Another Walk Around Sugar Lane Cemetery – Horsfall
When taking you on a walk around one of Wakefield’s cemeteries, I often wonder what I will find. Will I be surprised when I see their occupation or where they lived? Where will my little walk take me this time?
Who will get their chance today?
A granite memorial in shades of pink, white and grey – a solid structure yet simple in its design and wording ‘In Affectionate Remembrance of Henry Horsfall, Surgeon Wakefield. Born August 20th 1817. Died March 13th 1898.’
The first workable census to look for Henry is 1851. He lives at ‘Manor House’ in the All Saints Ecclesiastical District. A single man, he tells the enumerator he had been born in Wragby. His occupation fills his section and encroaches into the line below ‘General Practitioner of the Royal College of Surgeons & Pharmacists (?) of Apothecaries Hall, London’. Joseph Balmford was born in Wakefield 16 years earlier and was a medical pupil under the tutelage of Henry. Also in the male household was 25-year-old Ann Pickersgill, a servant.
Twenty years later, Henry is still a single man. His housekeeper (Domestic) is now Featherstone-born Jane Earnshaw (aged 48). Not only has he changed his housekeeper, but he has also now changed his address to Southgate. A few houses away is another surgeon, John Whiteley – a General Practitioner and a Royal College of Surgeons member.
By 1881, there has been another change in housekeepers (Jane Beckett) from Featherstone. Is this the same Jane with a name change, even though she’s saying she is single in the 1871 and 1881 census, or is she just stretching the truth a little? Henry has also been on the move again; he now lives in Burton St, St John’s.
The census of 1891 gives a house number for Henry’s house in Burton Street – six. A new general servant looks after Henry, Stanley, born Kate Wilkinson, aged 20. Kate also looks after Sarah Whiteley, aged 53, his niece. Do you remember the surname Whiteley? Dr Whiteley lived a few doors away from Henry in the 1871 census – could there be a family connection or just a coincidence?
We know a little about Henry from his census entries, but who were his parents? On the 28th of December 1817, John Horsfall, a farmer of Hill Top, Wragby and his wife Sarah, took their young son to St Micheals Church, Wragby, to be christened by J (?) Morville, Curate. John, of Hill Top, died at 50 in 1823.
John of Wragby and Sarah (Smirthwaite) are found in Pallot’s Marriage Index, 1780-1837, as being married by License in 1796. Pallot’s Marriage Index includes over 1.5 million marriages in England (three million people) from 1780 until the beginning of Civil Registration in 1837. The Boyd’s Marriage Index includes over 3.5 million marriages, kept by the Society of Genealogists and goes back to 1538 up to 1837. Both marriage indexes have been transcribed and are now available online.
What kind of person was Henry in his professional capacity? The Editor’s Letter Box of 1853, page 225 of the Association Medical Journal, exact date unknown, includes a letter dated February 19th 1853. ‘Memorial, From Medical Practitioners In Wakefield and Its Vicinity To the Royal Colleg Of Surgeons’ was signed by over 20 General Practitioners and Surgeons from Wakefield, except one from Redcar. What was Henry and his fellows up in arms about? These men, members of the Royal College of Surgeons, felt a little put out that women could be granted a Licenciate qualification in Midwifery. These men were greatly concerned that they had undergone much training over several years. Their concerns also went on to say that they felt their hard-earned qualification would be regarded less by the local people. They also thought that the College would be introducing an inferior class of practitioners into their midst. Could this annoyance also be fuelled by the fact that these midwives could take away some of the general practitioners’ and surgeons’ trade? But they did sign, ‘We have the honour to be, Gentlemen, Your obedient servants. Henry gave his address as Kirkgate – could this be the Manor House address? Other names included Benjamin Walker, Westgate End; Ebenezer Walker, sen., Wakefield; Benjamin Kemp, Westgate End; William Wood, Cheapside; and S Holdsworth of Grove House, Wakefield.
Henry and Ebenezer Walker, both members of influential surgical families, were medical officers at the Wakefield Medical District and Workhouse. Henry was also a surgeon at the headquarters of the West Riding Constabulary and a medical officer at Hatfield Colleries. Henry’s brothers John and Francis were also doctors and this family were the forerunners to one of the towns existing surgeries. Between these brothers they called the great and good of the town their patients, including Squire Warterton. Henry and Francis were the first surgeons in the North Riding to perform a Tracheostomy. The London and Provincial Medical Directory of 1850 shows Henry living and working in premises adjoining the Market Cocoa and Coffee Tavern in Manor Courtyard. He later, as we know, had premises in Southgate – does this sound familiar to those who live locally? Mr Whiteley also joined the surgery.
During the 1849 cholera epidemic, Mr Waterton distributed his own Waterton’s Pills. Henry and Waterton had a verbal conflict following the death of a patient who had been relying on Waterton’s Pills. Henry vigorously attacked Waterton for his lack of medical knowledge and interference. Henry ate humble pie and apologised to save a legal suit. Waterton had both wealth and standing in the community – Walton Hall.
The Wakefield Microscopic Society was founded by Henry and six other doctors who could vote on other people to join at the cost of 2/6d, and they must own a ‘good’ achromatic microscope. Several more doctors joined in the following years, with others attending occasional meetings.
So Henry had an interesting life. He died in March 1898 and rests, as we know, in Sugar Lane Cemetery. The Probate for his estate was granted to John Horsfall and Frederick Wilson Horsfall, both farmers, the following month. His estate had been re-sworn in September, and the amount had been increased slightly to £113,277 17s 7d. Frederick Wilson Horsfall moved to Potto Grange, Northallerton and lived on private means. When he died in 1920, he left just over £16,000.