Frank Utten Purchas was born into a family which had a long history of benefitting from slavery. He was born in Jamaica where both his paternal and maternal lines owned slaves who were forced to work on their sugar plantations. Purchas left this life behind him, however, trained in medicine in Edinburgh and became a respected and committed physician in Wales. He married into a prominent local family, and lived through a time that saw significant political, religious and medical changes. He contributed to the founding of an infirmary that exists to this day although he himself did not live to see its opening.
Marriage announcement. Montgomeryshire Express, 30 June 1891.
2.
For example, Thomas Leyland, a Liverpool merchant originally trading with Ireland, gained great wealth directly through slavery. One of his ships delivered 412 slaves to Havana in 1802 and made him a profit of £24,000. With this, Leyland went into banking, founding Leyland & Bullins. British Banking History Society. Leyland and Bullins, www.banking-history.co.uk/leyland.html (accessed 26 February 2018). Leyland later bought and lived on a Montgomeryshire estate. Lord Penrhyn made part of his fortune from sugar plantations in Jamaica; one of his daughters became Lady Sudeley of Gregynog, near Newtown, the town where Dr Purchas eventually settled. Sudeley, Lord. Gregynog before 1900, Montgomeryshire Collections 1972; 62: 178–179.
3.
‘Slave trade’ and ‘West Indies’. In: Hay D (ed.) Local and Family History. Oxford: Oxford, 1996, pp. 419 and 493.
4.
ReidA. Sugar, slavery and production in Jamaica, 1750–1807. Slavery and Abolition2016; 37: 159–182.
5.
Anon. Marly; or, a Planter’s Life in Jamaica, is a novel written by a European who had lived in Jamaica, and was first published in 1828. It gives details about life on the island in the 19th century, including the work and treatment of the slaves and makes shocking reading at times. There are useful notes giving background information. Marly; or, a planter’s life in Jamaica. Oxford: Macmillan Caribbean, 2005. See also Vasconcellos CA. Slavery, childhood, and abolition in Jamaica, 1788-1838. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2015.
6.
CratonM. Searching for the invisible man: slaves and plantation life in Jamaica, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978.
7.
TomkinsS. John Wesley: a biography, Oxford: Lion, 2003, pp. 177–177.
8.
Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. Rhys, Morgan John. In: Dictionary of Welsh biography down to 1940. London: Cymmrodorion, 1959, p. 846.
9.
DaviesJ. Slavery. In: The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2008, pp. 819–819.
10.
ColesA. The Lympstone story, Lympstone: Lympstone Society, 2005, pp. 29–29.
A trust devoted to education was created from money left by Sir William Godolphin (1634–1696), and in 1856, the Godolphin school was founded in Great Church Lane, Hammersmith. It was successful and moved to premises in Iffley Road in 1862. It later became unable to compete with St. Paul’s School and closed in 1900. It reopened in 1905 as a girls’ school. Victoria County History. Latymer and Godolphin Schools, www.britishhistory.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol1/pp305-306 (accessed 15 March 2018).
19.
Obituary of Dr Purchas, County Times, 6 February 1909.
The International Slavery Museum in Liverpool gives a very good description of the tasks involved in sugar processing. Dr. Purchas’s birthplace, a property called The Ridge, still is a working sugar plantation. Figures for The Ridge are unavailable but a nearby plantation known as Worthy Park, currently produces about 24,000 tonnes of sugar per annum. Personal correspondence with Maurine Nuttall, California, USA, related by marriage to the Utten Todd family: 31 December 2017; Worthy Park Estate Ltd ‘Heritage’, www.worthyparkestate.com/heritage/ (accessed 18 March 2018).
22.
EmersonRL. The founding of the Edinburgh Medical School. J Hist Med Allied Sci2004; 59: 183–218.
23.
GuthrieD. The Medical School of Edinburgh, Edinburgh: Medical School of Edinburgh, 1959, pp. 17–17.
24.
MilesA. The Edinburgh School of Surgery before Lister, London: Black, 1918, pp. 170–173.
25.
Tercentenary of the University of Edinburgh. The Times. London, England, 18 April 1884, p. 12.
26.
At this time, there will have been West Indians of African origin studying at Edinburgh. Donaldson G. Four centuries: Edinburgh life, 1585–1983. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, 1983, p. 92.
27.
Wellcome Trust. London, England. The Medical Directory, 1890; Reference: 21330724_i13765504.
28.
Calculations made from the 1851 Religious Census show that at least 30 per cent of the county population were practising Nonconformists whereas the corresponding figure for practising Anglicans was 11 per cent. Census of Great Britain, 1851, Religious worship. England and Wales, 89, pp. 126 and 127.
29.
Wellcome Trust. London, England. The Medical Directory, 1895; Reference: b21330724_i13765589.
30.
Montgomeryshire Express, 27 January 1891.
31.
Dr Koch’s remedy. The Times. London, England, 15 January 1891, p. 5.
32.
MunchR. Robert Koch. Microb Infect2003; 5: 69–74.
33.
BurkeAP. Family records, New York: Heraldic Publishing, 1965, pp. 353–353.
34.
United Grand Lodge of Freemasons Register. Cedewain Lodge: 1887–1909.
35.
National Census, 1901.
36.
DaviesT. Newtown in 1901, Newtown: Newtown Local History Group, 2008.
37.
Montgomeryshire Express, 5 January 1892.
38.
Montgomeryshire Express, 2 February 1892.
39.
Montgomeryshire Express, 13 February 1906.
40.
OliverHNThe Montgomeryshire infirmary. In: OliverHN (ed). Llanllwchaiarn: Church and Parish, Private: Publisher, 2000125.
