Dr Septimus Swyer + proviso

[rjpalmer]

Didn't have an Astrakhan coat as well did he?

Well, if you want to head in that direction, he was studied as an OB/GYN.

[MrBarnett]

In 1881, Swyer risked losing his position as a medical officer of the Whitechapel Union because he was no longer resident in the district. He had moved to Islington, and as a result it was considered that he was no longer qualified to fill the role. In his defence, Swyer claimed that he had relocated to Islington because his residence in Brick Lane was too small for his family.

The family in question was Hannah Markin, the woman he had ‘married’ while her husband was still alive, and her children by that husband. She claimed she was a widow and was unaware that her husband was living. At the Old Bailey, she was acquitted of the charge of bigamy.

However, Hannah was from an East End Jewish family and Swyer had lived in the East End since at least 1863 - and yet they married in Islington in 1880. Had they moved to Islington prior to marrying in anticipation of not having sufficient room for their family? If so, why Islington? Were there no suitable houses to be had in Whitechapel?

Or could there have been another reason? Their bigamous union would have been far less likely to have been discovered in Islington, one imagines. Call me suspicious...

[MrBarnett]

Didn't have an Astrakhan coat as well did he?

It’s quite possible...

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

[QUOTE=MrBarnett;n736237

There are photos of him on Ancestry: a rather dapper-looking chap, fond of felt collars and gold watch chains, and in one photo carrying a top hat.

Other addresses he occupied in Spitalfields were White’s Row and Church (Fournier) Street.[/QUOTE]


Didn't have an Astrakhan coat as well did he?

[MrBarnett]

If Killeen was his assistant, you do have to wonder why the more experienced medical man couldn't be bothered to crawl out of bed and take a look at Martha. Perhaps a case of, 'Bloody hell. It's 5 a.m. and I need my beauty sleep...hold on a minute and I'll send over the young Irishman...'

And he’d been mugged a year or so before, so perhaps he was a little cautious about going out in the early hours.

[MrBarnett]

I’ve just re-read the press reports about Swyer and the morphine addict. The woman was known as ‘Morphia’ and was said to have obtained her fixes from almost every doctor in the East End. One night in October, 1883 she rocked up at Swyer’s surgery and he reluctantly gave her a shot of morphine in the arm. She died the next day and Swyer conducted the PM. At the inquest he gave her COD as cancer of the gullet.

[rjpalmer]

If Killeen was his assistant, you do have to wonder why the more experienced medical man couldn't be bothered to crawl out of bed and take a look at Martha. Perhaps a case of, 'Bloody hell. It's 5 a.m. and I need my beauty sleep...hold on a minute and I'll send over the young Irishman...'

[MrBarnett]

And, from memory, he was one of the doctors who supplied a notorious morphine addict with her gear.

There are photos of him on Ancestry: a rather dapper-looking chap, fond of felt collars and gold watch chains, and in one photo carrying a top hat.

Other addresses he occupied in Spitalfields were White’s Row and Church (Fournier) Street.

[rjpalmer]

Swyer was also the medical witness at the February 1889 inquest of a counterfeiter/coiner living in Thrawl Street. Swyer attributed the man's death to 'internal hemorrhaging,' and the case was written up by the Illustrated Police News. It's unclear what exactly happened, but there is a sense that maybe the coiner had somehow damaged his system by messing about with lead and other molten metals. Swyer's address is given as 68 Brick Lane. The case interested me because Albert Bachert had some shadowy association with coiners, or at least one coiner.

[MrBarnett]

It should be pointed out that although Swyer was recorded at 23, Whitechapel Road on the 1891 census, the evidence of electoral registers and medical directories suggest he was living/working at 68, Brick Lane between 1884 and 1890.

This of course was the address from which Dr Timothy Killeen was called to the Tabram murder site. I think it’s unlikely that Killeen had his own independent practice at that address at the same as Swyer. It’s more likely that he briefly joined Swyer’s practice.

In 1885 Swyer had attended a young Jewish girl who had been assaulted by a gang of 28 men in a coffee house in Church Lane, Whitechapel. The attack seems to have been almost identical to that on Emma Smith.

[Jon Guy]

Hello All

James Mills, who was 26 years old at the time, was found Guilty - Penal Servitude for Life.

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t18780114-name-255&div=t18780114-189#highlight

Coincidentally, Mills lived at 3 John St. John Richardson was living at 2 John St in 1888.

[curious]

Hello Velma. Have an exact date on that?

Cheers.
LC

Hi, Lynn,
I was quoting from the first post by mic ads and asking a question myself.

Sorry to take awhile answering, but I had totally forgotten about this thread and just re-discovered it. I found myself more interested in the person who had inflicted such wounds (perhaps he was hanged) than the subject of the thread.

So, no, I don't have any information, just questions.

[lynn cates]

date

Hello Velma. Have an exact date on that?

Cheers.
LC

[curious]

[QUOTE=mic_ads;214514][SIZE="1"]
Of interest, in 1877, Swyer was living at 33 Brick Lane and attended the address of a female who had her throat cut in domestic argument. The injuries described in court were as a gash on left hand side of her throat, extending from about 2½ inches below the left ear across the front of the throat, to the centre of the windpipe; it was a clean incised wound, very deep – there was a second cut extending upwards towards the chin, about 1¾ inch, the bed, bedding and clothing were saturated in blood.\ Ripper’.

What became of the person who inflicted the wounds?

[Robert]

Welcome Mic-ads and John L

1886 was a bad year for Septimus :