“Another
child poisoned by cordial” was the headline in the
Yorkshire Post newspaper on 9th November 1875 and detailed the case
of a poor 2 year old child called Harry Scholey, who died after being
administered with 2 teaspoonful’s of something called anodyne cordial, which had been bought from a local Sheffield woman
called Mary Ann Bancroft. The headline says "Another child" which suggests that this was not the first such incident.
The case had been heard the previous day by the
Sheffield Coroner, at the Talbot Hotel in Duke Street Sheffield, close to where
Mary Ann Bancroft lived, and detailed the incident as follows:
The child had not been feeling well, so the parents
went for a pennyworth of anodyne cordial to Mrs Bancroft, who appears to be
someone people turned to at times like this, due to the fact that many ordinary
people just could not afford to pay for a visit from a doctor. The child, was given two teaspoonful’s of the cordial and was dead within six hours, the
parents having had to call in a doctor when he became seriously ill within two
hours of taking it. A post-mortem on the child showed he died of opium
poisoning.
Witnesses stated that many local people bought the
cordial from Mrs Bancroft, who made it up in her house and sold it in bottles
without any labels or instructions regarding how it should be administered. She
had a card in her window saying “Anodyne Cordial sold here” and said she had been selling it for about forty years. When questioned
by the authorities she stated that she always gave instructions about how much
to give to children according to their ages, and bought all the ingredients
from the local druggist shop. The child’s parents did not know what the mixture
contained, and were certain they were not told the amount to administer to
their child
The inquest jury in giving their verdict said ‘The deceased died from being poisoned by an
overdose of anodyne containing opium sold by Mrs Bancroft without directions as
to its use, and carelessly administered by his father. They also said that the
sale of anodyne indiscriminately by Mrs Bancroft is highly dangerous and ought
to be stopped.’
The newspaper reported that the Coroner in his summing
up said ‘There was not sufficient
evidence to send Mrs Bancroft for trial, but if she should find herself in this
position again, she would be dealt with by the law, and censured her severely.
Mrs Bancroft agreed to cease selling the cordial immediately.’
Anodyne potions was bought by many people in
the 19th century, as an alternative to paying to see the doctor if
they had mild illnesses such as stomach ailments or neuralgia, and many
companies produced a legitimate version of this mixture, in marked bottles with
ingredients and dosage clearly displayed, as the following label shows,
Although opium
was often used by druggists in various medicines at the time, I am sure no one
would have recommended it be given to infants, When questioned, by the court,
Mary Ann Bancroft listed the following ingredients in the ‘home remedy’ she was
brewing up in her house.
2oz
of corlander seed
2
oz of aniseed
2
oz of juniper seeds
1
oz of Spanish juice
18
grains of opium
½
lb of treacle
Boiled
down with 3 pints of water.
It seems fairly clear from looking at the 1871 census,
that Mary Ann was one of those women that the local community turned to in
times of trouble, as she is listed on the census with a very unusual
occupation…Undertakeress !! , which probably entailed preparing a corpse, ready for a proper undertaker to carry our the burial.
Early records, when she was living with her husband
and family do not show her as having any occupation, which was common for many
married women, but she also probably helped also acted as an unofficial
midwife, and nurse if someone turned up at her door, having told the court that
she had been selling anodyne for over 40 years.
She was born Mary Ann Pollard in the Sheffield area
around 1802, and married Robert Bancroft, a coal miner, on 12th
November 1821. Thereafter the family seemed to have lived most of their lives
in Duke Street, Sheffield. Robert Bancroft died in 1868, and Mary Ann around
1880.
There are no further incidents reported of Mary Ann
selling further ‘remedies’ so it looks as though she heeded the Coroner’s
warning and ceased selling the potion.
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