A Taunton curiousity
Sometimes when doing research you come across an item that takes you off down a rabbit hole of research that you know you shouldn’t be investigating but that old curiosity gene just makes you go there. This happened to me yesterday and the more I thought about it the more I decided I should share it’s peculiarity and horror in equal measures.
I am currently researching Taunton buildings for a book [Taunton in 50 Buildings due out autumn 2023] and investigating the first Taunton and Somerset Hospital of 1810 I had cause to check out the WellcomeLibrary catalogue. I was after early annual reports . I failed to find any early enough, but whilst I had my search results up I decided to have a quick look at the images available. This is where the rabbit hole began.
The image below struck me as curious and I wondered if it had been a fraud of some kind. There were two of these ‘showings’ both in different places in London. Over to Ancestry to check out the parish registers and I found Joseph and Elizabeth Verrier and the baptisms of their children, plus the marriage.
Credit: The greatest phenomenon of nature! : To be seen at 238, High Holborn, for a short time only, a child (born alive) with two faces, four eyes, two mouths, two noses, two ears and two chins ... with only one head and body. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark
Joseph Verrier married Elizabeth Woollan by banns, at Stoke St Gregory parish church on 27 March 1811. Neither he nor Elizabeth could sign their names but the two witnesses could: Mabel Verier and Ann Jan.i
Their children were:
- Jean bpt 12 January 1812 Stoke St Gregory
- Harriet bpt 20 March 1814 Stoke St Gregory
- John bpt 3 March 1816 Lyng, family of Stoke St Gregory (mother entered as Mary, presumably in error, Joseph listed as a carpenter)
- Elizabeth bpt 18 October 1818 Stoke St Gregory
- Matilda bpt 7 January 1821 Stoke St Gregory
- James bpt 21 March 1824 Taunton St Mary
- William Joseph bpt 4 June 1826 Taunton St Mary
Then we have a daughter unnamed born 23 December 1827 as listed on the flier. A search of the Taunton St Mary baptism register had no entry for heriii
The obvious choice of resource to check next was the newspaper reports through the British Newspaper Archive. Whilst appearing as a sensational story in most of the regional papers across the country the best report was on page 7 of the “Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser” of Wednesday 26 December 1827:
Taunton
A CHILD WITH TWO FACES
A most extraordinary caprice of Nature occurred in this town, on sunday morning last, in the birth of a female child having two distinct and perfectly formed faces. Elizabeth Verrier, the mother of the child, is the wife of a carpenter, residing in Holway Lane. She had, previously, seven healthy children, neither of them exhibiting the least deviation from ordinary nature. In the present instance there was no prematurity of birth; the child lived three quarters of an hour, and in the course of that period cried very audibly three times. From which of the two mouths these cries issued is not ascertained; but there is nothing in the structure of either of the faces to indicate a superior faculty in one over the other; every component part of the faces is distinctly formed in each, and both of them present the pleasing countenances of two fine babes. At that part of one of the faces where the usual formation of the ear takes place the additional face commences, with a slight undulation towards the cheek of the second face, which then proceeds throught all its regular features until it terminates at the left ear – so that the face on the right side has one ear, and the face on the left one also. The space on the back of the head is from the encroachment of the faces, very limited; but it is, as well as the upper part of the head covered with hair. In all other respects the child is regularly formed. A very accurate drawing has been made of the child and is now in the hands of a lithographer. The mother of the child is doing well, and has been benefited by the receipt of a considerable sum, in various donations, from the great number of persons who have been permitted to see the infant, which has been put in spirits, and will present an interesting addition to the various lusus naturae with which museums of the curious are already furnished.
Three months later an advert appeared in the Morning Advertiser of Wednesday 04 March 1829:
GREATEST PHENOMENON OF NATURE!
And the only one of the kind in the world. To be seen at No.1 Leicester Square (for a short time only) a CHILD (born alive) with two faces – and so on, as per flier displayed.
Admittance 6d: Children 3d
Whether sensationalism over this child was right or wrong we cannot alter. The time was then and that was how that generation behaved. I only hope that the income received from displaying their poor little baby helped them to live a comfortable life in their later years.
Sources
i Somerset Parish Registers Stoke St Gregory marriage register 1788-1812 SHC ref.D/P/sto.st.g/2/1/4; accessed via Ancestry
ii Somerset Parish Registers Stoke St Gregory register 1745-1812 SHC ref. D\P\sto.st.g/2/1/2; Stoke St Gregory baptism register 1813-1851 SHC ref.D\P\sto.st.g/2/1/6; Lyng baptism register 1813-1879 SHC ref.D\P\lyn/2/1/4; Taunton St Mary baptism register 1813-1826 SHC ref.D\P\tau.m/2/1/5-all accessed via Ancestry
iii Somerset Parish Registers Taunton St Mary baptism register 1826-1838 SHC ref. D\P\tau.m/2/1/6; accessed via Ancestry
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