A Father’s Loss to Cholera, 1832
I stumbled on a sad story today, but one which shows the real cost of the Cholera epidemic in 1832. Its easy to read about the outbreaks of Cholera in the 19th century in a clinical historical sense and it can be difficult apart from finding the numbers of deaths to finding out how it affected an individual family, to find out the real human cost.
Thomas Ternant, a Gardener living in Coldstream, published a set of poems in 1846. Some of these were his own, some were given to him. Its a interesting read and covers all kinds of topice relevant to the time. One caught my eye.
‘On the Death of my Favourite Son James, Who Died of Cholera When it Raged in Coldstream in 1832, Aged Ten Years’.
The poem describes Thomas’s feelings as a Father and describes the symptoms of Cholera his son suffered from, especially in the section:
My lovely son struggling in the pangs of death
And faintly calling on his father to relieve him
Yes I beheld my boy my lovely boy
Parched with thirst a deadly thirst
And durst not give the cooling draught he long for
Physicians said it would prove fatal
I withheld the cooling draught
Meanwhile his gentle heart burned within him
What would my boy have given
For but a cup of water yet twas withheld
Reading it we wanted to know if James was Thomas’s son or if this was one of the borrowed poems. We looked in the Old Parish Records (OPR), Deaths for Coldstream for 1821 and a James Ternant is listed as being buried on 18th March 1832. This does suggest that the poem was written by Thomas. In the OPR it is clear that Cholera is at its height as there is a steady stream of burials, several being performed daily and little else is recorded apart from name and if a mortcloth was paid for.
We also have further evidence of this from a letter that was sent to Duns from a Father who lived outside Coldstream on the 9th March 1832, describing the measures he took to prevent infection. This includes ‘to hinder all vagrants’, as the author clearly thinks they carry and spread the disease.
To read more of Thomas Ternant’s poetry, there is a copy digitised on Google Books at http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JJEQAQAAIAAJ&dq=poem%20Coldstream&pg=PA56#v=onepage&q&f=false
Posted by: Rachel
