Patient Case Study: White, Charles

(alias Charles HARRIS)

In-patient, 1842 & 1857

 

HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS RECORD

Hospital Dorset County Hospital Patient type In-patient
Number – Date admitted 19 May 1842
Name White, Charles Renewed –
Age – Under whose care –
Occupation – Disease –
Parish – Discharged 30 Jun 1842
Recommended by R. Williams Junr. Esq. Outcome Cured
Source Dorset History Centre, Dorset County Hospital management committee minutes 1841-46, NG/HH/DO(C)/10L/191, pp. 88 & 96

 

Hospital Dorset County Hospital Patient type In-patient
Number 3999 Date admitted 13 Aug 1857
Name White, Charles Renewed –
Age 59 Under whose care Mr. Tapp
Occupation Sweep Disease Chimney sweeps’ cancer
Parish Holy Trinity [Wareham] Discharged 17 Sep 1857
Recommended by Wareham Union Outcome Cured
Source Dorset History Centre, Dorset County Hospital in-patient admissions register 1847-59, NG/HH/DO(C)/5/2/1


OTHER SOURCES 

  1. Convicted for “stealing a gun &c.” on 25 Feb 1833 and sentenced to 12 calendar months’ hard labour at Dorchester Prison: Name Charles Harris – Age 24 – Parish Newport, Isle of Wight – Trade Chimney sweep – Condition Single – Stature 4’11½ – Hair Dark brown – Eyes Dark grey – Complexion Sallow – Marks A cut in the middle of the forehead longwise and into the hair, a cut on the right nostril, a large cut in the left eye brow, lightly pitted in the face with the small pox – Behaviour in prison Orderly – When discharged 1834 8 March. [Dorset History Centre, Dorchester Prison, prisoner register 1827-39, NG/PR1/D2/2, page 149, entry 311]
  1. Listed among prisoners committed to the Lent Assizes: “Charles Harris, stealing a screw-gun the property of John Burr; also ferrets and rabbit-nets, the property of J. S. W. S. E. Drax, Esq., of Charborough”. [Dorset County Chronicle, 07/03/1833, p. 4]
  1. Convicted for trespass (stealing rabbits) on 29 Dec 1838 and sentenced to one calendar month’s hard labour at Dorchester Prison: Name Charles Harris – Age 31 – Parish Wareham – Trade Chimney sweep – Condition Single – Stature 4’11¼ – Hair Brown – Eyes Grey – Complexion Sallow – Marks Very much pocked marked in the nose, the little finger right hand crooked – Behaviour in prison Orderly – When discharged 1839 28 Janry. (Reference is made to the conviction in 1833.) [Dorset History Centre, Dorchester Prison, prisoner register 1838-44, NG/PR1/D2/3, p. 3, entry 283]
  1. Convicted for trespass (robbing gardens) on 28 Aug 1839 and sentenced to two calendar months’ hard labour at Dorchester Prison. Name Chas. Harris – Behaviour in prison Orderly – Instruction N [none] – When discharged 1839 26 Octr. (No personal details recorded but reference is made to the conviction in 1838.) [Dorset History Centre, Dorchester Prison, prisoner register 1838-44, NG/PR1/D2/3, p. 26, entry 40]
  1. Charles White, sweep, aged 30, bachelor of Lady St. Mary, Wareham, son of William White, sailor (deceased), married, Jane Tarrant, bonnet-maker, aged 39, widow, daughter of Simon Stockley, labourer, on 20 Sep 1840 at Lady St. Mary, Wareham. Neither party could sign their names. [Dorset History Centre, Lady St. Mary, Wareham marriage register, PE/WA: RE 3/5, p. 17, entry 34]
  1. 1841 census (6 Jun) – Charles Harris, sweep, aged 30, born outside of Dorset, was living with Jane, aged 35, at Trinity Lane, Wareham. [The National Archives, 1841 census, HO107/295/8, folio 9, p. 12]
  1. Convicted for breach of the peace on 19 Jun 1841 and sentenced to six calendar months’ imprisonment at Dorchester prison: Name Chas. Harris – Behaviour in prison Orderly – Instruction N [none] – When discharged 1841 2 July – Remarks By order of County Justices Order annexed to Warrant of Commencement. (No personal details but there is an incomplete reference to an earlier conviction.) [Dorset History Centre, Dorchester Prison, prisoner register 1838-44, NG/PR1/D2/3, p. 96, entry 162]
  1. Convicted (with Willm. Thorne and Chas. Thorne) for night poaching on 18 Dec 1841 and sentenced to two calendar months’ hard labour at Dorchester prison: Name Charles Harris otherwise White – Behaviour in prison Orderly – Instruction N [none] – When discharged 1842 17 Feby. – Remarks Entered into recognizance themselves before Revd. Mr. Churchill and their sureties taken before the Justices at Wareham. See Mr. Barlett’s letter annexed to Warrant of Commencement. (No personal details but there is reference to the conviction earlier in 1841.) [Dorset History Centre, Dorchester Prison, prisoner register 1838-44, NG/PR1/D2/3, p. 111, entry 248]
  1. Possible death of wife – Jane Sophia White, aged 48, of Trinity Lane, buried on 5 Mar 1846 at Lady St. Mary, Wareham. [Dorset History Centre, Lady St. Mary, Wareham burial register, PE/WA: RE 4/2, p. 60, entry 480]
  1. Charles White, sweep, of full age, widower of Holy Trinity, Wareham, son of Charles [not William] White, sailor, married, Eliza Stanley, of full age, widow, daughter of Henry Tuck, shoemaker, on 26 Jan 1847 at Lady St. Mary, Wareham. Neither party could sign their names. [Dorset History Centre, Lady St. Mary, Wareham marriage register, PE/WA: RE 3/5, p. 65, entry 130]
  1. 1851 census – Charles White, chimney sweep, aged 42, married, born in London, was living with his wife Eliza, aged 51, at Waterloo Buildings, Wareham. [The National Archives, 1851 census, HO107/1856, folio 404, p. 32]
  1. Convicted for vagrancy (leaving family chargeable) on 15 Jul 1854 and sentenced to one calendar month’s imprisonment at Dorchester Prison: Name Charles Harris – Age 46 – Instruction N [none] – When discharged [blank]. (No personal details. There is a reference to a previous conviction in 1853 but that prisoner was sentenced to six years’ penal servitude.) [Dorset History Centre, Dorchester Prison, prisoner register 1850-54, NG/PR1/D2/6, entry 327]
  1. Convicted for assault on 24 Sep 1855 and fined £1 (with costs of 9s. 6d.) and sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment at Dorchester Prison: Name Charles White alias Harris – Age 51 – Instruction N [none] – When discharged 3rd Novr. 1855. (No personal details recorded but there is reference to the conviction in 1854.) [Dorset History Centre, Dorchester Prison, prisoner register 1854-58, NG/PR1/D2/7, entry 398]
  1. Listed among prisoners committed to Dorchester gaol: “Charles Harris, for an assault on his wife at Wareham, hard labour 6 weeks”. [Dorset County Chronicle, 27/09/1855, p. 4]
  1. “Minutes of Meeting on Tuesday, August 11th, 1857 … Read a letter from Mr. Bagot [sic, Bacot], House Surgeon of the Dorset County Hospital stating that Charles White (generally called Harris and who resides in Holy Trinity Parish) and Edmund Ricketts (now on the Union Common Charges account) will be admitted into the Hospital on Thursday next if found eligible on examination and that the Patients should be at the Hospital by eleven o’clock in the forenoon and provided with decent clothing and proper changes of linen &c. according to rules 46 and 48. Ordered that Mr Marshman R.O. [relieving officer] see that they are thus provided before they go and supply them with what is necessary.” [Dorset History Centre, Wareham Poor Law Union Board of Guardians, minute book 1857-59, BG/WA/A/1/12, pp. 85-86]
  1. “OPERATIONS FOR THE REMOVAL OF MALIGNANT TUMOURS. … Case 21.–The Dorset County : Mr. Tapp.–A healthy chimney-sweep, aged 59, excision of a soot cancer from the scrotum. Recovery. A cancer had been removed from his scrotum fourteen years before, and he had been wholly free from the disease until within the last two years and a-half.” [Statistical report of the principle operations performed during the year 1857. Medical Times & Gazette, 1858, new series, vol. 16, p. 656]
  1. Charles White, chimney sweep, aged 63, died of chimney sweeps cancer of scrotum – haemorrhage (certified), on 4 Sep 1858 at Hobb’s Lane, Lady St. Mary Wareham. [General Register Office death certificate]
  1. Charles White, aged 63, of Hobb’s Lane, was buried on 7 Sep 1858 at Wareham. [Dorset History Centre, Wareham burial register, PE/WA: RE 4/3, p. 49, entry 392]

 

Comments: Three sources confirm that Charles White also called himself Charles Harris: the prison registers in 1841 and 1855, and the Wareham Poor Law guardians’ minutes in 1857. He appears to have been born around 1808-10, although the hospital admissions register and death certificate give his birth year as around 1795-98.