Mary Frances Heaton

Life

Mary Frances Heaton started life in a wealthy Doncaster family, but when she was eleven, her father went bankrupt. She later became a music teacher in London, then moved back to Doncaster to nurse him through his final illness. After his death, she stayed on and resumed teaching. One of her students was the daughter of Reverend John Sharpe, the vicar of St George’s Minster.

He failed to pay for the twice-weekly lessons she gave in 1834 and 1835. In response, she interrupted one of his sermons, calling him a whited sepulchre, a thief, a villain, a liar, and a hypocrite. She was taken to court, where the tribunal declared her a lunatic, insane, and a dangerous idiot, and sent her to the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Wakefield. While locked up, she endured treatments now seen as pseudo-scientific: electric shocks to the pelvis, purgatives, and mercury.

Her medical records describe her as wild, flighty, excitable, ungovernable, extravagant, violent, and abusive. Over time, her mind and body grew worse. After a failed escape attempt in 1843, her spirit broke and she became docile. According to local historian Sarah Cobham, she then took to quietly embroidering her story in samplers to preserve her memories.

Only a few of these samplers survive; she gave many away as gifts. Near the end of her life, she was moved to another asylum in what is now South Yorkshire. She died and was buried in a pauper’s grave.

Did You Know?

• Mary Heaton was committed in 1837 for interrupting a sermon and calling the vicar a whited sepulchre, a thief, a villain, a liar, and a hypocrite.
• In 2020, a blue plaque was installed in Wakefield to commemorate the injustice she suffered.