The crest of Thomas Greenhill, surgeon : an heraldic tribute to human fecundity / by S.D. Clippingdale.

  • Clippingdale, Samuel Dodd, -1925.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The crest of Thomas Greenhill, surgeon : an heraldic tribute to human fecundity / by S.D. Clippingdale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    “ She had 39 children by one husband. They were all born alive and baptised and all single births save one. The last child, who was born after his father’s death, was a chirurgeon. She was heard to say by a credible woman with whom I was well acquainted, that she believed, if her husband had lived, she would have had two or three more children.” As to the credibility of this story the only positive proof is, unfortunately, wanting, for the parish register of Abbot’s Langley, where these children are said to have been born, is, for the period concerned, mutilated. It seems to be unlikely, however, that Thomas Greenhill would take the trouble and incur the expense of getting an armorial augmentation without good cause, nor does it seem likely that the Heralds would pledge the authority of their college to perpetuate a fraud. Thomas Greenhill was a surgeon of considerable note and devoted much attention to embalming, upon which subject he contributed two papers to the Philosophical Transactions and wrote a work entitled Ne^o/^Seta. The frontispiece of this work contains a portrait of the author and a drawing of his unique crest. Greenhill chose as his motto, “ Honos aliit artesP The arts favoured by Honour being, apparently, those of begetting babies and embalming bodies. [For fuller details of this extraordinary case see the “ Dictionary of National Biography,” “ Notes and Queries,” 1805, vol. i, Gentle- mans Magazine, 1805, Part I, and Burke’s “General Armoury.”] Analogous Cases. The case of Mr. Greenhill, unusual as it is, appears to be not altogether without precedent. If a search of universal medical literature were made probably many similar cases would be found; for limiting the search to the back numbers of the Lancet the three following instances of extraordinary fecundity are met with : (1) The wife, aged 43, of a Spanish surgeon was confined thirteen times, each time with triplets; that is, thirty-nine children in all (Lancet, 1863, vol. ii, p. 416). (2) A Russian peasant, who married twice, had by his first wife fifty-seven children. These arrived by plural births as follows : twins, ten times; triplets, seven times; quadruplets, four times. By his second wife he had fifteen children, so that by his two wives he had no fewer than seventy-two children. This case was