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A History of
Radionuclide
Studies in the UK

50th Anniversary of the

British Nuclear Medicine Society

Ralph McCready
Gopinath Gnanasegaran
Jamshed B. Bomanji
Editors

123
A History of Radionuclide Studies in the UK
Ralph McCready • Gopinath Gnanasegaran
Jamshed B. Bomanji
Editors

A History of Radionuclide
Studies in the UK
50th Anniversary of the British Nuclear
Medicine Society
Editors
Ralph McCready Jamshed B. Bomanji
Department of Nuclear Medicine Institute of Nuclear Medicine
Royal Sussex County Hospital University College Hospital
Brighton London
UK UK

Gopinath Gnanasegaran
Department of Nuclear Medicine
Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital
London
UK

ISBN 978-3-319-28623-5 ISBN 978-3-319-28624-2 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-28624-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016932527

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 The book is published open access.
Open Access This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
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noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and
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Foreword

It is 50 years since a group of pioneering nuclear medicine physicians came together

in a Pub in London to discuss how to take nuclear medicine forward in the UK – and
the British Nuclear Medicine Society (BNMS) was born. Since the first use of
radionuclides for patient treatment in 1948 (using P-32 to treat polycythaemia) and
then imaging 1948 (hand-traced maps of thyroid gland), nuclear medicine showed
a great potential to unravel the physiological processes in health and disease. During
the relatively short 50-year period since the BNMS was founded, there has been
immense changes and advances in the speciality: from a scientific curiosity to
becoming an indispensable diagnostic and therapeutic tool. The BNMS has been
the hub for this highly motivated multidisciplinary group of people which from the
start included physicians, scientists, physicists, radio pharmacists, practitioners and
nurses. This book is a timely collection of articles outlining the scientific advances
in nuclear medicine recorded by the pioneers themselves. This book is a journey
through these exciting times, and it is also a collection of personal narratives, telling
us the story of these exciting years by those who have themselves been instrumental
in advancing and shaping nuclear medicine. I have great pleasure and honour in
presenting this book, an informative and an enjoyable read of this journey through
five decades of nuclear medicine in the UK, to mark the 50th anniversary of the
BNMS.

Nottingham, UK Alp Notghi

v
Introduction

The British Nuclear Medicine Society (BNMS) is a registered charity that was orig-
inally established in 1966 as the Nuclear Medicine Society. It is the only indepen-
dent forum devoted to all aspects of nuclear medicine, clinical practice, education,
research and development of nuclear medicine within the UK. Nuclear medicine
covers the whole spectrum of medical diagnostic, investigational and investigational
use of ‘unsealed’ radionuclides.
The Society is committed to safe practice and high quality standards throughout
the UK. As well as co-operating with other professional societies and interested
bodies, the BNMS holds two scientific and educational meetings each year around
the UK and through its committees, promotes education, good practice, organisa-
tional audit and quality assurance activities. The Society provides advice for
purchasers on clinical and technical requirements and standards for nuclear medi-
cine as well as responding to NICE when appropriate.
The BNMS also promotes the countrywide audit and quality assurance
activities.
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the foundation of the BNMS, this booklet
brings together the history and scientific achievements in the UK over the past 50
years and more.

Ralph McCready DSc FRCR FRCP Hon FFR RSCI

Jamshed Bomanji MBBS, PhD, FRCR, FRCP
Gopinath Gnanasegaran MD FRCP

vii
Past Presidents of the BNMS

1968/1969 Dr C J Hayter (Leeds)

1969/1970 Prof E M McGirr (Glasgow)
1970/1971 Dr T M D Gimlette (Liverpool)
1971/1972 Prof E S Williams† (London)
1972/1974 Prof R McCready (Sutton)
1974/1976 Prof E Rhys Davies (Bristol)
1976/1978 Dr D Croft (London)
1978/1980 Prof M M Maisey (London)
1980/1982 Dr R F Jewkes (London)
1982/1984 Prof K E Britton (London)
1984/1986 Dr L K Harding (Birmingham)
1986/1988 Prof P S Robinson (Surrey)
1988/1990 Dr A J Coakley (Canterbury)
1990/1992 Prof J H McKillop (Glasgow)
1992/1994 Dr Susan E M Clarke (London)
1994/1996 Dr D H Keeling (Plymouth)
1996/1998 Dr H W Gray (Glasgow)
1998/2000 Dr T O Nunan (London)
2000/2002 Prof P J Robinson (Leeds)
2002/2004 Dr MC Prescott (Manchester)
2004/2006 Dr AJ Hilson (London)
2006/2008 Dr JW Frank (London)
2008/2010 Dr G Vivian (Cornwall)
2010/2012 Prof A C Perkins (Nottingham)
2012/2014 Dr B J Neilly (Glasgow)
2014/2016 Dr Alp Notghi (Birmingham)

ix
Preface

The European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) welcomed in 2015 its

40th National Society and I was very proud, as an EANM member and President, to
be present at this symbolic event.
The EANM is based on a broad representation from national societies and more
than 3000 individual members, and this mix gives us a particular strength and rep-
resentation, which is one of the reasons for the success of the EANM. I clearly have
in mind the contract that gave birth to the EANM, where two signatures of col-
leagues from the UK appear. This image well represents the primary role of the
British Nuclear Medicine Community in the development of the EANM.
Our European Association turned 25 years old in 2012, quite young when com-
pared to the BNMS, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary!
Both the BNMS and the EANM are lively and well fitted to face the challenges
of the modern medical world. Our discipline has unique characteristics and has all
the potential to stay as a major player in the clinical and scientific arena.
Many developments have occurred during the life of EANM since its foundation
and the British Nuclear Medicine Community has always been active in driving
these developments in the best way possible. The British Nuclear Medicine
Community has had the privilege to have some of the pioneers of our discipline
amongst its members. These scientists contributed to the basis of our discipline in
the “old” continent and gave to the European Nuclear Medicine Community the
strength that continues to the present day.

Vienna, Austria Arturo Chiti

xi
Preface

We would like to use this opportunity to congratulate you all on the 50th anniversary
of the British Nuclear Medicine Society.
Enhancing the capacity of Member States in the field of nuclear medicine and
diagnostic imaging forms an integral part of the International Atomic Energy
Agency’s objective to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to
peace, health and prosperity throughout the world. The unconditional support of
British professionals and institutions throughout these 50 years has made a signifi-
cant contribution to achieving this goal. Provision of training for all disciplines
involved in the field and the expertise provided to Member States by British experts
has been pivotal in advancing the practice of nuclear medicine and diagnostic imag-
ing worldwide.
Through the generous support of our British colleagues, a total of over 800 train-
ees have been hosted and over 150 experts have provided their support to countless
IAEA Member States. The knowledge and experience shared have enabled profes-
sionals to bring nuclear medicine and diagnostic imaging to the forefront on global
scale in tackling a variety of diseases, with special emphasis on cardiovascular and
cancer diseases. Through our mutual collaboration, we have helped many countries
throughout the world to improve the delivery of high-quality practice in a sustain-
able manner.
We would like to use this opportunity to express our gratitude to the British
Nuclear Medicine Society for your support and look forward to future collabora-
tion. We invite you all in your professional or institutional capacities to continue
providing support for strengthening the nuclear medicine and diagnostic imaging
practice worldwide.

Vienna, Austria Diana Paez

xiii
Contents

1 History of the BNMS 1966–2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Brian Neilly
2 A History of Nuclear Medicine in the UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Ralph McCready
3 The Evolution of Training in Nuclear Medicine in the UK . . . . . . . . 19
Andrew Hilson
4 A Technologists Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Liz Clarke
5 Evolution of Nuclear Medicine Physics in the UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Richard S. Lawson
6 The Institute of Nuclear Medicine London . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Jamshed Bomanji and Peter J. Ell
7 A History of Nuclear Medicine in the UK Radionuclide
Investigation of the Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Peter J. Ell
8 A History of Nuclear Cardiology in the UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
S. Richard Underwood
9 Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children,
Paediatric Nuclear Medicine in the UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Lorenzo Biassoni
10 Renal Radionuclide Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Keith Britton
11 St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Medical School:
Department of Nuclear Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Keith Britton
12 Nuclear Medicine at the Hammersmith Hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Michael Peters

xv
xvi Contents

13 Nuclear Medicine in Nottingham: Antibodies,

Gamma Probes and Drug Delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Alan C. Perkins
14 The Introduction and Development of Clinical
PET in the United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Michael Maisey
15 Bone Radionuclide Imaging, Quantitation
and Bone Densitometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Glen M. Blake and Ignac Fogelman
16 Therapeutic Nuclear Medicine in the UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
John Buscombe
17 Hospital Radiopharmacy in the UK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
James R. Ballinger
18 Development of Computers in Nuclear Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
E. David Williams
19 The Future Direction of Radiopharmaceutical
Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Philip J. Blower
20 A Personal Reflection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Tom Nunan
Contributors

James R. Ballinger Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK

Lorenzo Biassoni Department of Radiology, Great Ormond Street Hospital for
Children NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
Glen M. Blake Department of Nuclear Medicine, Guy’s Campus,
King’s College London, London, UK
Philip J. Blower Division of Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering,
King’s College London, St Thomas’ Hospital, London, UK
Jamshed Bomanji Clinical Department, Institute of Nuclear Medicine,
UCLH NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
Keith Britton Departments of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine,
The London Clinic, London, UK
John Buscombe Department of Nuclear Medicine, Cambridge University
Hospitals, Cambridge, UK
Arturo Chiti Humanitas University, Milan, Italy
Humanitas Research Hospital, Milan, Italy
European Association of Nuclear Medicine, Vienna, Austria
Liz Clarke European Applications, GE Healthcare Ltd, The Grove Centre,
Amersham, UK
Peter J. Ell Department of Nuclear Medicine, Institute of Nuclear Medicine,
UCLH NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
Ignac Fogelman Department of Nuclear Medicine, Guy’s Campus,
King’s College London, London, UK
Gopinath Gnanasegaran Department Nuclear Medicine, Guy’s & St Thomas’
NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
Isky Gordon Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust,
London, UK

xvii
xviii Contributors

Andrew Hilson Department of Nuclear Medicine, Royal Free Hospital,

London, UK
Richard S. Lawson Department of Nuclear Medicine, Central Manchester
Nuclear Medicine Centre, Salford, UK
University of Salford, Salford, UK
University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Michael Maisey Kings College, London, UK
Ralph McCready Nuclear Medicine Department, Royal Sussex County Hospital,
Brighton, UK
Brian Neilly Department of Nuclear Medicine, Glasgow Royal Infirmary,
Glasgow, UK
Alp Notghi Department of Physics and Nuclear Medicine,
Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, City Hospital,
Birmingham, UK
Tom Nunan Nuclear medicine, St Thomas’ Hospital, London, UK
Diana Paez Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging Section Division
of Human Health Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications,
International Atomic Energy Agency Vienna International Centre,
Vienna, Austria
Alan C. Perkins Department of Radiological Sciences, University of Nottingham
and Honorary, Nottingham, UK
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK
Michael Peters Department of Nuclear Medicine, Clinical and Laboratory
Investigation, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK
S. Richard Underwood Department Nuclear Medicine, Imperial College
London, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK
E. David Williams Sunderland, UK
History of the BNMS 1966–2016
1
Brian Neilly

1.1 Background

The post-war period of the late 1940s and the 1950s was a productive time for
developments in the use of radionuclides to diagnose and treat human disease. The
pioneers of these developments in the UK were eminent scientists such as Norman
Veall, Russell Herbert, WV Mayneord, and John Mallard who carried out research
using radiopharmaceuticals and designed and built simple homemade detection sys-
tems [1, 2]. The field developed rapidly but failed initially to capture the imagina-
tion of clinicians other than endocrinologists such as Edward McGirr (second
President of the BNMS) who used 131I to study and treat thyroid disorders.
Influenced by progress reported at international meetings, the availability of com-
mercially built scanners and the increasing access to radioisotopes other than I-131,
things were changing in the UK and elsewhere. Progress with radioisotopes had
largely been the preserve of Medical Physics Departments but by 1960 it was rec-
ognised that the move of radioisotopes from bench to bedside necessitated medical
leadership of the new discipline of ‘Nuclear Medicine’, a descriptor imported from
North America. The 1960s saw the appointment of the first consultant physicians in
Nuclear Medicine in the UK.

1.2 The Original Four

Against this changing landscape, four clinicians with an interest in Nuclear Medicine,
Steve Garnett, David Keeling, Ralph McCready and Edward Williams met at the
Prince Alfred pub in Queensway, London (Fig. 1.1) on Tuesday 19th July 1966 to

B. Neilly
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Glasgow Royal Infirmary,
Glasgow G31 2ER, UK

© The Author(s) 2016 1

R. McCready et al. (eds.), A History of Radionuclide Studies in the UK:
50th Anniversary of the British Nuclear Medicine Society,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-28624-2_1
2 B. Neilly

Fig. 1.1 The Prince Alfred, Queensway, London

discuss the future professional situation of physicians working in Nuclear Medicine

[2]. The group formed the Nuclear Medicine Society (NMS) and resolved to hold 4
meetings a year. This was a courageous move leaving behind, as they did, the protec-
tive environment of more established medical associations. The NMS meetings were
held initially at the Middlesex Hospital, London and took the form of evening meet-
ings followed by a buffet supper. Initially there were no officers but Ralph McCready
took on the role as Secretary and David Keeling produced a short newsletter. The first
AGM was held in December 1966 and the rules and byelaws were agreed and
approved at a meeting of the NMS at the Middlesex Hospital on 6th October 1967.
The first formal election of NMS officers took place in December 1967. Clive Hayter
(Leeds) was elected as first President, Ralph McCready was confirmed as the
Honorary Secretary and Steve Garnett (Southampton) as Treasurer. At this time the
1 History of the BNMS 1966–2016 3

fledgling society numbered 25 members and in January 1968 subscriptions were

levied at £1 increasing to £2 by October of that year. In recognition of the many
national Nuclear Medicine specialist groups that had formed globally, an EGM was
convened on 19 November 1969, and the meeting voted to change its name from the
‘Nuclear Medicine Society’ to the ‘British Nuclear Medicine Society’ (BNMS) [3].

1.3 First Steps

By the late 1960s interest in Nuclear Medicine in the UK was growing fast and in
June 1969 the Royal College of Physicians held a meeting entitled ‘Advances in the
Application of Physics in Medicine’ incorporating advances in Nuclear Medicine.
The May 1970 BNMS Newsletter gave details of the London University Nuclear
Medicine MSc course that commenced later that year. In 1971, Edward Williams,
then head of the Institute of Nuclear Medicine at the Middlesex Hospital, was
elected BNMS President and the same year became the first UK Professor of
Nuclear Medicine. A paper given by Edward Williams at the ‘Whither Nuclear
Medicine’ meeting at the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln’s Field in May 1971
helped foster the association with internal medicine. By 1972 there were 140 recti-
linear scanners in the UK and 30 gamma cameras, a remarkable advance given that
the first UK commercial scanner had been installed in 1958 at the Royal Marsden
[3] The success of clinical Nuclear Medicine highlighted tensions between the vari-
ous professional bodies involved in Nuclear Medicine in the UK particularly over
the matter of the HPA document ‘Organisation of Hospital Radioisotope Services
(Nuclear Medicine) in the UK’ [3]. These difficulties were resolved by discussion
and the groups have continued to work collaboratively over the years. Important
associations were formed early on between the BNMS and international organisa-
tions such as the World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology (WFNMB). In
1971 the BNMS was invited to sign as the UK representative to the WFNMB. In
June 1974, Desmond Croft attended the ENMS meeting at Clermont-Ferrand and
signed up the BNMS as the specialist NM society representing the UK [3]. Such
developments helped strengthen and establish the BNMS as the recognised profes-
sional organisation devoted to Nuclear Medicine in the UK.

1.4 Annual Meetings

By the early 1970s efforts were concentrated on the creation of an annual meeting
and AGM. The first annual meeting of the BNMS took place in 1973 in the Windeyer
Building at the Middlesex Hospital and included a small commercial exhibition [4].
By 1975, and for economic reasons, the annual meeting [3] was held at the University
of London Student’s union in Malet Street where the registration fee was £1 (£2 for
non-members). The 1976 annual meeting was a 2-day conference held in association
with the HPA where 24 proffered papers were presented [5]. The 1978 BNMS annual
meeting was held jointly with the ENMS and SNME (the forerunner organisations of
4 B. Neilly

the EANM) prompting a move to Imperial College where the venue remained until
1995. The single exception to this was 1985 (the year of the joint ENMS/SNME/
BNMS meeting at the Barbican) when a 1-day BNMS meeting was held at the
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology during April. The
1980 annual meeting was the first UK meeting to be held over 3 days. The newsletter
commented that one of the strengths of the meeting was ‘the enthusiasm of the com-
mercial exhibitors to display and discuss their wares’ [6]. By 1986 at the 14th annual
meeting, there were 162 proffered papers of which 119 were accepted and it was
generally agreed that the standard of the scientific papers was high [5]. A central
feature of the annual meeting is the guest lecture. Of the many distinguished lectures
over the years, the BNMS were honoured to have Professor Henry Wagner deliver
the 1987 guest lecture entitled ‘Imaging the Chemistry of Mental Illness.’
The need for space to accommodate the commercial exhibition necessitated a
move away from Imperial College to more suitable venues. In 1996 the annual
meeting was held in Brighton and thereafter at various venues including Brighton,
Manchester and Edinburgh until 2009. The delegate numbers peaked at 768 at
Brighton in 2000. However, the spiralling costs of the larger centres meant that it
was no longer financially viable to continue at large city venues and a decision was
taken to alternate between Harrogate and Brighton where the venue hire was more
affordable during the period 2009–2015. The 2016 Annual Meeting will be held in
Birmingham where fittingly the President is Dr Alp Notghi.

1.5 Joint Meetings with EANM

Since its formation, the BNMS has held four joint meetings with the EANM in the
UK. These were in 1978 at Imperial College, 1985 at the Barbican Centre, 1997 at
the SECC Glasgow and 2011 at the ICC Birmingham. Over 3,000 delegates attended
the Barbican Centre in 1985 where the Congress President was Keith Britton and
the BNMS President was Keith Harding. The Congress President at the Glasgow
Meeting in 1997 was Jim McKillop and the BNMS President was Harry Gray. Over
5,400 participants attended the 2011 Birmingham meeting where the local organiser
was Alan Perkins, the first non-medical President of the BNMS.

1.6 Membership

As a registered charity the BNMS is the only independent multi-disciplinary profes-

sional forum in the UK devoted to all aspects of Nuclear Medicine. The Board of
Trustees of the BNMS (known as the Council) is responsible for the charity. Its
members include clinical scientists, nuclear medicine physicians, nurses, radiolo-
gists, radiopharmacists and technologists. Initially, full membership of the BNMS
was open only to medically qualified persons although Council had the right to admit
to membership individuals thought to have a valid claim. At the AGM in 1972 the
rules and byelaws were changed to allow non-medical colleagues to become full
1 History of the BNMS 1966–2016 5

members of the BNMS [3]. As an means of widening membership further, the

Charities Commission was approached and gave permission in 1980 to establish a
new category entitled ‘associate membership’ open to all scientists, pharmacists,
technicians and medical staff not eligible for full membership. The initial associate
membership fee was set at £8 allowing access to the newsletter section of the journal
and reduced fees at BNMS meetings [3]. As a result of this and reflecting the grow-
ing interest in Nuclear Medicine, BNMS membership increased from 220 in 1982 to
752 (including 195 associate members) in the year 2000. The membership numbers
have subsequently decreased but fluctuate between 450 and 500 members at present.
The growth of the BNMS necessitated a change to the legal status of the organisation
and in 2012 following a successful application to Companies House, the BNMS was
incorporated under the Companies Act 2006 as a company limited by guarantee.

1.7 Aims and Objectives

While the agenda of early BNMS council meetings was dominated of necessity by
the formation of its rules and byelaws and the arrangement of its scientific meetings,
the matters discussed by council included issues of national concern such as staff
training (technical and medical), advice to government bodies on the registration,
authorisation and safe use of radioisotopes in medicine, and collaboration with
other professional organisations such as HPA and BIR [3]. The business of these
first BNMS Council meetings helped shape the aims and objectives of the Society
that were subsequently crystallised and set out in the Articles of Association and
now captured in the BNMS strategic plan 2010–2013 [7]. To help Council achieve
its objectives, there are a number of Committees or Groups that report to Council.
These include Professional Standards, Education, Science, Research & Innovation,
Public Relations, Therapy and PET-CT groups. The administrative functions of the
BNMS were ably supported by a number of individuals but notably by Sue Hatchard
who was administrative secretary between 1986 until 2013. Sue ran the BNMS from
the office in Regent House, SE London and on her retiral, the BNMS Offices moved
to the Jubilee Campus at Nottingham University where Charlotte Weston is the
Chief Executive Officer.

1.8 The Journal

A significant development for Nuclear Medicine in general and the BNMS in par-
ticular was the creation of Nuclear Medicine Communications. The journal was
formed to facilitate rapid communication of information within the international
community. The first issue of Nuclear Medicine Communications was published in
1980 in association with the BNMS [8]. The success story that is Nuclear Medicine
and the part played by the BNMS in its remarkable progress in the UK can be seen
in the pages of NMC, as well as at scientific meetings of the BNMS and on its
webpages.
6 B. Neilly

Open Access This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial 2.5 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/) which permits any
noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s)
and source are credited.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the work’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if such material is not included in
the work’s Creative Commons license and the respective action is not permitted by statutory regu-
lation, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to duplicate, adapt or reproduce
the material.

References
1. Schicha H, Bergdolt K, Ell PJ, editors. History of Nuclear Medicine in Europe. Stuttgart/New
York: Schatthauer; 2003. p. 75–9.
2. McCready RV. History of the British Nuclear Medicine Society. http://www.bnms.org.uk/
images/stories/History/EANM_25_Anniversary_UK.pdf.
3. Keeling D. Historical notes on the first 10 years (unpublished observations).
4. McCready RV. 40th anniversary BNMS annual meeting. http://www.bnms.org.uk/images/sto-
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8. Britton K. Editorial. Nucl Med Commun 1980;(1):1–2.
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Colonial dames
and good wives
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
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Title: Colonial dames and good wives

Author: Alice Morse Earle

Release date: August 31, 2023 [eBook #71532]

Language: English

Original publication: Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin &

Company, 1895

Credits: The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COLONIAL

DAMES AND GOOD WIVES ***
 COLONIAL
DAMES
AND
GOOD WIVES
WRITTEN BY
ALICE MORSE EARLE

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN &
COMPANY
THE RIVERSIDE PRESS
CAMBRIDGE
 Copyright, 1895,
By ALICE MORSE EARLE.
All rights reserved.
 TO
THE MEMORY OF THE COLONIAL DAMES

Whose blood runs in my veins

Whose spirit lives in my work

Elizabeth Morse, Joanna Hoar, Esther Mason, Deborah

Atherton, Sarah Wyeth, Anne Adams, Elizabeth
Browne, Hannah Phillips, Mary Clary, Silence
Heard, Judith Thurston, Patience Foster,
Martha Bullard, Barbara Sheppard,
Seaborn Wilson
 CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. Consorts and Relicts 1
II. Women of Affairs 45
III. “Double-Tongued and 88
Naughty Women”
IV. Boston Neighbors 109
V. A Fearfull Female 135
Travailler
VI. Two Colonial 160
Adventuresses
VII. The Universal Friend 173
VIII. Eighteenth-Century 189
Manners
IX. Their Amusements and 206
Accomplishments
X. Daughters of Liberty 240
XI. A Revolutionary 238
Housewife
XII. Fireside Industries 276
COLONIAL DAMES AND
GOODWIVES.
 CHAPTER I.
CONSORTS AND RELICTS.

In the early days of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, careful lists

were sent back to old England by the magistrates, telling what “to
provide to send to New England” in order to ensure the successful
planting and tender nourishing of the new settlement. The earliest list
includes such homely items as “benes and pese,” tame turkeys,
copper kettles, all kinds of useful apparel and wholesome food; but
the list is headed with a most significant, a typically Puritan item,
Ministers. The list sent to the Emigration Society by the Virginian
colonists might equally well have been headed, to show their most
crying need, with the word Wives.
The settlement of Virginia bore an entirely different aspect from
that of New England. It was a community of men who planted
Jamestown. There were few women among the early Virginians. In
1608 one Mistress Forrest came over with a maid, Anne Burraws,
who speedily married John Laydon, the first marriage of English folk
in the new world. But wives were few, save squaw-wives, therefore
the colony did not thrive. Sir Edwin Sandys, at a meeting of the
Emigration Society in London, in November, 1619, said that “though
the colonists are seated there in their persons some four years, they
are not settled in their minds to make it their place of rest and
continuance.” They all longed to gather gold and to return to England
as speedily as possible, to leave that state of “solitary uncouthness,”
as one planter called it. Sandys and that delightful gentleman, the
friend and patron of Shakespeare, the Earl of Southampton,
planned, as an anchor in the new land, to send out a cargo of wives
for these planters, that the plantation might “grow in generations and
not be pieced out from without.” In 1620 the Jonathan and the
London Merchant brought ninety maids to Virginia on a venture, and
a most successful venture it proved.
 There are some scenes in colonial life which stand out of the past
with much clearness of outline, which seem, though no details
survive, to present to us a vivid picture. One is this landing of ninety
possible wives—ninety homesick, seasick but timidly inquisitive
English girls—on Jamestown beach, where pressed forward, eagerly
and amorously waiting, about four hundred lonely emigrant
bachelors—bronzed, sturdy men, in leather doublets and breeches
and cavalier hats, with glittering swords and bandoleers and fowling-
pieces, without doubt in their finest holiday array, to choose and
secure one of these fair maids as a wife. Oh, what a glorious and all-
abounding courting, a mating-time, was straightway begun on the
Virginian shore on that happy day in May. A man needed a quick
eye, a ready tongue, a manly presence, if he were to succeed
against such odds in supply and demand, and obtain a fair one, or
indeed any one, from this bridal array. But whosoever he won was
indeed a prize, for all were asserted to be “young, handsome,
honestly educated maids, of honest life and carriage”—what more
could any man desire? Gladly did the husband pay to the Emigration
Company the one hundred and twenty pounds of leaf tobacco, which
formed, in one sense, the purchase money for the wife. This was
then valued at about eighty dollars: certainly a man in that
matrimonial market got his money’s worth; and the complaining
colonial chronicler who asserted that ministers and milk were the
only cheap things in New England, might have added—and wives
the only cheap things in Virginia.
It was said by old writers that some of these maids were seized by
fraud, were trapanned in England, that unprincipled spirits “took up
rich yeomans’ daughters to serve his Majesty as breeders in Virginia
unless they paid money for their release.” This trapanning was one
of the crying abuses of the day, but in this case it seems scarcely
present. For the girls appear to have been given a perfectly fair
showing in all this barter. They were allowed to marry no
irresponsible men, to go nowhere as servants, and, indeed, were not
pressed to marry at all if against their wills. They were to be “housed
lodged and provided for of diet” until they decided to accept a
husband. Naturally nearly all did marry, and from the unions with
these young, handsome and godly-carriaged maids sprang many of
our respected Virginian families.
No coquetry was allowed in this mating. A girl could not promise to
marry two men, under pain of fine or punishment; and at least one
presumptuous and grasping man was whipped for promising
marriage to two girls at the same time—as he deserved to be when
wives were so scarce.
Other ship-loads of maids followed, and with the establishment of
these Virginian families was dealt, as is everywhere else that the
family exists, a fatal blow at a community of property and interests,
but the colony flourished, and the civilization of the new world was
begun. For the unit of society may be the individual, but the molecule
of civilization is the family. When men had wives and homes and
children they “sett down satysfied” and no longer sighed for England.
Others followed quickly and eagerly; in three years thirty-five
hundred emigrants had gone from England to Virginia, a marked
contrast to the previous years of uncertainty and dissatisfaction.
Virginia was not the only colony to import wives for its colonists. In
1706 His Majesty Louis XIV. sent a company of twenty young girls to
the Governor of Louisiana, Sieur de Bienville, in order to consolidate
his colony. They were to be given good homes, and to be well
married, and it was thought they would soon teach the Indian
squaws many useful domestic employments. These young girls were
of unspotted reputation, and upright lives, but they did not love their
new homes; a dispatch of the Governor says:—
The men in the colony begin through habit to use corn as
an article of food, but the women, who are mostly Parisians,
have for this kind of food a dogged aversion which has not
been subdued. Hence they inveigh bitterly against his Grace
the Bishop of Quebec who they say has enticed them away
from home under pretext of sending them to enjoy the milk
and honey of the land of promise.
I don’t know how this venture succeeded, but I cannot fancy
anything more like the personification of incompatibility, of inevitable
failure, than to place these young Parisian women (who had certainly
known of the manner of living of the court of Louis XIV.) in a wild
frontier settlement, and to expect them to teach Western squaws any
domestic or civilized employment, and then to make them eat Indian
corn, which they loathed as do the Irish peasants. Indeed, they were
to be pitied. They rebelled and threatened to run away—whither I
cannot guess, nor what they would eat save Indian corn if they did
run away—and they stirred up such a dissatisfaction that the
imbroglio was known as the Petticoat Rebellion, and the governor
was much jeered at for his unsuccessful wardship and his attempted
matrimonial agency.
In 1721 eighty young girls were landed in Louisiana as wives, but
these were not godly-carriaged young maids; they had been taken
from Houses of Correction, especially from Paris. In 1728 came
another company known as filles à la cassette, or casket girls, for
each was given by the French government a casket of clothing to
carry to the new home; and in later years it became a matter of much
pride to Louisianians that their descent was from the casket-girls,
rather than from the correction-girls.
Another wife-market for the poorer class of wifeless colonists was
afforded through the white bond-servants who came in such
numbers to the colonies. They were of three classes; convicts, free-
willers or redemptioners, and “kids” who had been stolen and sent to
the new world, and sold often for a ten years’ term of service.
Maryland, under the Baltimores, was the sole colony that not only
admitted convicts, but welcomed them. The labor of the branded
hand of the malefactor, the education and accomplishments of the
social outcast, the acquirements and skill of the intemperate or over-
competed tradesman, all were welcome to the Maryland tobacco-
planters; and the possibilities of rehabilitation of fortune, health,
reputation, or reëstablishment of rectitude, made the custom not
unwelcome to the convict or to the redemptioner. Were the
undoubted servant no rogue, but an honest tradesman, crimped in
English coast-towns and haled off to Chesapeake tobacco fields, he
did not travel or sojourn, perforce, in low company. He might find
himself in as choice companionship, with ladies and gentlemen of as
high quality, albeit of the same character, as graced those other
English harbors of ne’er-do-weels, Newgate or the Fleet Prison.
Convicts came to other colonies, but not so openly nor with so much
welcome as to Maryland.
All the convicts who came to the colonies were not rogues, though
they might be condemned persons. The first record in Talbot County,
Maryland, of the sale of a convict, was in September, 1716, “in the
third Yeare of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King George.” And it
was for rebellion and treason against his Majesty that this convict,
Alexander MacQueen, was taken in Lancashire and transported to
America, and sold to Mr. Daniel Sherwood for seven years of
service. With him were transported two shiploads of fellow-culprits,
Jacobites, on the Friendship and Goodspeed. The London Public
Record Office (on American and West India matters, No. 27) records
this transportation and says the men were “Scotts Rebells.” Earlier
still, many of the rebels of Monmouth’s rebellion had been sold for
transportation, and the ladies of the court of James had eagerly
snatched at the profits of the sale. Even William Penn begged for
twenty of these rebels for the Philadelphia market. Perhaps he was
shrewd enough to see in them good stock for successful citizens.
Were the convict a condemned criminal, it did not necessarily follow
that he or she was thoroughly vicious. One English husband is found
petitioning on behalf of his wife, sentenced to death for stealing but
three shillings and sixpence, that her sentence be changed to
transportation to Virginia.
The redemptioners were willing immigrants, who contracted to
serve for a period of time to pay the cost of their passage, which
usually had been prepaid to the master of the ship on which they
came across-seas. At first the state of these free-willers was not
unbearable. Alsop, who was a redemptioner, has left on record that
the work required was not excessive:—
Five dayes and a halfe in the summer is the allotted time
that they worke, and for two months, when the Sun is
predominate in the highest pitch of his heat, they claim an
antient and customary Priviledge to repose themselves three
hours in the day within the house. In Winter they do little but
hunt and build fires.
and he adds, “the four years I served there were not to me so slavish
as a two-year’s servitude of a handicraft apprenticeship in London.”
Many examples can be given where these redemptioners rose to
respected social positions. In 1654, in the Virginia Assembly were
two members and one Burgess who had been bond-servants. Many
women-servants married into the family of their employers. Alsop
said it was the rule for them to marry well. The niece of Daniel Defoe
ran away to escape a marriage entanglement in England, sold
herself on board ship as a redemptioner when but eighteen years
old, was bought by a Mr. Job of Cecil County, Maryland, and soon
married her employer’s son. Defoe himself said that so many good
maid-servants were sold to America that there was a lack for
domestic service in England.
Through the stealing of children and youths to sell in the
plantations, it can plainly be seen that many a wife of respectable
birth was furnished to the colonists. This trade, by which, as Lionel
Gatford wrote in 1657, young people were “cheatingly duckoyed by
Poestigeous Plagiaries,” grew to a vast extent, and in it, emulating
the noble ladies of the court, women of lower rank sought a
degrading profit.
In 1655, in Middlesex, England, one Christian Sacrett was called
to answer the complaint of Dorothy Perkins:—
She accuseth her for a spirit, one that takes upp men
women and children, and sells them a-shipp to be conveyed
beyond the sea, having inticed and inveigled one Edward
Furnifall and Anna his wife with her infant to the waterside,
and putt them aboard the ship called the Planter to be
conveied to Virginia.
Sarah Sharp was also asserted to be a “common taker of children
and setter to Betray young men and maydens to be conveyed to
ships.”
The life of that famous rogue, Bamfylde-Moore Carew, shows the
method by which servants were sold in the plantations. The captain,
with his cargo of trapanned Englishmen, among whom was Carew,
cast anchor at Miles River in Talbot County, Maryland, ordered a gun
to be fired, and a hogshead of rum sent on board. On the day of the
sale the men prisoners were all shaved, the women dressed in their
best garments, their neatest caps, and brought on deck. Each
prisoner, when put up for sale, told his trade. Carew said he was a
good rat-catcher, beggar, and dog-trader, “upon which the Captain
hearing takes the planter aside, and tells him he did but jest, being a
man of humour, and would make an excellent schoolmaster.” Carew
escaped before being sold, was captured, whipped, and had a heavy
iron collar, “called in Maryland a pot-hook,” riveted about his neck;
but he again fled to the Indians, and returned to England. Kidnapped
in Bristol a second time, he was nearly sold on Kent Island to Mr.
Dulaney, but again escaped. He stole from a house “jolly cake,
powell, a sort of Indian corn bread, and good omani, which is kidney
beans ground with Indian corn, sifted, put into a pot to boil, and
eaten with molasses.” Jolly cake was doubtless johnny cake; omani,
hominy; but powell is a puzzle. He made his way by begging to
Boston, and shipped to England, from whence he was again
trapanned.
In the Sot-Weed Factor are found some very coarse but graphic
pictures of the women emigrants of the day. When the factor asks
the name of “one who passed for chambermaid” in one planter’s
house in “Mary-Land,” she answered with an affected blush and
simper:—

In better Times, ere to this Land

I was unhappily Trapanned,
Perchance as well I did appear
As any lord or lady here.
Not then a slave for twice two year.
My cloaths were fashionably new,
Nor were my shifts of Linnen blue;
But things are changed, now at the Hoe
I daily work, and barefoot go.
In weeding corn, or feeding swine,
I spend my melancholy time.
 Kidnap’d and fool’d I hither fled,
To shun a hated nuptial Bed.
And to my cost already find
Worse Plagues than those I left behind.

Another time, being disturbed in his sleep, the factor finds that in
an adjoining room,—

... a jolly Female Crew

Were Deep engaged in Lanctie Loo.

Soon quarreling over their cards, the planters’ wives fall into
abuse, and one says scornfully to the other:—

... tho now so brave,

I knew you late a Four Years Slave,
What if for planters wife you go,
Nature designed you for the Hoe.

The other makes, in turn, still more bitter accusations. It can

plainly be seen that such social and domestic relations might readily
produce similar scenes, and afford opportunity for “crimination and
recrimination.”
Still we must not give the Sot-Weed Factor as sole or indeed as
entirely unbiased authority. The testimony to the housewifely virtues
of the Maryland women by other writers is almost universal. In the
London Magazine of 1745 a traveler writes, and his word is similar to
that of many others:—
The women are very handsome in general and most
notable housewives; everything wears the Marks of
Cleanliness and Industry in their Houses, and their behavior
to their Husbands and Families is very edifying. You cant help
 observing, however, an Air of Reserve and somewhat that
looks at first to a Stranger like Unsociableness, which is
barely the effect of living at a great Distance from frequent
Society and their Thorough Attention to the Duties of their
Stations. Their Amusements are quite Innocent and within the
Circle of a Plantation or two. They exercise all the Virtues that
can raise Ones Opinion of too light a Sex.
The girls under such good Mothers generally have twice the
Sense and Discretion of the Boys. Their Dress is neat and
Clean and not much bordering upon the Ridiculous Humour of
the Mother Country where the Daughters seem Dress’d up for
a Market.
Wives were just as eagerly desired in New England as in Virginia,
and a married estate was just as essential to a man of dignity. As a
rule, emigration thereto was in families, but when New England men
came to the New World, leaving their families behind them until they
had prepared a suitable home for their reception, the husbands were
most impatient to send speedily for their consorts. Letters such as
this, of Mr. Eyre from England to Mr. Gibb in Piscataquay, in 1631,
show the sentiment of the settlers in the matter:—
I hope by this both your wives are with you according to
your desire. I wish all your wives were with you, and that so
many of you as desire wives had such as they desire. Your
wife, Roger Knight’s wife, and one wife more we have already
sent you and more you shall have as you wish for them.
This sentence, though apparently polygamous in sentiment, does
not indicate an intent to establish a Mormon settlement in New
Hampshire, but is simply somewhat shaky in grammatical
construction, and erratic in rhetorical expression.
Occasionally, though rarely, there was found a wife who did not
long for a New England home. Governor Winthrop wrote to England
on July 4, 1632:—
I have much difficultye to keepe John Gallope heere by
reason his wife will not come. I marvayle at her womans
 weaknesse, that she will live myserably with her children
there when she might live comfortably with her husband here.
I pray perswade and further her coming by all means. If she
will come let her have the remainder of his wages, if not let it
be bestowed to bring over his children for soe he desires.
Even the ministers’ wives did not all sigh for the New World. The
removal of Rev. Mr. Wilson to New England “was rendered difficult
by the indisposition of his dearest consort thereto.” He very shrewdly
interpreted a dream to her in favor of emigration, with but scant and
fleeting influence upon her, and he sent over to her from America
encouraging accounts of the new home, and he finally returned to
England for her, and after much fasting and prayer she consented to
“accompany him over an ocean to a wilderness.”
Margaret Winthrop, that undaunted yet gentle woman, wrote of her
at this date (and it gives us a glimpse of a latent element of Madam
Winthrop’s character), “Mr. Wilson cannot yet persuade his wife to
go, for all he hath taken this pains to come and fetch her. I marvel
what mettle she is made of. Sure she will yield at last.” She did yield,
and she did not go uncomforted. Cotton Mather wrote:—
Mrs. Wilson being thus perswaded over into the difficulties
of an American desart, her kinsman Old Mr. Dod, for her
consolation under those difficulties did send her a present
with an advice which had in it something of curiosity. He sent
her a brass counter, a silver crown, and a gold jacobus, all
severally wrapped up; with this instruction unto the gentleman
who carried it; that he should first of all deliver only the
counter, and if she received it with any shew of discontent, he
should then take no notice of her; but if she gratefully
resented that small thing for the sake of the hand it came
from, he should then go on to deliver the silver and so the
gold, but withal assure her that such would be the
dispensations to her and the good people of New England. If
they would be content and thankful with such little things as
God at first bestowed upon them, they should, in time, have
silver and gold enough. Mrs. Wilson accordingly by her
cheerful entertainment of the least remembrance from good
 old Mr. Dod, gave the gentleman occasion to go through with
his whole present and the annexed advice.
We could not feel surprised if poor homesick, heartsick, terrified
Mrs. Wilson had “gratefully resented” Mr. Dod’s apparently mean gift
to her on the eve of exile in our modern sense of resentment; but the
meaning of resent in those days was to perceive with a lively sense
of pleasure. I do not know whether this old Mr. Dod was the poet
whose book entitled A Posie from Old Mr. Dod’s Garden was one of
the first rare books of poetry printed in New England in colonial days.
We truly cannot from our point of view “marvayle” that these
consorts did not long to come to the strange, sad, foreign shore, but
wonder that they were any of them ever willing to come; for to the
loneliness of an unknown world was added the dread horror of
encounter with a new and almost mysterious race, the blood-thirsty
Indians, and if the poor dames turned from the woods to the shore,
they were menaced by “murthering pyrates.”
Gurdon Saltonstall, in a letter to John Winthrop of Connecticut, as
late as 1690, tells in a few spirited and racy sentences of the life the
women lead in an unprotected coast town. It was sad and terrifying
in reality, but there is a certain quaintness of expression and
metaphor in the narrative, and a sly and demure thrusting at Mr.
James, that give it an element of humor. It was written of the
approach of a foe “whose entrance was as formidable and
swaggering as their exit was sneaking and shamefull.” Saltonstall
says:—
My Wife & family was posted at your Honʳˢ a considerable
while, it being thought to be ye most convenient place for ye
feminine Rendezvous. Mr James who Commands in Chiefe
among them, upon ye coast alarum given, faceth to ye Mill,
gathers like a Snow ball as he goes, makes a Generall Muster
at yor Honʳˢ, and so posts away with ye greatest speed, to
take advantage of ye neighboring rocky hills, craggy,
inaccessible mountains; so that Wᵗᵉᵛᵉʳ els is lost Mr James
and yᵉ Women are safe.