Resurrectionists

Written by Alexander Gunn, A Native of Badbea, and published in the Northern Ensign, November 18, 1880

 

It is possible that Gunn was at the Berriedale cemetery which is the closest cemetery to Badbea. I think the flat stone in this photo is the grave of John Badbea Sutherland who died in 1864 so it was probably placed much after the incident told here.

“The youths of those days lived a very primitive life. Bare feet and bare legs were the fashion, till we were in our teens, the kilt being in universal use. All our clothing was home-spun, and not very artistically made. Tailors “whipped the cat” in those days, that is to say, exercised their calling from house to house. A man named Anderson, from Helmsdale, took a tour round the country, and picked up a job here and there, wherever he could find one. He was not very popular, as he was reputed to be a “Resurrectionist,” but he was reckoned a fair tradesman. I remember his name being a terror to us when we were told he lifted the dead. He was in the habit of wearing dress-shirts, which were very uncommon in those days with people in his position, but the explanation given was, that they did not cost him much, as he got them made from the shrouds of the dead bodies he was in the habit of lifting”.

“Whether the poor man was guilty of this abominable practice or not, it is hard to say, but, as the Yankees call it, “body-snatching” was common enough, and to prevent the bodies being lifted, watch was kept on every newly-buried body for six weeks at least. Everyone attending a funeral was considered bound to take part in the watching in turns. In some church yards there were watch-houses, and in winter the friends of the deceased supplied a quantity of peats for a fire”. 

Mort House, Udny, Aberdeenshire

This circular stone building houses a revolving wheel upon which a coffin would be placed and kept securely under lock and key. When another body was deposited, the wheel would be turned slightly to accommodate the new coffin. Eventually, when a coffin had been rotated one full revolution, it could safely be buried because the corpse would be sufficiently decomposed as to be of no use to the body-snatchers.

The interior of the strong morthouse at Udny Green. It is circular, constructed of granite blocks and has inside a turntable on which coffins were placed. By the time a body had gone full circle it was too rotten to be of interest. The opening is guarded by an inner iron door which rises vertically from a pit, and a stout outer door of oak.

“Frequently the watchers took a gun with them, with the view of giving the “Resurrectionists” a warm reception, if they ventured to put in an appearance. I remember one night being one of two engaged in watching. My companion was my senior, and took his gun with him, which he loaded with Number three shot. During the night, as my neighbour was enjoying a nap on a quantity of straw in a corner, and I was sitting up diligently watching, I observed some black object among the tombs, and pretty near the spot where the grave was of which we had charge. I raised my companion, and pointed him to what I saw. He picked up his gun, and challenged the intruder, but got no answer, when he put the piece to his shoulder, with the view of taking aim. When the person saw things looking serious, he cried out to take care what we were about. This was a person who wished to see if we were keeping a faithful watch, and not like some watchers of whom we read, who made up a story that the grave was robbed “while they slept.” It was a very risky business that this person took in hand. It might have turned out a very serious affair, both for him and us”.

My Comments:

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the United Kingdom, “Resurrectionists” were paid by medical trainees and their teachers to supply bodies of the recently dead to be used for anatomical research. Scottish law required that corpses used for medical research could only come from those who had died in prison, suicide victims, or foundlings and orphans. The bodies of executed criminals were allowed to be dissected – a fate generally viewed with horror by the prisoner prior to his death. 

But there were never enough bodies to meet the needs of the training establishments that were opening. 

An illicit trade in freshly dug up bodies (aka cadavers) was started, with substantial amounts of cash being paid for a body, by the training establishments. Those plying this trade were known as Resurrectionists or Body-snatchers. 

 

Resurrectionists (1847) by Hablot Knight Browne

Legally it was a grey area as bodies were not regarded as being owned by anyone. But disturbing a grave was a criminal offence as was the taking of property from the body. The price per corpse changed depending on the season. It was £8 during the summer and £10 during the winter.

 

In his article Gunn suggests Mr Anderson, the Helmsdale tailor, had clothes made from shrouds from bodies he had dug up so doubly suspect.

People were alarmed at the activities of the Resurrectionists and began to establish measures to stop them. This included security at cemeteries. Night watchers patrolled grave sites. The rich placed their dead in secure coffins. Barriers with metal bars or heavy stone slabs made extracting copses more difficult. Deterrents were kept in place for a few weeks after death until the body would be no longer usable for dissection.

Things came to a head in 1828 when two notorious body snatchers named William Burke and William Hare were involved in a series of sixteen murders committed in Edinburgh over about ten months. They sold the corpses to Dr Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures. Burke and Hare were not really Resurrectionists but were murderers.

 

Daft Jamie, one of the Burke and Hare victims

Burke was ultimately hanged in 1829 in front of a crowd of maybe 25,000. His corpse was publicly dissected by Professor Munro in the anatomy theatre of the university’s Old College. Burke’s skeleton was given to the Anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh Medical school where it remains. 

 

William Burke's skeleton

Hare was offered immunity from prosecution if he turned king’s evidence and provided full details of the deaths which he did. He eventually was released. After a crowd recognised him and caused a riot, Hare managed to disappear and his eventual fate was unknown. 

I am intrigued by the timing of the incident Gunn describes, with him being on watch in a graveyard with an older person. Gunn was born at Badbea in 1820. The Burke and Hare scandal was in 1828/29. So Gunn was either a mere boy when he was on graveyard watch (and certainly children had to take their turns in many adult activities) or the fear of Resurrectionists lasted in their community for some years after the Burke and Hare scandals. As well as in Edinburgh, there was a School of Medicine at Aberdeen University, which may have needed cadavars ,and was closer to home, so keeping the ‘fear of Resurectionists’ alive!