ON LINDA’S DESK
19th Century Canada
Remittance man
Resurrectionist
Body snatcher
Exhuming fresh dead bodies
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Why I wrote ‘The Resurrectionist of York’ – details coming soon.
The Resurrectionist of York
The unsavoury business of body snatching
In 1830, Honourable Simon Davenport publicly humiliated his family by rattling too many dice boxes. He was stripped of his title, banished from England to Upper Canada, never to be welcome in Britain again. As a prodigal son and wastrel, he was given a meager monthly allowance – the embarrassing label of a remittance man. The pittance provided by Earl Davenport allowed Simon to keep a roof over his head and food on the table but not the social status he was accustomed to. Forced to make his own way in the colony, opportunity was scant.
Luck was on his side when he discovered the means to his end – if he could stomach grave robbing while evading the law at the same time. Would Simon be able to outsmart karmic balance – to stave off retribution and poetic justice for his unsavoury crimes?
In the early 19th century surgeons around the world were desperate to study anatomy. The problem was getting their hands on a varied and sufficient supply of corpses. It became a very lucrative business to become a grave robber – resurrectionist- if a person wasn’t opposed to rolling up one’s sleeves.