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| Duration: | 20:22 |
| Uploaded: | 2026-08-19 |
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Honestly, glad to have taken a little breather so I could finally finish this video, which I've been working on for at least two years!! Thanks so much to Keith Moore at the Royal Society and Spencer Weinreich (who is a historian of prisons!!) for taking the time to chat with me so I could get deeper into this story.
CREDITS!
Videographer for the Royal Society Stuff
James Hennessy
Lady Mary's Voice
Rosianna Halse Rojas
Music
The Harmonious Blacksmith
George Frideric Handel
Wandering Soul
Gabriel Lewis
Strings in Solitude 2
Hanna Ekström
See the Conquering Hero Comes
George Frideric Handel
SOURCESSSS
Ann Tompion: crime, trial, death sentence, pregnancy, pardon/transportation, etc
Old Bailey, Trial of Thomas and Ann Tompion (honestly the whole thing is worth reading...it's a much longer record than most!) https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t17201012-5
Old Bailey records: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
Spencer J. Weinreich, “Unaccountable Subjects,” esp. pp. 23–30, note 128: https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/89/1/22/5687228
Newgate Prison / Old Bailey
London Museum, History of Newgate Prison: https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/history-londons-newgate-prison/
City of London, Central Criminal Court: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-us/law-historic-governance/central-criminal-court
Plague of Athens
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Thuc.%202.47
“the same man was never attacked twice, never at least fatally” https://cts.perseids.org/read/greekLit/tlg0003/tlg001/perseus-eng6/2.51.1-2.51.6
What caused it: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7118959/
Smallpox / variolation background
CDC, About Smallpox: https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/about/index.html
CDC, History of Smallpox: https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/about/history.html
WHO, History of Smallpox Vaccination: https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/history-of-smallpox-vaccination
NLM, Variolation: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/smallpox/sp_variolation.html
Arthur Boylston, “The Origins of Inoculation”: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3407399/
Early inoculation
Royal Society, West Africans / Onesimus: https://royalsociety.org/blog/2020/10/west-africans-and-the-history-of-smallpox-inoculation/
James Jurin on Welsh inoculation: https://catalog.folger.edu/record/822425
Royal Society, Chinese insufflation / smallpox archive: https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/in-focus/smallpox-in-the-archives
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
“The smallpox so fatal...” Letter from Adrianople, 1717: https://cyh.rrchnm.org/primary-sources/157.html
Royal Society, Lady Mary’s Letters: https://royalsociety.org/blog/2024/04/lady-marys-letters/
Biography: Anita Desai's introduction to The Turkish Embassy Letters (Little, Brown, 1994).
Royal Society on Maitland inoculating her son and earlier Royal Society reports: https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/in-focus/smallpox-in-the-archives
Charles Maitland / Newgate experiment / James Keith / Elizabeth Harrison
Charles Maitland, Mr. Maitland’s Account of Inoculating the Small Pox (1722), incl. pp. 19–20 on Elizabeth Harrison: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_mr-maitlands-account-o_maitland-charles-surge_1722
Weinreich, pp. 24–30: https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/89/1/22/5687228
Old Bailey prisoner records: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
Ruth / Richard Mead
Richard Mead, A Discourse on the Small Pox and Measles, pp. 88–89: https://archive.org/
Public controversy, clergy, and party politics
Weinreich, esp. pp. 29–33: https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/89/1/22/5687228
Edmund Massey, A Sermon Against the Dangerous and Sinful Practice of Inoculation (1722): https://archive.org/
I didn't have a copy but Weinreich cites David Parrish, “A Party Contagion”: https://doi.org/10.1111/1754-0208.12216
Inoculation mortality statistics
James Jurin statistics summarized by Royal Society: https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/in-focus/smallpox-in-the-archives
Nurse developing pustules after exposure
James Jurin, “An Account of a Remarkable Instance of the Infection of the Small Pox”: https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rbo_11_62/an-account-of-a-remarkable-instance-of-the-infection-of-the-small-pox-by-james-jurin
CREDITS!
Videographer for the Royal Society Stuff
James Hennessy
Lady Mary's Voice
Rosianna Halse Rojas
Music
The Harmonious Blacksmith
George Frideric Handel
Wandering Soul
Gabriel Lewis
Strings in Solitude 2
Hanna Ekström
See the Conquering Hero Comes
George Frideric Handel
SOURCESSSS
Ann Tompion: crime, trial, death sentence, pregnancy, pardon/transportation, etc
Old Bailey, Trial of Thomas and Ann Tompion (honestly the whole thing is worth reading...it's a much longer record than most!) https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t17201012-5
Old Bailey records: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
Spencer J. Weinreich, “Unaccountable Subjects,” esp. pp. 23–30, note 128: https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/89/1/22/5687228
Newgate Prison / Old Bailey
London Museum, History of Newgate Prison: https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/history-londons-newgate-prison/
City of London, Central Criminal Court: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-us/law-historic-governance/central-criminal-court
Plague of Athens
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Thuc.%202.47
“the same man was never attacked twice, never at least fatally” https://cts.perseids.org/read/greekLit/tlg0003/tlg001/perseus-eng6/2.51.1-2.51.6
What caused it: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7118959/
Smallpox / variolation background
CDC, About Smallpox: https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/about/index.html
CDC, History of Smallpox: https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/about/history.html
WHO, History of Smallpox Vaccination: https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/history-of-smallpox-vaccination
NLM, Variolation: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/smallpox/sp_variolation.html
Arthur Boylston, “The Origins of Inoculation”: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3407399/
Early inoculation
Royal Society, West Africans / Onesimus: https://royalsociety.org/blog/2020/10/west-africans-and-the-history-of-smallpox-inoculation/
James Jurin on Welsh inoculation: https://catalog.folger.edu/record/822425
Royal Society, Chinese insufflation / smallpox archive: https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/in-focus/smallpox-in-the-archives
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
“The smallpox so fatal...” Letter from Adrianople, 1717: https://cyh.rrchnm.org/primary-sources/157.html
Royal Society, Lady Mary’s Letters: https://royalsociety.org/blog/2024/04/lady-marys-letters/
Biography: Anita Desai's introduction to The Turkish Embassy Letters (Little, Brown, 1994).
Royal Society on Maitland inoculating her son and earlier Royal Society reports: https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/in-focus/smallpox-in-the-archives
Charles Maitland / Newgate experiment / James Keith / Elizabeth Harrison
Charles Maitland, Mr. Maitland’s Account of Inoculating the Small Pox (1722), incl. pp. 19–20 on Elizabeth Harrison: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_mr-maitlands-account-o_maitland-charles-surge_1722
Weinreich, pp. 24–30: https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/89/1/22/5687228
Old Bailey prisoner records: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
Ruth / Richard Mead
Richard Mead, A Discourse on the Small Pox and Measles, pp. 88–89: https://archive.org/
Public controversy, clergy, and party politics
Weinreich, esp. pp. 29–33: https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/89/1/22/5687228
Edmund Massey, A Sermon Against the Dangerous and Sinful Practice of Inoculation (1722): https://archive.org/
I didn't have a copy but Weinreich cites David Parrish, “A Party Contagion”: https://doi.org/10.1111/1754-0208.12216
Inoculation mortality statistics
James Jurin statistics summarized by Royal Society: https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/in-focus/smallpox-in-the-archives
Nurse developing pustules after exposure
James Jurin, “An Account of a Remarkable Instance of the Infection of the Small Pox”: https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rbo_11_62/an-account-of-a-remarkable-instance-of-the-infection-of-the-small-pox-by-james-jurin
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