The Silver Squirrel has dated this Scottish Silver Snuff Mull to the Georgian era.
I was told it belong to a prominent Liverpool MD and social reformer - below are details I believe relate to it. It appears Thomas Hewson was a surgeon during Georgian / Victorian times having studied medicine at University College London (and living in the area) where it appears Robert Gee (c1806-1891) had come to study, hence where they most likely met - Gee would have been about 20 at the time this was present possibly and appropriately around the time he graduated and may have left for further study in Edinburgh? Gee eventually settle in Liverpool where he wrote numerous papers and campaigned to improve conditions in the workhouses. It is in outstanding condition, (almost as new). It measures approx. 3.5 inches (8.8cm) long by 1.75 inches (4.2cm) wide and weighs 72 grams. A very high quality fascinating piece.
Anne (nee Parkins, who took the name of Sherwin) married Thomas Ansaldo Hewson, a recently qualified surgeon, in 1823. She was nine years his senior – Thomas having been born on Christmas Day, 1786. Under their marriage settlement, Anne had the power to dispose of £37,900, a very substantial sum in those days. Thomas had clearly been strategic in marrying Anne, as the agreement confirmed that the expenses of their ‘establishment’ should be paid out of her property, 6 Woburn Place, whilst he would provide for the charges of horses and carriages.
What comes as a surprise is that in 1845, Thomas, a seemingly respectable London surgeon, was acquitted at the Central Criminal Court of ‘conspiring to procure an order for the confinement of a person of sound mind in a Lunatic Asylum.’ The report does not state who that person was. However, it is surely no coincidence that from exactly that date until his death, Thomas received the whole income of Anne’s property, and ‘continued the Woburn Place establishment. ‘
Thomas died on the 6th January 1851 aged 65, and is buried at All Souls, Kensal Green. His will, from December 1846, did ‘give the use of his furniture, plate, linen, jewels and household effects, including the jewels and effects which belonged to his wife before her marriage and which he has assumed by marital right, unto his wife for her life, and such wines and liquors as she might require.’ At the same time, he made generous donations of £500-£1,000 to nine London Hospitals and to the Society for the Relief of the Widows and Orphans of Medical Men.
Within a month of his death, an Inquisition was held at which Anne was formally declared to be of ‘unsound mind’ and backdating her lunacy to 3rd April 1845 – the year her husband had been acquitted. Her wealth at that time amounted to an income from freehold and leasehold property of £4,000 a year, besides the initial sum which had grown to £42,000, and was clearly being wrangled over by two camps.
Two nephews were at the centre of the tussle. One ‘had a large family and was a lay preacher – a missionary – recently gone out to India with a salary of £180 per year.’ The other nephew was William Parkins, who had grown up in Berkhamsted. It was clear which she favoured. Regarding the missionary nephew – ‘there was no evidence of any disposition on the part of the aunt to be generous towards her nephew, nor did it appear that she had ever made him an object of care and consideration.’ In contrast , she had placed William ‘at school, and had subsequently paid his apprenticeship fee and discharged the costs of his maintenance, and had intimated to him her intention to advance him in life; it was also shown that before her lunacy, Mrs Hewson had promised to let him hav
The Silver Squirrel has dated this Scottish Silver Snuff Mull to the Georgian era.
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Rare Scottish Georgian Sterling Silver Snuff Mull Medical Liverpool Link C1820s
