Part 1 (2/2)
Bright, who wrote the first account of it, the English Spaw, discovered by Captain William Slingsby of Bilton Hall, near the close of the 16th. Century....”
This paragraph, as a statement of facts, accurately sets out what is to be found in more or less detail in the accessible literature of to-day and will be referred to afterwards as the recognised history of Harrogate. It has received the express or tacit sanction of the Corporation of Harrogate and is embodied in its publications. Further a memorial has been erected to Sir William Slingsby, the Captain William Slingsby of Bilton Hall referred to in the above quotation, as the discoverer of the Tuewhit Well.
Notwithstanding the complete credence that has been given to this account for many years, I think there can be no doubt that it is entirely erroneous, and that unmerited fame has been given to Sir William Slingsby as the discoverer of the medicinal qualities of the Tuewhit Well, and to Dr. Bright as the author who first wrote an account of it.
Deane's history of the medicinal springs of Harrogate in the Elizabethan period is to be found in the earlier chapters of his book. It is therefore only necessary to mention here that, according to ”Spadacrene Anglica” the Tuewhit Well was _not_ discovered by Captain (or Sir) William Slingsby, it was _not_ discovered near the close of the 16th Century, and Dr. Bright did _not_ write an account of it. It is hardly credible that the history as given in the extract from the ”Encyclopaedia Britannica” is actually derived from ”Spadacrene Anglica.” Yet such is the case. Owing to the great rarity of the first edition of that book, and the fact that the later editions were all, more or less, abridged or incomplete, a series of plausible conjectures by later writers founded on these imperfect editions has evolved a history of Harrogate in this period which is, as regards the main facts, largely fict.i.tious. The object of the following biographical notes is, briefly, to restate the history of Harrogate during the Elizabethan period, in terms of the only reliable source for such a purpose, and to trace the acc.u.mulated errors, as far as possible, to their origin and source, an inquiry which the reprint of ”Spadacrene Anglica” at the present time makes not inopportune.
No history of Harrogate should be written, unless preceded by a biographical note of the author of ”Spadacrene Anglica,” to whom and to whose work Harrogate doubtless owes its position as the premier Spa of this country; and it is with no little sense of the fickleness of fame that one finds his name so little known, and his worth as a writer unrecognized. As far as I know, no biography has been written heretofore, nor is his life given in the various collective records of the lives of British medical men, such as Aikin, etc.[2] The same neglect of him occurs in the ”Dictionary of National Biography,” where in view of the national importance of the Spas of this country, a biography of Deane might not unreasonably be expected. Here and there one is able to glean some small sc.r.a.ps of information about him, but the result of all the gleanings from contemporary records, so far, can be condensed in a very small compa.s.s. It does not seem amiss therefore to record here what is known of the ”father of Harrogate” albeit at present unrecognized by his off-spring.
Deane was descended from a family who for many generations lived at Saltonstall, a hamlet in Warley in the parish of Halifax, and whose history appears to have been quite uneventful.[3] Owing to the frequency with which the same Christian names occur in the Parish Registers, it is by no means easy to identify the several families of the name of Deane, but in 1612 the family from which the author of ”Spadacrene Anglica” was descended, recorded in the College of Arms a short entry of pedigree, of which a copy is appended. His parents were Gilbert Deane of Saltonstall and Elizabeth, daughter of Edmund Jennings of Seilsden in Craven, and their family consisted of four sons, viz. Gilbert, Richard, Edmund and Symon (twins). The date of birth of Edmund is not known, but the entry of baptism is on 23rd of March 1572.[4] The mother seems to have died at their birth, for the date of her funeral is but two days' later.[5]
Gilbert Deane of Saltonstall,-+-..... dau. of .....
Co. York | Horsfold under the | bank, near Heptonstall | +---------------+------------+-------------------------+--+ | | | | Richard Deane Gilbert Deane of-+-Elizabeth dau. William 3 s.p. Saltonstall | of Edm. Jennings Roger 4 | of Seilsden in Craven | +-----------------------+------+----+-----------------------+--+ | | | | | Gilbert Richard Edmund Deane--Anne Michaell Deane -+-Susan Deane, of the City dau of Symon s.p.
| dau of Bishop of of York, ... Faurie | ... Bentley Ossory in Doctor of of Leicester, | Ireland Phisick & Widow of | Marmaduke | Haddesley of | Hull, Alderman +------------------+ | John Deane, son & heir.
Of the brothers of Edmund, Gilbert, the eldest, apparently lived at Saltonstall, and it was his son, John Deane, who eventually became the chief beneficiary under the Will of Edmund. Symon (or Michaell Symon), the twin brother, died at the age of seven years. His remaining brother, Richard, born in 1570, entered Merton College, Oxford, in 1589, and in 1609 succeeded Dr. Horsfall as Bishop of Ossory. He died in 1614.
Edmund also entered Merton College, matriculating 26th March, 1591, and took the degree of B.A. on the 11th of December, 1594. He then ”retired to St. Alban's Hall, where prosecuting his geny which he had to the faculty of physic” he was licensed to practise medicine on the 28th March, 1601, subsequently taking his degrees of M.B. and M.D. as a member of that hall on the 28th of June, 1608. He was incorporated at Cambridge in 1614. After taking his degrees in medicine he retired to York and practised in that city till his death in 1640.[6]
Nothing further is known of his life in York, except that Camidge[7]
states that he occupied a house adjoining the residence of Mr. Laurence Rawden in the street called Pavement, a name, it has been suggested[8], derived from the Hebrew Judgement seat ”in a place that is called the Pavement,”--this being that part of the City of York where punishment was inflicted and where the Pillory was a permanent erection. It is not unreasonable to suppose that this fact was responsible for Deane's tender pity for the ”poore prisoners” in his Will.
In 1626, Deane published his ”Spadacrene Anglica” which is here reprinted. ”Spadacrene Anglica” is a model of lucid and logical exposition. It provides a quaint and interesting epitome of the medical opinion of the day, but it is of more special interest as the source for the earliest history of the Harrogate waters. Its importance from this particular standpoint will be considered later.
Later in the same year Michael Stanhope published his ”Newes out of Yorks.h.i.+re,” and in this book he gives a lively description of his journey with Deane to the Well ”called at this day by the country people, Tuit Well, it seemes for no other cause but that those birdes (being our greene Plover) do usually haunt the place.” The following extract of the first recorded visit to Harrogate will, I think, be of interest.
”In the latter end of the summer 1625, being casually with Dr. Dean (a Physitian of good repute at his house at York, one who is far from the straine of many of his profession, who are so chained in their opinion to their Apothecary Shops, that they renounce the taking notice of any vertue not confined within that circuit) he took occasion to make a motion to me (the rather for that he remembered I had been at the Spa in Germany) of taking the aire, and to make our rendez-vouz at Knaresbrough to the end wee might be the better opportuned to take a view of the Tuit-well (whereof he had sparingly heard) for that it was by some compared to the so much fam'd Spa in Germany. I was not nice to give way to the summons of his desire: the match was soon made, and the next day, accompanied with a worthy Knight and judicious admirer, and curious speculator of rarities, and three other physitians of allowable knowledge, we set forwards for Knaresbrough, being about fourteen miles from Yorke. We made no stay at the towne, but so soone as we could be provided of a guide, we made towards the Well, which we found almost two miles from the Towne. It is scetuate upon a rude barren Moore, the way to it in a manner a continual ascent. Upon our first approach to the Spring we were satisfied that former times had taken notice of it, by reason it was encloased with stone, and paved at the bottome, but withal we plainely perceived that it had been long forgotten[9], which the filth wherewith it was choaked did witnesse, besides that through neglect the current of other waters were suffered to steale into it. Before any peremptory triall was made of it, it was thought fit first to clense the Well, and to stop the pa.s.sage of any other waters intermixture, which within the compa.s.se of an hour we effected. The bottom now cleared, we plainely descried where the waters did spring up, and then the Physitians began to try their experiments.
But, first of all I dranke of it and finding it to have a perfect Spa relish (I confesse) I could not contain but in a tone louder than ordinary I bad them welcome to the Spa. Presently they all took essai of it, and though they could not denie, but that it had a different smack from all other common waters, most confessing that it did leave in the pallate a kinde of acidnesse, yet the better to be a.s.sured whether it did partake with Vitrioll, the prime ingredient in the natural Spa, they mixed in a gla.s.se the powder of Galls with this water, knowing by experience if this Minerall had any acquaintance with the Spring, the powder would discolour the water and turne it to a Claret die; wherein they were not deceived, for presently (to their both wonder and joy) the water changed colour, and seemed to blush in behalf of the Country, who had amongst them so great a jewell and made no reckoning of it.... You may suppose (being met together at our Inne, where we found ourselves very well accomodated for our provision) we could finde no other talke but of this our new Spa.... Three days after our return to York, Dr. Deane (whose thirst for knowledge is not superficially to be satisfied) by the consent of his fellow-physitians sent for a great quant.i.ty of the water in large violl gla.s.ses, entending partly by evaporation and partly by some other chimical means to experiment it....”
It would certainly appear from a perusal of the above, that at the latter end of the year 1625, Deane knew little of the medicinal value of the English Spaw. But such a conclusion is entirely opposed to the dedication and text of ”Spadacrene Anglica,” which clearly indicates that Deane was a close personal friend of the eminent physicians Dr.
Timothy Bright, and Dr. Anthony Hunton of Newark-upon-Trent, who for years had been recommending the waters to their friends and patients.
Moreover Deane himself had paid many visits to the English Spaw with the physicians of York, and had been at last induced to commit his knowledge to print. Is it permissible to use imaginative license and see in Deane a humorist who persuaded Stanhope ”of taking the aire” while professing no intimate knowledge of the spring, yet going the length of taking the powder of Galls in his pocket to produce a stage effect, which he had never found to fail?[10]
Stanhope readily adopts the plover origin of the name Tuewhit, but the silence of Deane is suggestive of his doubt, and especially so as he mentions the pigeons haunting the sulphur springs as ”an arguement of much salt in them.” There is no obvious reason of this kind for the plovers frequenting the Tuewhit Well in preference to any other spring in the neighbourhood.
In 1630, Deane published a number of Tracts which had been left more or less incomplete by Samuel Norton. His share in the authors.h.i.+p of the different tracts varies. The t.i.tles of one or two will sufficiently indicate the nature of the subjects, and it can be seen that his studies included the philosophical stone, and other subjects receiving attention at the present time, such as ”culture pearls.”
”Mercurius Redivivus, seu modus conficiendi Lapidem Philosophic.u.m.”
”Saturnus Saturatus Dissolutus et Coelo rest.i.tutus, seu modus componendi Lapidem Philosophic.u.m ... e plumbo....”
”Metamorphosis Lapidem ign.o.bilium in gemmas quasdam pretiosas, seu modus transformandi perlas parvas ... in magnas et n.o.bilis ...” etc. etc.
Edmund Deane married twice, first to Anne, widow of Marmaduke Haddersley of Hull; the date is not known, though it was before the entry of pedigree was recorded in 1612. In 1625, he had a license at York to marry Mary Bowes of Normanton at Normanton. There does not appear to have been a family by either of his wives.
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