The University of Northampton hopes to help connect local families with their historic child relatives who were treated at Northampton Infirmary (now Northampton General Hospital) in the 18th century as part of an ongoing ground-breaking historical project.
Work so far has shown that children were routinely seen and treated at Northampton Infirmary as early as 1744 with 4,000 named children aged 13 and under recorded in the Infirmary’s records between 1744 and 1801. This is contrary to what many historians believed was done in local infirmaries.
Now historical researchers at the University hope to work with local families and genealogy research platform Findmypast with the hope of connecting modern descendants with the children who were treated between 1744 and 1801.
Part of the work done has involved digitalising the hospital’s historic records into the Northampton Infirmary Eighteenth Century Child Admission Database (NIECCAD).
Mr Fred O’Dell, Northampton General Hospital archive volunteer, says: “The admission register relates information at a specific point in time. The very first inpatient was Thomasin Grace a 13-year-old child, who in later life moved to London, married and died in her 70s.
“It would be wonderful to read the remaining life histories of more of these patients. We know this information must be out there, but we have to work in partnership with family historians, genealogists and the wider archival community.
“We know that this connection is possible as the idea for this project first came about when we received an email from a genealogist who was researching the family of Sarah Harris, the pioneering 12-year-old paediatric surgical patient who was treated at Northampton Infirmary between 1777 and 1778. The genealogist had asked if we had been able to identify Sarah’s grave as he had not been able to. Sadly, we were unable to locate this either.”
Work so far has been a joint venture between Professor Andrew N. Williams, of the University of Northampton, working closely with NGH’s Archive team and international collaborators such as Professor Madeleine Mant of the University of Toronto Mississauga.
The aim was to challenge long-held assumptions about early paediatric care that children received little hospital treatment before the establishment of specialist children’s hospitals institutions, such as Great Ormond Street in 1852.
Already Professor Williams’ team’s research has demonstrated that children were in fact commonly admitted to early voluntary hospitals from their very beginnings. He said: “Paediatrics is far more than professional organizations and specialized children’s hospitals, which tend to dominate the given history. Paediatrics is a growing body of knowledge based upon practices to assist a sick child and has a much longer history.”
Professor Williams and his team are now taking the research further working with Findmypast, potentially connecting these children’s experiences with the present day and perhaps even with their modern-day descendants. They will begin this work at the Heritage Fair Northamptonshire 2026 at Wicksteed Park on Sunday 26 April where visitors can learn more and contribute to this evolving historical puzzle.
Professor Williams welcomes people to drop in and help complete this fascinating medical puzzle: “This is an exciting point in our long-running investigations into children’s hospital care, which we have already proven had its beginnings earlier than previously thought and in very considerable numbers. We need this help to uncover these former child patients’ life stories, after they were discharged from the Infirmary. It would be great to start to connect their histories to their modern-day descendants.”
Hemant Nemade, the Group Medical Director of the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire which runs Northampton General Hospital, said: “This is a fascinating piece of ongoing research shedding new light into the way children were originally seen at our hospital.
“If any of the descendants of those original patients can be traced to modern day families living in the county that would be absolutely amazing and really complete the circle on this ground-breaking piece of historical research.”
At the Heritage Fair, Professor Williams will screen a virtual reality film of part of the 1778 Northampton Infirmary at the time of Sarah Harris’ admission. This is the first part of hopefully a wider virtual experience for which funds are being sought. The completed film will be released soon.