Transcript of William Waylett's 'List of Women Deliv[ere]d by Waylett since settled at Lydd' in MS.4979

A transcription by David Burgess of William Waylett's 'List of Women Deliv[ere]d by Waylett since settled at Lydd' (in MS.4979).

David Burgess notes that:

'William Waylett was a male midwife who practiced in Lydd and the surrounding parishes on Romney Marsh in Kent. He was born in 1729 and died in 1815 aged 86. He was buried in the chancel of All Saints church, Lydd.

He made a manuscript record of the deliveries he undertook, which is now held by the Wellcome Library in London. John Douch published the article "William Waylett (1728-1815): Surgeon and Man-Midwife of Lydd" in The Local Historian, August 1993. Extracts of the article can be found on the internet.

His records are held in the library of the Wellcome Library in London. William Waylett recorded each delivery under the following columns:

Date;

Name of mother;

Place of birth;

Months of confinement;

Character of Labour and Presentation at birth;

Sex of child;

Number of pregnancy;

Fee paid.

There are a total of 2,495 births listed. There are initials "S" and "T" against a number of entries. The "S" indicates that Thomas Sargent, William Waylett's assistant and nephew, was present. There is no apparent record of what the "T" indicates.

The records have been transcribed in Date Order and in Surname Order in family groups. It is clear in the Surname Groups that the sequence of deliveries is not always consistent. In a few cases surnames have different spellings. William Waylett recorded the surname of the mother differentiating those with the same name by adding the husband's first name. The name of the child can be found by comparing the birth records with the baptism records. In the original document the husband's first name has generally been abbreviated. To enable sorting of the data the name has been transcribed in full.

The records were transcribed by David Burgess from the original book held by the Wellcome Library, London, with their permission.'

May 1757 - Jan 1815

1 file

Given to Wellcome Library, Nov 2013

The transcript was given to the Wellcome Library by the author.