Manchester Mummy

The museum of the Manchester Natural History Society (now the Manchester Museum), where Hannah Beswick's mummified body was on display

Hannah Beswick (1688 – February 1758), of Birchin Bower, Hollinwood, England, was a woman with a pathological fear of premature burial. Following her death in 1758 her body was embalmed and kept above ground, to be periodically checked for signs of life. Beswick's mummified body was eventually bequeathed to the Museum of the Manchester Natural History Society, where she was put on display and acquired the soubriquet of the Manchester Mummy, or the Mummy of Birchin Bower.

The museum was subsequently transferred to Manchester University, when it was decided, with the permission of the Bishop of Manchester, that Beswick should finally be buried. Her burial took place at Harpurhey cemetery on 22 July 1868; her grave is unmarked.

Background

Antoine Wiertz's L'Inhumation précipitée (The hasty burial), 1854

The mid-18th century saw an upsurge in the public's fear of being mistakenly buried alive, and much debate about the uncertainty of the signs of death. Various suggestions were made to test for signs of life before burial, ranging from pouring vinegar and pepper into the corpse's mouth to applying red hot pokers to the feet, or even up the rectum. Writing in 1895, the physician J. C. Ouseley claimed that as many as 2,700 people were buried prematurely each year in England and Wales, although others estimated the figure to be closer to 800.

Hannah Beswick was born in 1688, and inherited considerable wealth from her father, John Beswick of Failsworth. Some years before her own death, one of Beswick's brothers, John, had shown signs of life just as his coffin lid had been about to be closed. A mourner noticed that John's eyelids appeared to be flickering, and on examination the family physician, Dr Charles White, confirmed that John was still alive. He regained consciousness a few days later, and lived for many more years.

Jessie Dobson, Recorder of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, has said that there appear to be many "inaccuracies and contradictions" in accounts of the events following Beswick's death in 1758. Many suggest that she left £25,000 – a sum equivalent to about £1.8 million as of 2008 – to White, a pioneer of obstetrics and one of the founders of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, on the condition that her body was kept above ground, and that periodically she was to be checked for signs of life. However, Beswick's will, dated 25 July 1757, less than a year before her death, states only that Dr White was to receive £100, and that £400 was to be allocated for funeral expenses. Some accounts have suggested that White was an executor of Beswick's will, and that he received the £400 himself, from which he was permitted to keep any surplus after the funeral expenses had been paid. Having Beswick embalmed therefore allowed him to keep the whole amount. Alternatively it has been suggested that White was considerably in debt to Beswick, a debt that would have to be repaid after the funeral, which was avoided by her embalming. However Beswick's will names Mary Graeme and Esther Robinson as her executors, not White. In 1866, more than 100 years after her death, the details of Beswick's will were still in dispute.

Embalming

There is no mention in Beswick's 1757 will of her desire to be embalmed. It has been suggested that White had been asked to keep Beswick above ground only until it became obvious that she was actually dead, but that he was unable to resist the temptation to add a mummy to his collection of "wet and dry" exhibits, and so made the decision to embalm her. The process White used is unrecorded, but probably began by injecting the veins and arteries with a mixture of turpentine and vermilion. The organs would then have been removed from the chest and abdomen and placed in water, to clean them and to reduce their bulk. As much blood as possible would then have been squeezed out of the corpse, and the whole body washed with alcohol. The next stage would have been to replace the organs and to repeat the injection of turpentine and vermilion. The body cavities would then have been filled with a mixture of camphor, nitre and resin, before the body was sewn up and all openings filled with camphor. The final stage, after thoroughly washing the body, was to pack it in a box containing plaster of paris, to absorb any moisture.

Display

Initially Besick's body was kept at Ancoats Hall, the home of another Beswick family member, but it was soon moved to a room in Dr White's home in Sale, where it was stored in an old clock case. Beswick's apparently eccentric will made her a celebrity; the author Thomas de Quincey was one of those who went to view her at White's house. Following White's death in 1813, Beswick's mummified body was bequeathed to a Dr Ollier, on whose death in 1828 her body was donated to the Museum of the Manchester Natural History Society, where she became known as the Manchester Mummy, or the Mummy of Birchin Bower. Her body was put on display in the museum's entrance hall, next to a Peruvian and an Egyptian mummy. She was described by one visitor in 1844 as "one of the most remarkable objects in the museum". Beswick's relatives were allowed free access to visit her whenever they wished.

There are no pictures of Hannah Beswick. One of the few contemporary accounts is provided by Philip Wentworth, a local historian: Vorlage:Quote

Following the museum's transfer to Manchester University in 1867, it was decided that despite Beswick's fear of being buried alive, she was "irrevocably and unmistakably dead". Her relatives were reluctant to take responsibility for the disposal of her remains, and so, with the permission of the Bishop of Manchester, Beswick was buried in an unmarked grave in Harpurhey cemetery, on 22 July 1868.

Treasure and apparitions

When Bonnie Prince Charlie entered Manchester at the head of his invading army in 1745, Beswick decided to bury her money for safety. Shortly before her death in 1758 she promised to show her relatives where she had buried her treasure, but she died before she was able to do so. Her home, Birchin Bower, was converted into workers' tenements following her death. Several of those living there claimed to have seen a figure dressed in a black silk gown and a white cap, and described it as Hannah Beswick. After gliding across the house's parlour, the apparition would vanish at one particular flagstone. It is claimed that while digging to fit a new loom, a weaver living there discovered Beswick's hoard of gold, hidden underneath that same flagstone. Oliphant's, a Manchester gold dealer, paid the weaver £3 10s for each gold piece, the equivalent of almost £200 as of 2008.

Birchin Bower was eventually demolished to make way for a Ferranti factory, but sightings of the apparition were still reported.

References

Bibliography

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