy remarried at St Mary's Church Tyne Dock on April 27th 1867, nine months after his wife Mary Ridley died. Mary Bainbridge was a mariner's widow and brought with her a seven year old daughter, Mary Elizabeth Meech. Matthew moved out of the house at Marshall's Quay and made a new home south of the South Shields market place in Garden Lane. He also returned to sea almost immediately.

Helen Nessworthy (1867-1867)

Within a couple of months of their marriage, Mary discovered that she was pregnant. The house at Garden Lane was a hectic environment with her own daughter and five young step children to contend with. In this she may have found difficulty coping. In the interests of conformity it does appear that Mary Elizabeth Meech was encouraged to adopt the Nessworthy surname. Mary's own sister Ellen Bainbridge had married Robert Ramsdale in 1860 and lived two doors away in the same street.

As it was the middle of winter, Matthew was at home for Mary's confinement. The baby, which they named Helen, was born on December 7th 1867 but died within twenty four hours. A diagnosis of 'imperfect respiration' was entered. Matthew registered the death.

Jane Ann Nessworthy (1870-1872)

At the start of the new decade Matthew felt the need to move the family from Garden Lane closer to his familiar Shadwell Street surroundings. They settled in Heron Street. Mary was pregnant again and duly gave birth to another daughter, Jane Ann, on August 15th 1870. The infant became unwell and lost weight during the summer of 1872. Her condition deteriorated rapidly with a gastrointestinal infection and a baptismal service was held at St Stephen's Church on September 9th 1872. Now in the later stages of her next pregnancy, this time with twins, Mary became increasingly reliant on help from her sister Ellen Ramsdale. Ellen sat with the little girl and was with her when she died two days later. Ellen also registered Jane Ann's death.

Grace Ann Nessworthy (1872-1933)

Grace Ann was one of twin girls born to Mary Nessworthy at 33 Heron Street, South Shields, on November 25th 1872. She and her sister Mary Ellen were baptised together in a service at St Hilda's Church on January 22nd 1873. Little is known of her childhood except that she saw the birth of a younger brother when she was three and her older half brothers progressively drifted away from the family home. Another move ensued before the date of the census in April 1881, this time to one of the multi-family tenements at 19 Wellington Street. Grace shared two rooms with her mother, sister and brother. Three doors away was the family of her uncle Robert Ridley Nessworthy.

Grace married James Fox, a coal miner from Newcastle upon Tyne who was five years older than she was at St Mary's Church, Tyne Dock on February 2nd 1895. This was the same church where her mother Mary had married Matthew Nessworthy nearly 30 years before. The couple were lodged at Bede Street for the ceremony. Mary Nessworthy's health had been failing for some time and within six months of Grace's marriage, she was dead of paralysis and cerebral softening. The couple were aware too that Matthew Nessworthy was unable to cope on his own and was taken into the care of the South Shields Union Workhouse, Harton, the following year. James and Grace set up home in Southey Street, a cul de sac which lay between the grounds of St Marks Church Vicarage and the cutting which carried the South Shields, Marsden and Whitburn Colliery railway line. That was their address in 1901 when they were living with their two year old daughter Mary. Shortly after, James moved the family a quarter of a mile east to 43 Canterbury Street. This was a new housing development being built between Westoe Parade (now Mortimer Road) and the cricket ground. When her father died in the Harton Workhouse in February 1903, Grace reported his death.

Our knowledge of Grace's childbearing and raising remains incomplete. The 1901 census return gives no indication of the sadness already present in the household or the grief which was to follow. It is clear from the census return of 1911 that Grace had borne eight children of whom six were dead. A search of the birth and death registers confirms that four were born before the turn of the century. The first, a daughter named Ethel Maud was born on July 20th 1896 and was baptised at St Hilda's Church on August 16th 1896. She died on January 24th 1899 of pneumonia. The next, a son Richard, was born on June 18th 1897 and was baptised three weeks later. He does not appear on the 1901 census return and no death certificate for him has been found. A second daughter Catherine was born at the beginning of 1898 but died within a few months.The sole survivor of the 1901 census, Mary Elizabeth, was born in December 1898. She died shortly afterwards on August 5th 1901. The death certificate suggests that she had been suffering from a congenital heart defect and had succumbed to bronchitis.

We know of two sons born after the turn of the century. William Richard was born on June 15th 1901 and was baptised two weeks later. James Edwin Fox was born on April 28th 1905 and was baptised at St Hilda's Church on May 21st 1905. That leaves two babies unaccounted for. Another daughter, also named Catherine, was born in the summer of 1915. Grace died in South Shields in 1933. She was 61 years of age.

(Live births: 9 - Early deaths: 6)

Mary Ellen Nessworthy (1872-unknown)

Mary Ellen shared her childhood with her twin sister, Grace. In the early 1890s, the family moved along the road to 45 Wellington Street. Towards the end of 1892, Mary Ellen became pregnant. She gave birth to a son she named Robert Robson Nessworthy on May 13th 1893. The baby was baptised on August 13th 1893 at St Hilda's church. After Grace left to get married, Mary Ellen stayed with her mother and baby son in the family home until her mother's death in August 1895.

Mary Ellen spent some time north of the river where she met Richard Gillow Campbell who was a rivet heater in a shipyard. He was four years younger than Mary Ellen, born in 1876 to John and Ann Campbell. John had at least four known sisters. The family were living in Milk Street in the Chirton district of North Shields in 1891. The couple were married on September 21st 1897. As Richard was a practicing Roman Catholic, the ceremony took place at St Cuthbert's Church in North Shields. It was witnessed by John Cunningham and Richard's sister Barbara Ann Campbell.

As with her sister, records of Mary Ellen's obstetric history remain incomplete. Richard and Mary Ellen made their first home at 9, Middle Street, Tynemouth. The census return for 1901 records them living with their 2 year old daughter, Barbara Ann. However, this return is also naively deceptive. The census return which Richard completed ten years later, revealed an even more harrowing tragedy that Grace's. As of that date Mary Ellen had delivered nine children - and eight of them were dead. Clues to the identities of some of these babies have been discovered in the St Cuthbert Parish Records although these were sometimes not easy to interpret as the names had been transposed into a quasi-Latin equivalent (William becomes Gulielmus; James becomes Jacobus).

The first to be born was Margaret Ann Campbell who arrived in the spring of 1897 prior to her parent's marriage. She was baptised on October 5th 1897. Next was a son, George, in the summer of 1898. He was baptised on August 25th 1898 and died three days later. Margaret Ann died in the same month. Barbara Ann was born on August 11th 1899 and was baptised on August 27th at St Cuthbert's Church. This constituted the family in the pages of the 1901 census. The 1901 census also poses one further question: what happened to Robert Robson Nessworthy? He does not figure in the annals of the Campbell family and has not been found in this census return.

Mary Ellen was heavily pregnant at the time of the 1901 census and duly gave birth to another daughter on May 2nd that year. The baby was baptised Ann on May 29th. Unfortunately she contracted a summer diarrhoeal disease from which she died on July 18th 1901. She was buried in Preston Cemetery, North Shields two days later. Her death, due to Zymotic enteritis was registered by her aunt S. Robinson. Almost immediately, Mary Ellen became pregnant again. In the interim, the family moved from Tynemouth to Cross Street, North Shields. Another daughter was born in May 1902 and was baptised Mary Ellen on June 22nd 1902. This little girl survived for two winters until she caught a respiratory infection which led to pneumonia, a high fever and convulsions. She died on December 27th 1904. Her death was registered by another of Richard's relatives Mary Jane Campbell.

Towards the end of the decade it appears that Richard Campbell continued to work in the shipyard. His new job title was that of a plater's helper. The plater laid down contoured sheets of steel to form the hull of the vessel which were then rivetted into place. The rivets were heated to white heat, placed through predrilled holes and then hammered home to seal the plates together. He also moved the family to Skipsey's Quay, North Shields. James William Campbell was born on August 16th 1907 and was baptised on April 11th 1908. He developed pulmonary tuberculosis from which he died on November 19th 1910. What is particularly striking is that the death was reported by Barbara Ann Campbell, James Williams' 11 year old sister (See Footnote 2). At the time of the 1911 census, daughter Barbara Ann was the only surviving child. This record however still leaves three dead babies unaccounted for. The 1911 census is also fascinating for other reasons. They were staying in South Shields at 42 Wellington Street, the home of her half nephew Robert Nessworthy, his wife Jane Harrison and their family. He was the son of her oldest half brother Robert Ridley Nessworthy who had died in an asylum in Yorkshire the previous August. His widow, Elizabeth, and her youngest son lived next door at number 40. This was just a couple of doors away from Mary Ellen's own family home at number 45 which was now occupied by William Robert Nessworthy, Robert and Jane's oldest son. No reason for this family gathering has been discovered.

The second point of interest in the 1911 census is the reappearance of Robert Robson Nessworthy. Now a 17 year old he was boarding with coal hewer John O'Brien and his wife Elizabeth at 528 John Williamson Street to the south of South Shields. No relationship between the Cambells or Nessworthys and the O'Briens have been discovered. Robert was a milk cart driver. Sometime during 1913, Robert then moved south to York where he met local girl Mary, the 21 year old daughter of railway blacksmith Richard Wilson. Robert also enlisted in the Army where he became a private with the 1st batallion, the East Yorkshire Regiment (The Duke of York's Own). At the beginning of 1914 he was stationed at Fulford Barracks, York. He married Mary at the Register Office in York on January 19th 1914. At the beginning of the war he was sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force and was killed in action at the first battle of Armentières on October 20th 1914 (2). He is commemmorated on Panel 4 of the Ploegsteert Memorial which stands at Hainaut, Belgium. (See also The Nessworthys at war)

By the end of 1911 the Campbells had moved back across the river and Mary Ellen was pregnant again. Another daughter was born in the summer of 1912 who was baptised Annie. The family settled in Middle Street, Tynemouth. Mary Ellen began her final pregnancy at the beginning of 1914. During the year, her small daughter became ill with weight loss, pain and abdominal swelling. Within weeks of Mary Ellen's due date, Annie died on September 13th 1914. Her aunt, J A Cunningham, had sat with her through the final hours and had registered her death. The cause was given as tuberculous peritonitis. A boy was delivered in October 1914. He was given the name Thomas Lowes Steen Campbell. The infant became unwell within a year and died on July 10th 1916. The cause of death was given as tuberculous meningitis and convulsions.

Richard Gillow Campbell continued living in North Shields until his death on March 3rd 1950. He was buried in Preston Cemetery, North Shields. We have not yet discovered when Mary Ellen died but the entry in the England Deaths and Burials 1538-1991 Index for Richard suggest that she was still alive.

(Live births: 11 - Early deaths: 10)

Mrs Barbara Ann Nicholls

Richard and Mary Ellen were able to see the marriage of their daughter Barbara Ann to Walter White Nicholls on August 10th 1915 at St Cuthbert's Church, North Shields. Walter's origins are shrouded in mystery. The best fit scenario is that he was born in 1893 in Nottingham as Walter White, the son of Sarah White. A Walter White then appears at the Nottingham Childrens' Training Institute in the census of 1901. This establishment was founded in 1880 in the premises of the old Radford Workhouse when its parent Union was absorbed into the Nottingham Union. Set up under the 1876 Elementary Education Act these institutions were designed to provide industrial training, basic education and food for pauper children and others in need of care. They could also provide placement for trainees with suitable aptitude into the Armed Forces. Sarah White then married a Peter Nicholls in Nottingham in 1903.

Walter Nicholls named Peter Nicholls, a colliery banksman, as his father on the marriage certificate. Coal miner, Peter Nicholls, was resident in the Mansfield Workhouse in April 1911. In September the same year he was sentenced to 7 days in Wakefield Jail for 'lodging out', a term which implies homelessness under the Vagrancy Acts.

We do not know where Barbara Ann met Walter but the address he gave at the time of the marriage was The Camp, Backworth (a village about six miles north east of North Shields. He was a stoneman and trainee miner by trade but had also enlisted in the Army with the Sherwood Foresters Regiment on December 21st 1914. As private 20987 he was assigned to the 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion which was stationed at Sunderland and other sites around Tyneside including Backworth Camp as part of the Tyne Garrison. Part of the training included experience of trenches dug in an area near Whitley Bay in preparation for warfare in France. Commenting on conditions, one correspondent wrote (3): "We get the stiff Sea Breeze all day from Whitley Bay which is barely 3 miles from where we are camping. We get 6½ hours drill a day. Whitley Bay is one of the most dangerous parts of the coast. We have been through emptying the trenches with buckets, some being half full of water." The battalion embarked for France on August 15th 1915 and spent most of the War on the Western Front.

After the wedding ceremony, Barbara Ann returned to the family home in Middle Street Tynemouth. It was she who registered the death of Thomas, her final brother. She and Walter were to have eight children together. Their first born, on February 23rd, was named Walter. The baby was never strong and died 22 days later on March 14th 1916. The death, attributed to 'lack of breast milk and debility', was recorded by his aunt E. Adams. Second son Frederick was born on October 7th 1917.

Walter was wounded in action and was invalided out of the Army on March 6th 1918. He was awarded the Silver War Badge as well as the usual three campaign medals. He remained unemployed into the early 1920s when he became a wood hawker. A third son, who was also named Walter, was born on March 19th 1920 but only survived for 30 minutes. By 1922, the family had moved to 45 North Street, Tynemouth. Barbara Ann was to have two daughters there, neither of which survived for long. Alice was born towards the end of 1921 but died of bronchitis and convulsions on March 13th 1922. Sarah Ellen was born in January but died of gastritis and convulsions on February 11th 1923. In the latter part of the decade the family lived at 33 Tyne Street, North Shields where a son and three more daughters were born, all of whom survived to adulthood.

Walter died in October 1937. The following year, Barbara Ann married Cyril Robert White who was Walter's cousin. They had two children before Barbara Ann died in 1943.

Continued in column 2...

First added November 1st 2014

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James Henry Nessworthy (1875-1953)

The last of Matthew Nessworthy's sons was born on February 7th 1875 at Heron Street, South Shields. His mother was in her fortieth year. By his sixth birthday he had moved with his mother and twin sisters to 19 Wellington Street where he remained while he was growing up. After he left school he took an apprenticeship as a bricklayer.

James married Isabella Addison at St Mary's Church, Tyne Dock on June 24th 1896. The couple were lodging in Dock Street, about 100 yards away from the church for the ceremony. One of the witnesses was William Gardener. We cannot be certain of his relationship to the couple but a Gardener family had been James' next door neighbours at 18 Wellington Street in the years prior to the marriage: the eldest of their sons, William, being a shipwright. Isabella was born in 1874, the second daughter of mariner George Addison and his wife Isabella Tennet. Although the couple were originally from North Shields they had settled in Brunswick Street, South Shields by 1870. George Addison's mother was Alice Nott. She had a number of sons, including Stephen Nott born in 1836. George and Isabella Addison in turn had four sons and five daughters. Their oldest son (born 1869) had been baptised Meldrum whilst their youngest (born 1888) had been baptised Stephen Knott Addison. James' niece Isabella (the daughter of his oldest half brother Robert Ridley Nessworthy and Susannah Sheals) had married Joseph Nott, a joiner from North Shields, two years previously.

As a seventeen year old, Isabella had been living with her now married brother Meldrum and his family in Shadwell Street as a domestic servant. She had seen her younger sister Mary Alice Addison marry stone mason Ralph Turner in the summer of 1895. On the day of her own wedding she was about five months pregnant with her first child. James and Isabella found a house at 12 Ladies Walk, a narrow street which ran parallel to Wellington Street opposite St Stephen's Churchyard. The baby was born on October 16th 1896 and was baptised Jenny Gardner Nessworthy (presumably named in honour of William, the witness) although as she grew up the girl became known as Jane. Two sons followed before the turn of the century: James Henry in the summer of 1898 and Meldrum Addison (named for his uncle) in the spring of 1900.

James found himself in a spot of bother with the law on November 29th 1902 (6). He had been out drinking and had ordered a cab to take him from the railway station to Wellington Street. On arrival he refused to pay the fare. A policeman, Constable Hymers, was called and a scuffle ensued when Hymers was bitten on the finger and struck in the face. James was arrested for being drunk and disorderly and charged with assault. James appeared at the Police Court on December 1st where he claimed he could not remember anything about the incident. He was fined 12s 6d. and costs and was also ordered to pay the cab fare of one shilling.

In the summer of 1903, Isabella saw her younger sister Frances Scott Addison marry seventeen year old William Ford Burdon. A son they named John Arthur was born the following November. Frances' happiness was shortlived. William died in March 1904, his funeral on April 1st organised by the Shields Branch of the National Amalgamated Union of Labour (7). Within weeks, Frances' infant son was taken ill and died. He was buried at St Stephen's Church on May 9th 1904 (8). Frances was to marry again, this time to shipyard worker John Brown, at the beginning of 1909.

During that first decade of the new century, Isabella presented James with another five children, all of which were given significant second names. Three (Stephen, 1904; George, 1906 and Isabella, 1908) received the name Addison. William, born on April 5th 1902, was baptised Alder. John, born September 9th 1910, was baptised Brown. By the time of the census of 1911, the family, James and Isabella and seven of their children had moved to 14 Heugh Street. James was now working as a fisherman. Oldest daughter Jane was at home giving her mother domestic help. The child missing from the list was Meldrum who was away visiting his uncle and aunt, John and Frances Brown who now lived on the other side of the river in Wallsend. Isabella's next younger sister, Mary Alice Turner, had settled in a house just around the corner from Heugh Street at 87, Palatine Street. She and Ralph shared two rooms in the house with their six children. In the fifteen years since their marriage, she had given birth to another four children who had died young.

Meldrum returned to the family home from Wallsend but was taken ill that autumn. He died on October 22nd 1911 of bronchopneumonia. James and Isabella were to have two more children and two more early deaths. Septimus (seventh son) was born at the beginning of 1913. Their daughter Isabella was always a sickly child, crippled with juvenile rheumatoid arthitis. The same year she was admitted to the Ingham Infirmary where she died on November 19th 1913 from enteritis and internal haemorrhage. Meldrum and Isabella's deaths were both reported by their aunt Mary Ann Turner. Their last child, another daughter, was born in 1915. She was named Isabella Addison after her dead sister.

The next decade saw a flurry of marriages. First to tie the knot was William Alder Nessworthy who married Rosina Bell James in the spring of 1920. Next was James Henry who married Gladys Richards in 1923. They named a daughter Isabella Addison who sadly died shortly after birth. Stephen Addison Nessworthy married Martha Jackson on Boxing Day 1925. Their first three sons were named Meldrum Addison, James Henry and Stephen Addison, Their second daughter was named Isabella Addison.

Son James became a slater and sustained a nasty injury when working on a roof in Hebburn in December 1928. In the frosty conditions the roof ladder slipped causing the two men on it to fall. They struck the main ladder which James was climbing. He fell to the ground sustaining a compound fracture of his right leg. He spent several weeks in hospital (9)

James and Isabella continued to live in South Shields. Isabella died in the spring of 1936 at the age of 62 years. James lived on for another seventeen years until his death in the spring of 1953.

(Live births: 10 - Early deaths: 2)

Mary Elizabeth Meech

For completeness we are including Matthew Nessworthy's step daughter in this section. Mary was the second child, and only surviving daughter of Ephraim Meech and Mary Bainbridge. Her older sister had died a few months before she was born on December 18th 1859. Her younger sister died a couple of months after her father had drowned in the sinking of the Auspicious in the North Sea on March 31st 1863. She was seven years old when Matthew Nessworthy married Mary Bainbridge.

It is apparent from the records that she was encouraged to use her stepfather's name. She was entered on the 1871 census return for Heron Street as Mary E Nesworthy, daughter aged 11 years of Matthew Nesworthy (Captain). She had left home and does not appear on the 1881 census when the family had moved to Wellington Street. She married Robert Hunter in 1883 under her birth name of Meech. They settled in Whitehall Street, a new development in the Tyne Dock area south of the West End Park. The registration of her first son child, Ephraim Meech Hunter, born on August 4th 1883 records her as Mary Hunter formerly Nessworthy. A daughter, Jane Ann, was born in 1885.

The Tally

Brought Forward from Part 1	Live births: 68 - Early deaths: 23
Subtotal Part 2	Live births: 30 - Early deaths: 18
TOTAL BOTH BRANCHES	Live births: 98 - Early deaths: 41

Footnote 1: The naming of children

We have noticed a recurring theme throughout this chapter in the naming of children, particularly with the second baptismal name. When this occurs it frequently appears to be a surname. In many instances, the origin of this surname is obvious but there are occasions when this is not so. In Scotland in the nineteenth century there was a naming tradition which followed a simple set of rules (10) which is reproduced below. We can see examples of this in our own family tree although on occasions the first and second convention is reversed.

First son named after father's father: William Nessworthy White after William Nessworthy
Second son named after mother's father: Robert Ridley Nessworthy (he was a first born)
Third son named after father: William Nessworthy after William Nessworthy
First daughter named after mother's mother: Mary Ann Nessworthy after Mary Ann Trail
Second daughter named after father's mother: Grace Ann Nessworthy after Grace Palk (she was second surviving daughter)
Third daughter named after mother: Joan Lennie Nessworthy

The same source also notes that children may be named after other people of influence to the family or community such as a minister, doctor, midwife or close friend. We have shown examples where the child has been named after a less direct relation (John Brown Nessworthy: Brown from his mother's sister's husband), a step relation (David Mason Nessworthy from a maternal grandmother's second husband), a next door neighbour (Jenny Gardner Nessworthy from William Gardener) and probably a workmate (Meldrum Nessworthy from mariner Oscar Meldrum). This leaves a number of surnames for which we have yet to find a link. These include Orange, Heckles and Dixon. We are still looking.

Footnote 2: Informants

As part of this study, we questioned whether it was feasible that a death could have been registered by someone so young. We received the following response from the General Register Office: As there is nothing in current legislation (ie The Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953), and it is believed there would not have been anything in the legislation being used at the time of these births, it would have been for the registering officer at the time to have made a decision with regards trusting of the information being given by a minor (as it is today). If the registrar was satisfied that the information given by the sister of these two children was full and truthful, and neither mother, father or both parents together had been available to give information for these registrations - there is no reason the birth of James W. CAMPBELL could not have been made from information given by an 11-year old minor. - Barry Whittaker, Her Majesty's Passport Office, General Register Office

Glossary: Causes of Death

Deducing what a person died of from the study of the death certificate is often fraught with difficulty. This is particularly the case with infants and children. Supporting evidence (such as the length of time the condition was ongoing) was sometimes reported but in very early deaths important information (such as prematurity) was usually missing. As often as not, the registered cause of death will have been based on the symptom (what the patient complained of) or the sign (what the attending practitioner saw) rather than a proven pathological condition. Some were obvious, such as the infectious diseases (scarlet fever, cholera or measles) when an epidemic swept through a community and the patient presented with a characteristic rash or other sign. Others though are couched in vague or archaeic Latin sounding terms (such as Zymotic enteritis) which hid a basic lack of knowledge. Some early certificates were registered as "unknown - no medical attendant" or "Suddenly - natural causes". This section will list some of the conditions recorded on the Victorian and Edwardian death certificates issued in respect of this family line and attempt to correlate them with current understanding.

The scourges

Tuberculosis:Tuberculosis or consumption is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis which was discovered by Robert Koch in 1882. The primary route of infection is through breathing in droplets expressed by an infected person by way of exhalation, coughing or sneezing. Tuberculosis can affect most systems of the body. The pulonary form which used to be called phthisis causes blood stained sputum, weight loss and night sweats. The skeleton can be attacked leading to fractures of the long bones and spinal vertebrae and destructuve arthritis of joints. Most internal organs can be damaged by cheese-like tuberculous lesions called caseous necrosis. The lining of the abdomen, the peritoneum can become studded with deposits: a condition which used to be called tabes mesenterica.

In pregnancy, the bacterium can damage the placenta and can be passed to the foetus which drinks contaminated amniotic fluid. The fate of the infant often depended on how long the mother had been harbouring tuberculosis. If this was advanced, then the child would either be stillborn or die soon after birth. If the mother had only recently been infected the child may appear normal at birth but symptoms develop within a few weeks of life. Infants would also be vulnerable to infection through overcrowding and close contact with tuberculous family members and neighbours. Another significant source of infection was through milk. The mother may not be able to supply adequate breast milk and rely on cows milk. Around 1900 milk production was unregulated and tended to be heavily contaminated. One source reported one third of London milk samples to contain pus from diseased udders and only 4% of Manchester samples were clean. Contamination was everywhere from dust and particles of manure in the cowshed to dirt from road and rail transport.

Syphilis: Even today, perhaps one of the most feared, least understood and unspoken diseases is syphilis. In nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain it was endemic with perhaps one in ten households and families suffering the effects and consequences of infection. The aetiology and progress of the disease was slowly being uncovered but treatment was crude and unpredictable. Syphilis is a (virually always) sexually transmitted disease caused by a thin corkscrew-shaped organism: a spirochaete called Treponema Pallidum. The disease runs a protracted course of five stages. Primary syphillis occurs at the point of entry of the organism into the body ((through mucous membrane or skin) producing a small painless sore called a chancre. The incubation period is between 10 days and three months. If internal, the chancre may go unnoticed and in any event heals without treatment.

Secondary syphilis is a manifestation of the organism spreading throughout the body. Usually occuring two to six months after infection, it is characterised by a rash - particularly on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet - and weeping sores on the skin and mucous membranes. There may be swelling of the lymph glands and inflammation of the eyes, brain and many organs of the body. The symptoms may subside over the course of a year or so.

The disease now enters its latent phase when the condition may appear dormant. Latent syphilis is divided into two periods. In the early latent period, up to two years from infection, the patient may have relapses of the symptoms and signs of the secondary form. In late latency, recurrences are much less likely and this stage may last for many years.

The final stage is tertiary syphilis which occurs in about 40% of cases. The disease is thought to be a hypersensitivy reaction to the organism and can take several forms. Gummatous infiltration causes rubbery tumour-like growths to occur in the skin, bones, eyes, liver and stomach lining. Cardiovascular syphilis causes damage to the coronary arteries leading to heart attacks, the aorta leading to aneurysm formation and rupture and scarring of the heart valves. Neurosyphilis which occurs in about 10% of untreated patients anywhere between 5 and 40 years following infection affects the brain and spinal cord. Tabes dorsalis (locomotor ataxia) causes a degeneration of the spinal cord which causes shooting pains in the limbs, a progressive loss of reflexes, walking control and bodily functions. General paralysis of the insane damages the cortex of the brain with memory loss and personality changes.

Without treatment the patient is highly infectious during the primary, secondary and early latent stages of the disease. This is of particular importance to women who become pregnant. The spirochaete can pass through the placenta to infect the foetus or the child can be infected through contact with a chancre in the birth canal. It is estimated that half of such pregnancies result in miscarriages or the baby dies shortly after birth. Those that survive may show early signs similar to adult secondary syphilis (rashes, anaemia, bronchopneumonia and nasal discharge) within two to eight weeks of birth. Roughly half will have brain involvement. Some children do not develop signs until after two years. These include destruction of the nasal cartilage (saddle nose), corneal scarring leading to blindness, deafness, notched (Hutchinson's) incisor teeth, long bone deformity and mental retardation.

The chances of a baby being infected depends on the stage of the mother's disease. Untreated primary and secondary syphilis leads to almost 100% infection. This drops to about 40% in the early latent stage and 10% in the late latent stage. This leads to a characteristic obstetric pattern in a woman with a large number of pregnancies. She may start off with normal births (prior to her own infection), which is then followed by a series of miscarriages, then stillbirths, then children with congenital syphilis who die early, then children with congenital syphilis who survive, and finally normal children. This phenomenon was first described in 1875 and is known as Kassovitz's Law.

Wasting diseases

There is a whole lexicon of terms which were applied to various conditions characterised by weight loss, generalised weakness and disinterest. In general these terms appear to have been interchangeable although some were more appropriately applied to the elderly. These include Asthenia: from a greek word, signifying a profound weakness or loss of strenghth; Debility: Weakness or enfeeblement, usually of old age; Atrophy: The wasting away of the whole or part of the body mass or organ; Natural decline: death without an obvious cause.

A medical textbook written in 1908 (11) includes a chapter entitled The Derangements of Nutrition which, it reports, form a very large class of ailments of infancy, particularly during the first year. The symptoms are sufficiently definite and characteristic for them to be regarded as separate diseases. These cases are often very puzzling, and in a large number of them a diagnosis of some constitutional disease, such as hereditary syphilis or tuberculosis or organic disease of the stomach or intestines is erroneously made. The author lays the blame with the infant's capacity to digest and partly to the food it is being presented with. He divides these cases into three groups: inanition, malnutrition and marasmus.

Inanition: exhaustion from lack of food and water (literally the state of being empty) is starvation either through an insufficiency of food or through the inability to absorb it. Progress is rapid lasting from a few days to a few weeks and is most common in the first three months of life. Marasmus: Emaciation from severe malnutrition and a lack of all forms of energy intake. Body weight is reduced to less than 60% of expected weight for age. Progress is much slower but more profound than in inanition and lasts for months. Malnutrition is a description of the intermediate situation.

Miscellaneous

Imperfect respiration is an archaeic term which described the death of an infant who failed to breathe properly. It would now probably be defined as Respiratory Distress Syndome or Hyaline Membrane Disease. The condition occurs for a number of reasons but is particularly seen in premature, low birth weight infants. Insufficiency of the placenta, antepartum haemorrhage and diabetes have also been implicated. After birth, the lungs fail to expand properly and the baby suffers from hypoxia which leads on to brain damage. (12).

Dentition is a term synonymous with teething. It was wrongly considered a cause of death particularly during the middle of the nineteenth century. It became so widespread a diagnosis that in 1842 it accounted for 4.8% of all infants dying in London. The underlying cause of death could have been any of the common infantile ailments, including infection, which occurred at the same time that the child was teething (13)

Capillary bronchitis or pneumococcal bronchiolitis is an acute respiratory infection affecting in particular the smaller branches of the bronchial tree - the passages leading into the lungs. Even in 1903, some authorities were questioning whether it should be considered a separate disease entity rather than just one presentation of bronchopneumonia. (14)

Syncope is a faint or loss of consciousness. Usually caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure it is a sign rather than a diagnosis.

Dropsy: is a swelling or collection of fluid in the body tissues. Now called oedema, it could be a symptom of heart, liver or kidney disease

References

1. 'Wellington Street looking north' and two views of 19 Wellington Street: Historic images of South Tyneside Southtynesideimages
2. The Race to the Sea 1914: The Battle of Armentières Wikipedia
3. 'Lea Mills Notes & Letters' Herbert Crooks Crich Parish
4. First World War Stars and Medals: Sarah Jane Framing and Medals
5. The Silver War Badge (and King's Regulations for Discharge) Wikipeda
6 'A Bricklayer in Trouble' Shields Daily Gazette December 2nd 1902. British Library Newspaper Archive
7. Public Notices: Shields Daily Gazette Thursday March 31st 1904 British Library Newspaper Archive
8. Deaths: Shields Daily Gazette. Saturday May 7th 1904. British Library Newspaper Archive
9 'Roof Ladder Slips: Three Workmen Fall 30 feet into Yard': The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. December 19th 1928. British Library Newspaper Archive
10. 'Traditional Naming Patterns' Forename Variants Scotlands People
11. Holt, L. Emmett MD, ScD, LLD: "The Diseases of Infancy and Childhood" D Appleton & Co. New York and London 1908
12. Imperfect Respiration Caring for the small and sick neonate.
13. Teething Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
14. Clark, C.P. and Batman F.H.: 'Pneumococcal bronchiolitis (Capillary bronchitis)' The Journal of Infectious Disease Vol. 1 No. 2 pp 229-235 1904

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