Dem bones, dem bones…

HERSTORY OF THE MONTH: Sarah ‘Crazy Sally’ Mapp The Bone-setter

Sally Mapp caricature - George Cruikshank 1819 (after Hogarth)

I love to see women succeed in male dominated fields…especially in history, when everything is pitted against them.

Thats why this month’s herstory is a bit of an eccentric one, and I couldn’t resist it.

This is the story of Sarah ‘Crazy Sally’ Mapp, one of the 18th Century’s ONLY female bone-setters.

“…Mrs. Sarah Mapp, a female of masculine habits…”

(Description by James Caulfield in his 1820 “Portraits, memoirs, and characters, of remarkable persons)

Cracked Sally

Sarah Wallin was born, humbly, in 1706 in Wiltshire. She learned the bone-setting trade from her father, John Wallin. Bone-setting was exclusively a male trade, given that it required a good deal of physical strength to manually ‘re-set’ broken bones and fractures. Her father would take her down to local horse race fairs, where jockeys would sustain the most injuries, and she would help him treat the men.

She was strong and apparently skilled, eventually setting up her own practise and capitalising on her rarity as a woman bone setter by calling it Cracked Sally- The One and Only Bone Setter. (It seems she had a knack for marketing humour!)

In 1735 she shrewdly relocated to Epsom, Surrey, home of the famous horse derby, as well as many wealthy individuals. Here her fame spread far and wide, and her client base - and personal wealth- grew. She was so beloved of the horse-racing community and well respected, that a prize mare was named after her (!)

But London was where the REAL money was. She would travel to London and set bones of the wealthy and famous. One of her most famous clients was Sir Hans Sloane’s niece, who had a spinal deformity which Sarah corrected successfully. After treating patients in London, she would be ferried back to her Epsom home in a fancy coach, and use the crutches of her treated patients to ‘decorate’ her coach, and advertise her success to future patients! Another example of her bombastic character.

An (in)famous sister?

Lavinia Fenton, Hogarth, 1745

Perhaps Sarah’s confidence and wit ran in the family. A curious detail about her is that Lavinia Fenton, a well known actress and beauty that ended up marrying the Duke of Bolton and becoming a Duchess, was her sister. I find this hard to believe and it is even harder to prove, but was recorded in contemporary publications. Lavinia was by all accounts similarly spirited and witty. If she was her sister, perhaps Lavinia helped Sarah with some introductions to wealthy clients in London?

In 1736, the people of Epsom, afraid she might move out to London, offered to pay her 100 guineas a year to reside there as chief bone-setter! (approx 28-30K today). But she decided to move to London anyway, settling in Pall Mall.

Her skill, despite no medical training, was recorded by writer James Caulfield who wrote in 1736:

“On Monday, Mrs. Mapp performed two extraordinary cures; one on a young lady of the Temple, who had several bones out from the knees to her toes, which she put in their proper places: and the other on a butcher, whose knee-pans were so misplaced that he walked with his knees knocking one against another.”

But as usual, this female prodigy was a threat to male surgeons and physicians who attempted to ‘catch her out’. This backfired on them, because, as an article in the London magazine notes:

“A man came to her, sent as it is supposed by some surgeons on purpose to try her skill, with his hand bound up and pretended his wrist was put out, which upon examination she found to be false; but to be even with him in his imposition she gave it a wrench which really put it out and bade him go to the fools who sent him and get it set again, or if he would come to her that month she would do it herself . . . . .”

I kind of feel sorry for the patient here! But Sarah was clearly making a point. And who can blame her for being angered? The Press and medical establishment at that time was male-dominated. Despite being loved by her patients, Sarah was regarded as a ‘quack’ by the establishment, and they were determined to destroy her.

Sarah vs the 18th Century

The Company of Undertakers, Hogarth, 1736

One of the chief ways your reputation could be trashed in those days was by being satirised in art or writing by eminent men. Much as I love his art, William Hogarth unfortunately depicted Sarah in a satirical print called ‘The Company of Undertakers’ in 1736. Here she is portrayed (top centre), as ugly and masculine, cross-eyed and possibly even psychotically insane, clutching a bone with a maniacal look in her eye. Hogarth’s iconic drawing was copied by George Cruickshank in the 19th Century and the caricature remains the only likeness of Sarah that we have, which I think is sad.

Hogarth’s cartoon couldn’t be more different to the angelic and reverent way he portrayed Sarah’s ‘sister’ Lavinia Fenton - whose portrait he painted several times. The satirical print of Mapp and other ‘quacks’ was coupled with a written criticism of her by Sir Percival Pott, a leading English surgeon of Orthopaedics, as

“an immoral drunken female savage”

This refers to her reputation as a drunk. She was alleged to have often wandered the streets, three sheets to the wind, shouting obscenities. This had earned her the nickname ‘Crazy Sally’.

But was this true? Or was it just an attempt to smear the competition? Like the herbalists and female midwives of centuries before that were called ‘witches’, - did the male-dominated medical establishment simply want to get rid of women in the profession?

Even if she did like a tipple, given her treatment and snubbing by ‘polite society’, its no wonder. That would drive anyone to drink!

The Doctress of Epsom’s legacy…

Sir Percival Pott, Joshua Reynolds, 1784

Sarah also had good reason to despise men. ’Mapp’ was her husband’s name. She married a footman called Hill Mapp in 1736, but he was abusive to her and just a week later, ran off with her money! Her friends had apparently tried to warn her off him, suggesting that he was a well-known rogue, but she wouldn’t have it and married him anyway.

Stoic as ever, she said, in her trademark witty style, that the money was ‘worth losing to get rid of him’.

But perhaps the loss of her savings, the smearing of her reputation and the demon drink eventually caught up with her, because a year later, in December 1737, she died in the poverty-stricken parish of St Giles in London, penniless, possibly of alcoholism. She was in her mid-30’s. A sad and totally unjust end to a woman who was clearly talented and well respected, and could have been so much more, if she’d been allowed.

But despite her sad end, Sarah will always be remembered. Not least because a play was written about her fame. ‘A Husband’s Relief” was staged at Lincoln’s Inn Fields and Sarah attended the performance. I’m sure she was (and maybe still is) grinning when she heard these words sung on stage:

“You surgeons of London, who puzzle your pates,

To ride in your coaches; and purchase estates;

Give over, for shame; for your pride has a fall,

And the doctress of Epsom has out-done you all!”

To learn more about women in the 18th century, check out Harlots and Strumpets and Tarts, Oh My! our 18th Century themed walk.

Setting a bone