H02 The Foundling-Chapel brawl 1804: Robert and Mary Willan, trial by social media

Abstract

Abstract The social media of the late 18th and early 19th centuries was no less humorous, critical and potentially personally destructive than now, despite its form, distribution and time frame being quantitatively different. Cartoons and prints, broadsheets, leaflets and pamphlets were widely distributed by hand for sale cheaply, being passed on for maximal effect. Gillray, Rowlandson and the Cruikshanks were the masters of these media, but others were prolific and no less accomplished at targeting royalty, religions, politicians and individuals of particular merit, such as physicians. One such satirical caricaturist and pamphleteer was James Sayers (1748–1823), a favourite of Prime Minister William Pitt. In 1804, he wrote a verse satire, attacking Dr Robert Willan (1757–1812) and his wife Mary (1770–1844) after an incident in the Chapel at The Foundling Hospital (Nichols RH, Wray FA. History of the Foundling Hospital. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1935), where his sister Elizabeth was in dispute with them over the occupancy of a pew (pews were rented by the hospital governors on an annual basis). They were both subjected to a clever—not always subtle—diatribe for some 2 years about their personal and professional integrity, including their religion. Willan was described as a ‘learned leech’, with the implication that this successful physician was not just bleeding patients therapeutically, but also financially. His patients were ‘scabby’ and therefore detestable, and he was a lesser man because he was no longer a Quaker. For Mary, there were intimations about her temperament, her motives for marriage and her personal hygiene. The recently married couple had moved from 14 Bloomsbury Square to nearby number 10, with her two daughters by her previous marriage. There, their son Richard was born in 1802. Robert Willan withdrew from his work at the Carey Street Dispensary in 1803. Re-reading this rare publication by Sayers, which may seem a negative satire, inadvertently provides clues to the personal and social context of the Willan’s early married life.