Series 2: The Rabbit Incident
Part 1
A woman from Godalming seemingly exhibits a surprising physiological anomaly, prompting investigations from several of Georgian Britain's leading physicians.
This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.
Part 1
A woman from Godalming seemingly exhibits a surprising physiological anomaly, prompting investigations from several of Georgian Britain's leading physicians.
This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.
Part 2
A crowd gathers in a boarding-house in the West End of London, waiting for Mary Toft to produce another rabbit. The second episode in a 4-part miniseries on Mary Toft.
This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.
Part 2
A crowd gathers in a boarding-house in the West End of London, waiting for Mary Toft to produce another rabbit. The second episode in a 4-part miniseries on Mary Toft.
This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.
Part 3
After the Mary Toft Rabbit Hoax is exposed, the doctors involved become the subject of relentless mockery from the media. Features me singing. Twice.
This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.
Part 3
After the Mary Toft Rabbit Hoax is exposed, the doctors involved become the subject of relentless mockery from the media. Features me singing. Twice.
This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.
Part 4
More on the media coverage of the Mary Toft Incident, as well as John Maubray, known as "the sooterkin doctor", and the strange Dutch creatures that gave him his nickname. We also find out what happened to Mary Toft and the Doctors afterwards.
This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.
Part 4
More on the media coverage of the Mary Toft Incident, as well as John Maubray, known as "the sooterkin doctor", and the strange Dutch creatures that gave him his nickname. We also find out what happened to Mary Toft and the Doctors afterwards.
This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.
Images
The Doctors in Labour; or a New Whim-Wham from Guildford - a contemporary satirical broadside illustrating the Mary Toft affair in the form of a comic strip. The King's surgeon Nathaniel St André, the most prominent victim of the hoax, is clearly the principal subject of mockery, shown wearing a ludicrous spotty clown-suit.
An engraving by William Hogarth, titled Cunicularii, meaning something like 'the people who burrow like rabbits', and subtitled The Wise Men of Godliman in Consultation. It shows a sort of mock nativity scene in Lacey's Bagnio, where Mary Toft was exhibited until the hoax was exposed. Conveniently, the characters are labelled.
- A: The Dancing Master or Praeternatural Anatomist - Nathaniel St. André, standing in the middle of the room, saying "a great birth"
- B: An Occult Philosopher Searching into the Depths of Things - Richard Manningham, one of the Physicians who investigated the affair, performing to the crowd with his sleeves rolled up and his hand up Mary Toft's skirt, exclaiming "It pouts, it swells, it spreads, it comes!". Historian Dennis Todd thinks he's been conflated with the amateur astronomer Samuel Molyneux, a friend of the Prince of Wales who tagged along with St André when he went to Guildford, and this certainly would make his label here make more sense.
- C: The Sooterkin Doctor Astonish'd - James Maubray, who in fact had minimal involvement in the Mary Toft affair, but who was nonetheless associated with it due to his writings about sooterkins - strange daemons that Dutch women apparently regularly gave birth to. He says, appropriately enough, "a sooterkin".
- D: The Guildford Rabbet Man-Midwife - John Howard, the physician from Guildford who first brought the case to St André's attention. He stands at the door, surreptitiously receiving a delivery of a rabbit, saying "it's too big".
- E: The Rabbet Getter - Joshua Toft, Mary's father-in-law, who had been procuring rabbits.
- F: The Lady in the Straw - Mary Toft herself, lying back in a four-poster bed, with her arms flailing and James Douglas's hand in her skirt.
- G: The Nurse or Rabbet Dresser - Mary Toft's sister-in-law, Margaret, another participant in the hoax.
William Hogarth's engraving Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism. A Medley, a collection of satirical representations of various episodes of the titular phenomena in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, all within what looks like a Nonconformist chapel, where the preacher in the pulpit shows the congregation puppets of a witch and a devil. Mary Toft is in the bottom left, with a litter of baby rabbits bounding out from her skirts.
A reproduction of portrait of Mary Toft done while she was in Bridewell Prison, showing her holding a rabbit.
An engraving by George Vertue, titled 'The Surrey Wonder', representing a scene from a play about Mary Toft. Note the figure probably representing John Maubray (not actually involved), entering on the left, holding a bottle that presumably contains a sooterkin. Source: Wikimedia Commons
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Sources
Primary Sources
Nathaniel St. André (1726). A short narrative of an extraordinary delivery of rabbets, perform'd by Mr. John Howard surgeon at Guilford. Full text available from the Wellcome Collection
Cyriacus Ahlers (1726): Some observations concerning the woman of Godlyman in Surrey. Made at Guilford on Sunday, Nov. 20. 1726.: Tending to prove her extraordinary deliveries to be a cheat and imposture. Full text available from the Wellcome Collection
Richard Manningham (1726): An exact diary of what was observ'd during a close attendance upon Mary Toft, the pretended rabbet-breeder of Godalming in Surrey, from Monday Nov. 28, to Wednesday Dec. 7 following.: Together with an account of her confession of the fraud. Full text available from the Wellcome Collection
"Lemuel Gulliver" (1727). The anatomist dissected: or the man-midwife finely brought to bed. : Being an examination of the conduct of Mr. St. Andre. Touching the late pretended rabbit-bearer; as it appears from his own narrative. Full text available from the Wellcome Collection.
James Douglas (1727). An advertisement occasion'd by some passages in Sir R. Manningham's diary lately publish'd. Full text available from the Wellcome Collection.
Thomas Braithwaite (1726). Remarks on a Short Narrative of an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbits. Full text available from the Wellcome Collection.
Anonymous (1727). St. A-d-è's miscarriage, or, a Full and True account of the Rabbet-Woman. Full Text available from the Wellcome Collection.
Alexander Pope (1727). The discovery, or, The Squire turn'd Ferret. Full Text available from the Wellcome Collection.
"Flamingo" (1727). A shorter and truer advertisement by way of supplement, to what was published the 7th instant. Full Text available from the Wellcome Collection.
John Maubray (1724). The Female Physician Full Text available from the Project Gutenberg.
Levinus Lemnius (1566). Occulta naturae miracula Translation of the relevant passage by Valerie Worth-Stylianou, at Birthing Tales.
Jane Sharp (1671). The Widwives' Book Full Text available from The University of Michigan Library.
Anonymous (1726). A Letter from a Male Physician. Full Text available from the Wellcome Collection.
"Merry Tuft" (1727). Much Ado About Nothing. Full Text available from the Wellcome Collection.
Ballads from the English Broadside Ballad Archive:
Ballads from Broadside Ballads Online:
Mary Toft's confessions, recorded by James Douglas and transcribed by Dennis Todd, are available here.
Various primary sources are available from the Hunterian Collection here.
Secondary Sources
Dennis Todd (1995). Imagining monsters : miscreations of the self in eighteenth-century England. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dennis Todd (1988). 'New Evidence for Dr. Arbuthnot's Authorship of "The Rabbit-Man-Midwife"'. Studies in Bibliography. Available from jstor.
Karen Harvey (2020). The Imposteress Rabbit Breeder: Mary Toft and Eighteenth-Century England. Oxford: Oxford University Press.