Mary Wortley Montagu

     

Mary was born 26 May 1689, the first daughter of Evelyn and Mary Pierrepont. Her father became Earl[1] of Kingston-upon-Hull the year after her birth. Her mother died when she was four and she was left to keep the house for her father, then a Whig M.P. She spent much time alone in the library, writing poetry, teaching herself Latin, writing a diary, corresponding with bishops and commenting on how to be independent in a male dominated society. Despite her initial resistance to marriage[2] and after prolonged negotiations with her father and her future husband, she eloped with Edward Wortley Montagu,[3] a Whig M.P., in 1712. Edward was a stingy and possessive man, who controlled Mary even more than her overbearing father.[4]

Mary Wortley Montagu by Charles Jervas, 1716. It does not show the scars from smallpox obtained the previous year.

In 1713, her brother died of smallpox, the ‘speckled monster’.[5] In 1715, Mary was infected, became dangerously ill and nearly died; it left her with a disfigured face. In 1716, Edward became the British ambassador to the Ottoman dynasty in Turkey and whilst in the country for two years Mary witnessed a way of protecting from smallpox. Mary wrote that an old woman with a nutshell of pus (from a skin pustule) and a needle attended a young person in the Autumn. The woman opened small holes in 4 or 5 veins in usually the arm or leg and added a minute amount of pus before binding up the wound. The inoculation possibly worked because the pus came from a person with mild symptoms, it was usually given to very young people and the scratch on the skin was tiny. The individual usually developed a mild illness and was then immunised. However, when ill they could then infect others. Some died and the method of vaccination had some risk.

Smallpox viruses. Wikimedia, public domain. Smallpox has killed more than the Black Death.

Mary in March 1718 had her four years old son, Edward, inoculated with the help of the Embassy surgeon Charles Maitland. On returning to London, she enthusiastically promoted the procedure, but encountered much resistance from the medical establishment; they considered it was a folk treatment.[6] There was much bigotry in that a woman had succeeded where men had failed. In April 1721, a smallpox epidemic struck England and she had her three-years old daughter inoculated. Mary publicised this event; a first for Britain. In 1721, six prisoners awaiting execution were offered the chance to undergo vaccination and avoid the gallows and all survived. It was repeated on eleven London orphans. This persuaded Caroline of Ansbach, the Princess of Wales, to have the vaccination for her two daughters in 1722. Despite this pioneering procedure it was not widely practised until physicians and surgeons arranged their own methodology. Mary then criticised their technique. Consequently, Mary’s role in the introduction of vaccination was not recognised until the middle of the century.

Royal and noble families followed the practice, including, in 1768, Catherine the Great of Russia and her son, the future Tsar. A small number of deaths occurred and some complications resulted.

Mary died in 1762. 34 years later Edward Jenner, 1749–1823, a doctor in Gloucestershire, was consulted by a dairymaid called Sarah Nelmes about a rash on her hand. He diagnosed cowpox rather than smallpox; one of Sarah’s cows had recently had cowpox. Edward Jenner realised this was an opportunity to test the protective properties of cowpox by giving it to someone who had not yet suffered smallpox. On 14th May, he made a few scratches on one of James Phipp’s[7] arms and rubbed in some material from pocks on Sarah's hand. A few days later James became mildly ill with cowpox but was well again a week later. On 1st July Jenner infected the boy with smallpox, but no reaction occurred. Gradually this kind of vaccination became the preferred way.

 Mary Montagu is also remembered for her poetry, letters, diary and relationships with her family and society names. She lived a somewhat chaotic life, fending off admirers and falling for unsuitable men, but was always determined. In 1789, a plaque was placed in the cathedral by Henrietta Inge (nee Wrottesley)[8] who was probably saved from smallpox by Mary’s type of vaccination. There is a suggestion the two women met in Lichfield] and they might have been distantly related.[9]

Mary Wortley Montagu monument on the wall at the north-west end of the nave.

Mary Montagu was a pioneer of vaccination science and a woman having to face a patriarchal society.

Postscript. Thanks to Jennifer Rudd.

The simple Turkish inoculation technique Mary introduced to Britain in 1721 was incorporated into lengthy, costly, invasive ‘humoral’ medical practice by conservative physicians. Mary was infuriated by this ‘professionalisation’ of her innovation. Deaths from inoculation numbered 1 in 60 in England, whereas Mary observed that no-one died of it in Turkey. The only piece of her writing Mary chose to publish was a heavily edited critique of such practises. Sadly, Mary regretted her involvement in introducing smallpox inoculation. She never lived to see the simplification of inoculation during the 1760’s by Daniel Sutton and Thomas Dimsdale et al, which enabled mass inoculation of the rural poor. This fact is ignored by historians who attribute the start of vaccination to Jenner,1796. Vaccination is a type of inoculation with its origin in the East and Mary was a pioneer of preventative medicine, 75 years before Jenner, and her achievement saved countless lives.

A ‘blue plaque to Mary, soon to be unveiled at Wentworth Castle Gardens.

 

[1] Later made a Duke in 1715. His loyal support of the Whig government gained him many appointments.

[2] She was more concerned with the financial implications than anything to do with romance.

[3] This is the correct spelling of the family name. The name on the cathedral plaque, Lady MARY WORTLEY MONTEGUE is wrong.

[4] https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lady-mary-wortley-montagu

[5] Smallpox is an acute contagious disease caused by the variola virus. The first symptoms usually appear 12–14 days after exposure. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, headache, severe fatigue, severe back pain and sometimes vomiting. Later, flat, red spots appear on the body; the face, arms and legs are often affected first. Within days, the spots turn into small blisters filled with clear fluid and then pus. Scabs form 8–9 days later and eventually fall off, leaving deep, pitted scars. Complications can be the outcome. Fatality depends on the type of virus. In 1719, 3,299 deaths were recorded in London. It has been estimated 300 million people have been infected in the 20th–century.1n 1979, WHO stated smallpox was eradicated from the world. Smallpox was so called in contrast with Great-pox or syphilis.

[6] There was also bigotry because it originated in Turkey.

[7] Eight years old son of his gardener.

[8] At one time she was thought to be a grandniece, but this is no longer believed.

[9] D. Cornwallis-Doran, ‘This monument is erected’, South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society Local History Magazine. (2010) May/April, 25–28.