Door-to-door quacks were actually a thing. Part II.
(Click here for Part I)
February 1876. A bright, frosty morning in a northern English industrial town, and Hezekiah Bowling was a happy man. The winter sun on his face, his wife puffing along at his side, Tiney trotting at his heels, and his business associates in jail.
He hadn’t been able to relax until the train was south of Carlisle, but now here they were, back in Preston, only a short walk from the comforts of home and out of pocket by little more than the price of a few empty bottles and half a thousand handbills. Scotland would be best left alone in future, he thought, as the little trio turned the last corner and their front door came into view. Yes, back to the good old English midlands for him.
A few days later, on the 16th of February 1876, the following notice appeared in the Police Gazette:
“Absconded from Jedburgh, charged with fraud : Hezekiah Bowling, a quack doctor, but by trade a twister [spinner], 32 years of age, 5 feet 8 or 9 inches high ... he is accompanied by a stout full faced woman, with light brown hair, and of dissipated appearance; they had with them a small brown dog, with spots on the back from burns, and wearing a collar, studded with brass nails, answers to the name of ‘Tiney.’ He is said to be a native of Preston, Lancashire, and lately resided there. Information to be given to Chief Constable Boultbee, Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, Scotland, who holds a warrant for his apprehension. Bow Street, February 14.”
If there was a hierarchy amongst the sellers of patent medicines then perhaps the majority of it's members started their careers at or near the bottom, travelling the country peddling their nostrums directly to the public by shouting their wares on street corners, from the back of a wagon in a marketplace or, as in the case of Hezekiah, by knocking on doors.
Hezekiah was a veteran of the travelling quack business, having been on the road (but not on the run) for a large part of the last ten years. Since at least 1867, when he was in his early 20s (the same year that a frog, a newt and two worms were, apparently, expelled by Mrs Smith thanks to the medicines of Mr Robinson), he'd been working the towns and villages of the English midlands, from Cambridgeshire to Yorkshire and Lincolnshire to Derbyshire, distributing handbills and selling cure-alls to the unwary under any name, it seems, but his own.
Above is one of Hezekiah's handbills (1) from 1867, complete with so many patent medicine and quack doctor cliches it's difficult to know where to start. A quick scan straight away reveals:
"This bill will be called for"; Advice given free; a royal crest flanked by "VR" (Victoria Regina) providing a spurious claim to official approval; an alias (Dr Montague); a false address (Market Place, Lincoln); "No mercury or minerals administered" - i.e. 'Medical Botany', probably owing a debt to Thomsonianism or Coffinism; Warnings against imposters; Grand claims (Dr Montague is "the only man in Great Britain" who can cure "Scurvy, abscesses, sore legs, without the use of ointment or external application", etc. And, of course, the inevitable testimonials about maladies cured, from blindness and deafness to rheumatism, fits, worms, scurvy, liver 'affections', kidney or bladder stones, the King's Evil (scrofula), and 'nervous debility'.
Hezekiah appears to have escaped justice in 1876, but some of his associates didn't. In all, five people were arrested for the 'medical fraud', which had created a bit of a stir in Jedburgh and the surrounding district. On the 27th of January, a couple of weeks before Hezekiah made his escape, The Southern Reporter recorded that:
"For some weeks past the police have been on the look-out for a 'Dr Clarke', who recently visited this place [Jedburgh], professing to cure all diseases in the short space of from three weeks to a month. His assistant called at the houses and left printed bills announcing the many wonderful cures he had effected. These bills were afterwards called for by the "Doctor" who personally gave particulars of some cures alleged to have been effected on some well known tradesmen in the district. His story was believed by not a few who wished to get quit of their ailments, but of course it turned out they were not so easily got rid of as their money; and after it was seen that the whole affair was only a trick of a clever quack, information was given to the police. The bill trick having been tried last week at Denholm, the professional name being on this occasion that of 'Dr Ambrose', these bills were called for by two gentlemen, who were at once apprehended and taken to Jedburgh." (2)
The men apprehended were two brothers, Richard and James Kelly. Within a couple of days two more Kelly brothers, Thomas and Augustine, were arrested in Preston (Hezekiah Bowling's home town) which was "believed to be the headquarters of the firm", and brought to Jedburgh (3). A fifth person, Thomas Rowland, was released from jail within a day or two because "he was only employed to distribute the bills."
Thomas and Augustine Kelly were freed within weeks due to a lack of evidence but, after three months in prison, Richard and James Kelly were tried at Jedburgh at the end of April on charges of falsehood, fraud, and willful imposition.
Richard pleaded guilty to three of five charges and was sentenced to six months imprisonment, with the judge remarking that he was guilty of "vending a certain article which he professed would cure every complaint and ailment of the body, when he well knew at the time it would do no such thing" (4). James pleaded not guilty and was discharged. It seems that both "Dr Clarke" and "Dr Ambrose" were, in all likelihood, Richard Kelly.
Apart from Thomas Rowland the nature of the involvement of the others at Jedburgh, including Hezekiah Bowling, is unclear although, as we shall see next time, all were deeply involved in the door-to-door cure-all business at other times and in other places. In fact Hezekiah Bowling and the Kellys were long-time friends and business associates, all based in Preston and with close 'professional' and personal links going back to the early 1860s or earlier. In 1863 Hezekiah had married Margaret Kelly, sister of Richard and Augustine, and the 1867 handbills appear to have been used, in only very slightly altered forms, by Hezekiah, Richard, Augustine, and possibly other members of the Kelly family:
Handbills used by Hezekiah Bowling and / or the Kellys. It seems likely that none of the 1876 handbills used in Jedburgh still survived, but the 'Dr Montague' example near the top of this post, and the four more shown here, are among at least nine of theirs dating to 1867 that have survived. All are identical apart from the names and addresses of the 'doctors', and of the 'patients' who provided the testimonials. Or rather, probably didn't provide them. The testimonials on these handbills are almost certainly complete fiction.
The bottles used by Bowling and the Kellys for their 'medicines' in the 1860s and '70s would have looked very similar to these: Rectangular, moulded, quite plain, with pasted-on labels, and without any lettering moulded in the glass - The rapid turnover of their aliases and false addresses meant that any embossed bottles would have become out of date from one week to the next. From the 1850s and 60s to the 1920s and beyond, bottles like this changed very little, and were very widely used for any kind of liquid product from medicines to dyes and oils. (Roger Pellow collection).
Next time, in 'Door-to-door quacks were actually a thing, Part III', the evidence piles up: A more detailed look at the paper trail left behind by Bowling and the Kellys.
Notes and References.
1. Acquired in 2016 from an online seller in Lancashire, UK. Approximately 45cm x 30cm. This bill is one of eight, all identical apart from names and addresses of both doctors and patients. A ninth, and possibly one or two more, disappeared elsewhere at the same time. All the ones I have are marked up for printers alterations. With the handbills came seventeen complete or partial handwritten letters signed by one or other of Hezekiah Bowling, Richard Kelly, or Augustine Kelly, all of Preston in Lancashire. The letters itemise changes to be made to the handbills, and include requests for between 500 and 1000 new bills to be printed and forwarded to await collection by the 'doctors' at various railway stations in the midlands and north of England. Also included are two bottle labels, one printed example marked up for alterations to the doctor's name, and the other crudely hand drawn. The letters were addressed to Edward Ambler, a printer in Preston, Lancashire. For more on this, including why we can be reasonably confident that "Dr Montague" was in fact Hezekiah Bowling, see "Door-to-door quacks were actually a thing, Part III." Coming soon.
2. The Southern Reporter, Saturday 27th January 1876. Accessed via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk, 10th November 2017.
3. The Scotsman, Saturday, 29th January 1876. Accessed via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk, 19th October 2017.
4. The Jedburgh Gazette, Saturday, 6th May 1876. Accessed via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk, 2nd March 2020.
© Jeremy Kemp, 2020.
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