Biography:
Charlotte Hazell (171)
1817 –02/09/1853
Charlotte Hazell (171)
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CHARLOTTE HAZELL; 1817 – 1853
We know from the record of Charlotte’s marriage in 1838 that her maiden name was Simmonds. We can also deduce from the dates of the census returns for 1841 (30th March) and 1851 (6th June) and Charlotte’s age as recoded in each (24 and 33 respectively), that she must have been born in April, May or early June 1817. The 1841 census notes she was born “in county”, i.e. Hertfordshire, and the 1851 records she was born in “Hertfordshire, Berkhamsted”. Unfortunately, however, her birth and baptism records are elusive. The nearest we can find is one Charlotte Symonds, who was baptised in Berkhamsted on 24th December 1815. If this is the Charlotte with whom we are concerned, she was a couple of years older than recorded in the censuses; alternatively, Charlotte Symonds is not the Charlotte we are looking for.
Whenever she was born, Charlotte married William Hazell, a young grocer on 1st February 1838. Three years later the 1841 census tells us that Charlotte and William were living in Berkhamsted High Street in the household of a 65 years old widow, Mary Rushworth. Also living in the same household was 18 years old Elizabeth Abbott, a straw plaiter.
Ten years later William and Charlotte were still resident in Berkhamsted’s High Street, but now in their own household of which William was the head. William had set up in busines as a grocer and pork butcher. Helping with the business and also living with Charlotte and William was William’s brother Richard, described as a “shopkeeper” and two young lads “grocers lads.”
There is no record of Charlotte and William having any children. Sadly, Charlotte did not enjoy a long life. She died at the age of 36 of phthisis pulmonalis – tuberculosis. Her death certificate reveals that she had been suffering from the disease for a year before her death.
During Victorian times tuberculosis, or consumption as it was also known, was particularly prevalent amongst the urban poor where overcrowding allowed the disease to thrive. Contemporary public health physicians had a tendency to blame the poor and their poor housing conditions for the disease, but it was by no means exclusive to the poor and it affected people at all levels of society. It is a mycobacterial infection spread when aerosol droplets of infected sputum ejected by coughing of the infected person are inhaled by those in prolonged and close contact. Nearly 4 million people are estimated to have died of the disease in England and Wales between 1851 and 1910.
Tuberculosis came to be considered in Victorian times as a “romantic disease” being entwined with notions of beauty and creativity. Tuberculosis was thought to bestow upon the sufferer heightened sensitivity and creativity. The consumptive appearance entailed a pale skin, red cheeks with a feverish glow and an ethereal thinness. This became associated with fragility and sexual attractiveness and became the defining fashionable aesthetic. Many upper class women purposefully paled their skin to achieve a consumptive appearance. Corsets and voluminous skirts further emphasised slender figures. Consumptive heroines appeared in literature ( e.g. La dame aux Camelias and Les Miserables) and in opera (La Boheme and La Traviata). Byron was to declare “ How pale I look! – I should like, I think, to die of consumption... because then all the women would say ‘see that poor Byron – how interesting he looks in dying!’”
It was not, however, a pleasant death.
“There was, and is, nothing remotely Romantic or psychosomatic about the disease. The most common form of human tuberculosis usually begins with flu-like symptoms which progress to a persistent cough, the spiting of blood caused by lesion of the lung tissue, and consequent weight-loss or general wasting of the muscles. The primary lesion of the lung can sometimes heal and the infection be contained within a protective tubercle. If this does not happen, the disease begins to consume the organ in which it has lodged, usually the lung, and the illness progresses to a fatal conclusion. This can sometimes be a protracted process with periods of remission or latency.” (“The Dark Shadow”, R. Brownlow.)
Present with Charlotte when she died was one Martha Hawes. Martha was the wife of Joseph Hawes and she and her family also lived in Berkhamsted High Street. There is no indication in any of the documents that suggests she was a nurse, and she may simply have been a friend of the Hazell family, as she was also present at the deaths of William Hazell’s sister Susannah, his brother Richard and cousin Charles Dickman.
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CHARLOTTE HAZELL; 1817 – 1853
We know from the record of Charlotte’s marriage in 1838 that her maiden name was Simmonds. We can also deduce from the dates of the census returns for 1841 (30th March) and 1851 (6th June) and Charlotte’s age as recoded in each (24 and 33 respectively), that she must have been born in April, May or early June 1817. The 1841 census notes she was born “in county”, i.e. Hertfordshire, and the 1851 records she was born in “Hertfordshire, Berkhamsted”. Unfortunately, however, her birth and baptism records are elusive. The nearest we can find is one Charlotte Symonds, who was baptised in Berkhamsted on 24th December 1815. If this is the Charlotte with whom we are concerned, she was a couple of years older than recorded in the censuses; alternatively, Charlotte Symonds is not the Charlotte we are looking for.
Whenever she was born, Charlotte married William Hazell, a young grocer on 1st February 1838. Three years later the 1841 census tells us that Charlotte and William were living in Berkhamsted High Street in the household of a 65 years old widow, Mary Rushworth. Also living in the same household was 18 years old Elizabeth Abbott, a straw plaiter.
Ten years later William and Charlotte were still resident in Berkhamsted’s High Street, but now in their own household of which William was the head. William had set up in busines as a grocer and pork butcher. Helping with the business and also living with Charlotte and William was William’s brother Richard, described as a “shopkeeper” and two young lads “grocers lads.”
There is no record of Charlotte and William having any children. Sadly, Charlotte did not enjoy a long life. She died at the age of 36 of phthisis pulmonalis – tuberculosis. Her death certificate reveals that she had been suffering from the disease for a year before her death.
During Victorian times tuberculosis, or consumption as it was also known, was particularly prevalent amongst the urban poor where overcrowding allowed the disease to thrive. Contemporary public health physicians had a tendency to blame the poor and their poor housing conditions for the disease, but it was by no means exclusive to the poor and it affected people at all levels of society. It is a mycobacterial infection spread when aerosol droplets of infected sputum ejected by coughing of the infected person are inhaled by those in prolonged and close contact. Nearly 4 million people are estimated to have died of the disease in England and Wales between 1851 and 1910.
Tuberculosis came to be considered in Victorian times as a “romantic disease” being entwined with notions of beauty and creativity. Tuberculosis was thought to bestow upon the sufferer heightened sensitivity and creativity. The consumptive appearance entailed a pale skin, red cheeks with a feverish glow and an ethereal thinness. This became associated with fragility and sexual attractiveness and became the defining fashionable aesthetic. Many upper class women purposefully paled their skin to achieve a consumptive appearance. Corsets and voluminous skirts further emphasised slender figures. Consumptive heroines appeared in literature ( e.g. La dame aux Camelias and Les Miserables) and in opera (La Boheme and La Traviata). Byron was to declare “ How pale I look! – I should like, I think, to die of consumption… because then all the women would say ‘see that poor Byron – how interesting he looks in dying!’”
It was not, however, a pleasant death.
“There was, and is, nothing remotely Romantic or psychosomatic about the disease. The most common form of human tuberculosis usually begins with flu-like symptoms which progress to a persistent cough, the spiting of blood caused by lesion of the lung tissue, and consequent weight-loss or general wasting of the muscles. The primary lesion of the lung can sometimes heal and the infection be contained within a protective tubercle. If this does not happen, the disease begins to consume the organ in which it has lodged, usually the lung, and the illness progresses to a fatal conclusion. This can sometimes be a protracted process with periods of remission or latency.” (“The Dark Shadow”, R. Brownlow.)
Present with Charlotte when she died was one Martha Hawes. Martha was the wife of Joseph Hawes and she and her family also lived in Berkhamsted High Street. There is no indication in any of the documents that suggests she was a nurse, and she may simply have been a friend of the Hazell family, as she was also present at the deaths of William Hazell’s sister Susannah, his brother Richard and cousin Charles Dickman.
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