Timeline 1829 -1887
- Jacob is born in Wetheral in 1829, the fifth child of Archibald Hoodless and Elizabeth Clark and his baptism takes place at Rockliffe in Cumberland, England. Rockliffe is a small village north west of Carlisle close to where the Esk and Eden Rivers converge and enter the sea. This places the family thereabouts in that year although they are living in Wetheral in 1841 when Jacob is eleven.
- In 1851, as a single 21 year old, Jacob is working as a farm labourer on a large farm of 250 acres in Wetheral, owned by Fergus Graham who employs six labourers and two house servants. Once of these is a James Routledge.
- In 1857 Jacob marries Dinah Routledge of a large family of Routledges in the neighbourhood. Her brothers own a 370 acre farm in Wetheral, so there is money in the family.
- In 1861 Jacob is still working as an agricultural labourer, maybe on the family farm. they have two children William born in 1858 and Elizabeth who is 8 months old at the time of the census. All seems well but tragedy is about to strike.
It appears that on 15th September 1861 Jacob and Dinah sought the help of a Dr Hendrie because four year old William was not well. The doctor diagnosed his illness as resulting from worms and what followed was a disaster of devastating proportions for the young family.
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper
London, Greater London, England 06 Oct 1861
The “inadvertent” mistaking of santonin* for strychnine would today be classed as gross negligence and the resulting death of such a young child would be treated as manslaughter, with the doctor potentially having their licence to practice medicine suspended or them being struck off. In 1861 Dr Hendrie apparently walked away from the coroners inquest with a verdict of accidental death and a recommendation to make sure to label his bottles properly because they kind of look the same! The attitude to the death of William and the doctor’s role in it is stunning in its offhand, careless disregard and complete failure to hold him to account or place any real responsibility on him.
Child mortality rates were bad enough in this era without the incompetence of medical practitioners adding to them.
*Santonin was a herbal compound developed in the 1830’s and widely used at the time to dispel parasites such as thread worm and tapeworms. It was not without its risks and had been known to be fatal in small children if the dose was too high. Overdosing also caused serious side effects such as yellow or green vision, tremors, convulsions, the inability to talk and blindness.
- By 1871 Jacob and Dinah have their own small farm called Park Fauld, about 84 acres , near Blackwell a little ways south of Carlisle. I feel like they would want to make an clean break and this would feel like a fresh start for them. Jacob manages the farm with one labourer. They did not have any more children.
- Whatever struggles they went through at Park Fauld (Fold) we do not know, but by 1881 they have sold this farm to Jacob’s brother Archibald Hoodless and are living at Mill Cottages back in Wetheral. Jacob is back to working on someone else’s farm. Their daughter Elizabeth is now 21 and she has moved to live with her aunt and uncle at Hesket-in-Forest – her mother’s sister Elizabeth Jefferson (nee Routledge)- and she is earning her keep as a dressmaker.
- Elizabeth dies in the March quarter of 1883 aged 22 years. I am yet to uncover the cause of her death.
- Dinah and Jacob both pass a short four years later. Dinah dies at Wetheral on 20th January 1887 and leaves £92 to Jacob in her will. Jacob dies a few months later on 19th July at Durdar, the location of Park Fauld probably in the home of his brother who still owns it (according to the 1891 Census). He leaves a personal estate of £76. Their probate records are sadly side by side in the calendar for that year. They were 68 and 58 years old respectively.
