Early life
Minor was born on
the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), the son of Congregationalist Church
missionaries from New England. He had numerous half-siblings, among them Thomas
T. Minor, mayor of Seattle, Washington in the late 1880s.
At 14 he was sent
to the United States, finishing his medical education in 1863 at Yale.
Military career
He was accepted by
the Union Army as a surgeon and served at the Battle of the Wilderness in May
1864, which was notable for the terrible casualties suffered. Minor was also
given the task of punishing a Northern soldier by branding him on the face with
a D for "deserter". This man was an Irish immigrant, and his
nationality later played a role in Minor's dementia delusions.
Move to England
In 1871 he went to
the UK settling in the slum of Lambeth, in London where once again he took up a
dissolute life. Haunted by his paranoia, he fatally shot a man named George
Merrett, who Minor believed had broken into his room, on February 17, 1872.
Merrett had been on his way to work to support his family of six children,
himself, and his pregnant wife, Eliza.
After a
pre-trial period spent in London's Horsemonger Lane Gaol, Minor was found not
guilty by reason of insanity and incarcerated in the asylum at Broadmoor in the
village of Crowthorne, Berkshire. As he had his army pension and was not judged
dangerous, he was given rather comfortable quarters and was able to buy and
read books.
Contributor to OED
It was probably
through his correspondence with the London booksellers that he heard of the
call for volunteers from what was to become the Oxford English Dictionary
(OED). He devoted most of the remainder of his life to that work.
He became one of
the most effective volunteers, reading through his personal library and
compiling quotations that illustrated the way particular words were used. He
was visited quite often by the widow of the man he had killed, and she provided
him with further books. The compilers of the dictionary published lists of
words for which they wanted examples of usage. Chester provided these, with
increasing ease as his lists grew. It was many years before the OED's editor,
Dr. James Murray, learned Minor's background history, and visited him.
Minor's condition
deteriorated and in 1902 he cut off his own penis. His health failed and he was
permitted to return to the United States and St. Elizabeths Hospital; he was
subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia. He died in 1920 in New Haven,
Connecticut
In popular culture
The book The
Surgeon of Crowthorne (published in America as The Professor and the
Madman) by Simon Winchester, was published in 1998 and chronicles both
Minor's later life and his contributions to the creation of the Oxford English
Dictionary.
William Chester
Minor was born in Ceylon, in June 1834 to New England Congregationalist
missionaries. Minor was a clever sensitive lad who painted, played the flute,
and spoke several languages but kept having "lascivious thoughts"
about the local girls so he was sent 'back' to America when he was 14 to live
with an Uncle. He went on to study medicine at Yale and became a surgeon in the
Union Army in 1863.
In May 1864 he was
at the Battle of the Wilderness (notable for the horrible casualties suffered)
and it is thought that the exposure to the full horrors of war including the
burning alive of hundreds of soldiers, horrific casualties and mutilations
triggered his mental illness. As part of his duties he was forced to brand the
letter D on the face of an Irish deserter, a member of the Fenian Brotherhood,
and this incident caused him a great deal of mental torment. It is thought to
be the basis of his paranoid delusions about the Irish that were a major
feature of his later madness.
At the end of the
American Civil War Minor saw duty in New York City but he was strongly drawn to
the red light area of the city and spent increasing amounts of time and money
on prostitutes. By 1867, his behavior had come bizarre and the Army transferred
him to a remote post. By 1868 Minor showed growing signs of mental instability,
and placed in St. Elizabeth's Hospital, the U.S. Government Hospital for the
Insane. After 18 months he was allowed to resign his commission on the grounds
of "incapacitated by causes arising in the line of duty" and started
to receive an Army pension.
He was discharged
from the hospital in 1871 and came to London as part of a vacation. Here he
resumed going with prostitutes and at the same time his paranoia returned with
a vengeance. He became obsessed with the idea that the Irish were going to
punish him for the branding he carried out during the war. He took to carrying
a loaded gun for his own protection.
Early on the 17th
February 1872 after returning home late at night he woke up believing that someone
was trying to get into his room. He chased after the intruder and shot at a man
in the street. George Merritt, a 34 year old stoker at the Lion Brewery, was
working an early shift starting at 2am and was walking down Belvedere Road when
Minor fired four shots two of which entered his neck. Merritt was declared dead
on arrival at St Thomas' hospital.
On the afternoon
of April 6, 1872 Dr. William Chester Minor was judged not guilty on grounds of
insanity, and was detained "until Her Majesty's Pleasure be known" as
a "certified criminal lunatic" at the Asylum for the Criminally
Insane in Broadmoor, Crowthorne, Berkshire. Minor was allocated two rooms in
the 'swells block' at Broadmoor and was allowed books and painting materials.
Merritt's wife
Eliza was left with seven children ranging from 18 years to 12 months to bring
up with another on the way. Times were very hard for her and her children but
wealthy Minor helped out financially and Eliza even asked to visit Minor in
Broadmoor. This highly unusual request was granted and following an
experimental visit she started visiting him monthly and even undertook to
collect books from various London bookshops for him.
These visits did
not last very long as Eliza took to drink but seemed to have greatly helped Minor
as it gave him a new occupation. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) editor Dr
James Murray had an eight page flyer (a letter) inserted into several new books
appealing for new readers to find words and quotations for the dictionary. One
of these flyers found its way to Dr Minor in Broadmoor, perhaps in one of the
books that Eliza brought him. He began reading and collecting books and turned
one of his rooms into his library. This he put to good use, as he became a
principal contributor of sixteenth and seventeenth century quotations to the
first edition of the OED for over thirty years. Minor always signed his letters
in the same way: Dr W.C. Minor, Broadmoor, Crowthorne, Berkshire and initially
the OED editor, Dr James Murray, was unaware that Minor was insane but after
many years he started regular visits to Minor in Broadmoor.
By 1902 Minor's
mental health had deteriorated and he cut off his penis in an act of
self-mutilation, which he thought would stop his lascivious thoughts. In 1910
following strong representations from Dr Murray, the US Consulate and others,
the then Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, signed the necessary papers to
allow Minor to return to the mental hospital in the USA.
He died of
complications arising from pneumonia on the 26th March 1920 in an old peoples
home in New Haven, Connecticut, having been discharged from hospital shortly
and is buried at Evergreen Cemetery New Haven. The last psychiatric diagnosis
on Minor was that he suffering from dementia praecox or schizophrenia.
Frightful Murder
in Lambeth
South London
Chronicle
Saturday 24th
February 1872
A dreadful tragedy
was enacted in Belvedere-road, near Hungerford-bridge on Saturday morning last,
whereby a respectable man was shot dead in mistake for another man.
The murderer is
William Chester Minor, aged 37, described as an American physician, residing at
41, Tenison-street, York-road, Lambeth. He was charged at Southwark
Police-court in the afternoon, when the main evidence was given by
Police-constable 236L, who said, that a little after two o'clock on Saturday
morning he was on duty in Belvedere-road, when he heard a report of fire-arms.
He proceeded in that direction and saw the prisoner coming on the opposite side
of the road. He went over to him and asked him who it was that had fired. He
said he had, and, asking him who he fired at, he said, "A man. I should
not be such a coward as to shoot a woman." Witness seized him and took the
revolver produced from his right hand; it was quite warm. He then took him to
the station-house, and on the way met another constable, whom he directed to
Tenison street, where he found the deceased lying near the wall of the Lion
Brewery Stores, bleeding from wounds in the throat. Another constable came up,
and they took the body to St. Thomas's Hospital, when he was found to be dead.
The examination at
the police-court was continued on Monday when Mr. De Tracey Goued, of the
American Bar, and Mr. John Nunn, Vice-consul of the United States, were
present; but upon being asked, the prisoner said he had no wish for their
services at present. The landlady of the house in which he lodged was called,
and spoke as to his general conduct since he took the apartments on the
Wednesday after Christmas. She heard him come home about one o'clock on Saturday
morning and go to his room, and about a quarter to two heard him go out; she
had not heard him go out of a night before. His room was generally unlocked,
except when he was at home; never saw any weapon about the room. Ellen
Henderson, living at 19, Tenison-street, stated that about two o'clock on
Saturday morning she heard four shots fired in rapid succession; one, two-one,
two. Saw a constable running down the street, and directed him to the spot
whence the sound of the shots came. The most touching point was when Eliza
Merritt, the wife of the deceased man, was giving her evidence. On being sworn
she said - I live at No.24, Cornwall-cottages, Cornwall-road. My husband had
worked for thr Lion Brewery about eight years. He was 34 years of age. On Saturday
morning a little before two o'clock he was roused up as usual to go to his
work, and he immediately got up and dressed himself. He was in his usual
health. He struck a light when he went out and said "good bye," as
usual. For the last three weeks he had gone out at two in the morning. I heard
nothing more of him until half-past seven, when I was told he was shot. Between
two and three in the afternoon I went to see him at the hospital. I have seven
children. The eldest is 18 and the youngest 12 months old, and I expect to be
confined with another very shortly. My husband had 24s. a week. Our large
family kept us very poor so I am now in deep distress.
Sergeant Steggles,
Acting-Inspector at Tower-street Police-station, recalled, and said that after
his examination on Saturday he went to the prisoner's lodgings and found two
large portmanteaus. In them he found seven or eight American coins, five bank
notes of 20 livres each, a box containing bulleted cartridges (Ely's make), and
five others were handed to him by Mrs. Fisher, who took them from a coat pocket
in the room. He found a United States surgeon's diploma, appointing him
assistant-surgeon to the army, dated 1866, and a captain's commission, dated
1867. He also found a letter of introduction, signed by J.W. Johnson, addressed
to Professor Rood, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale College, Newhaven,
Connecticut. He found in the room several water-colours in various stages of
completion. After the prisoner was removed from the dock, Mr. Nunn, the Vice-consul,
returned into court, and said he had had some conversations with the prisoner,
who told him the gold watch and chain were heirlooms in his family, and wished
them to be given up to him. Mr Partridge desired the inspector to deliver them
up to Mr. Nunn.
The inquest on the
body was held on Tuesday, when, after hearing the evidence substantially the
same as that given before the police magistrate, with the addition of that by
Mr. Williams, one of the hospital house surgeons, who said that either of the
two wounds to the neck, produced by bullets, was sufficient to account for
death, the jury returned a verdict of Wilful Murder against the prisoner, and
the coroner made out his warrant accordingly.
Subscriptions have
been set on foot on behalf of the family of the murdered man, and while the
Rev. H.W. Bateman, vicar of St. John's, Waterloo-road, states that general
subscriptions will be received by him at 158, Stamford-street, or by the
secretary to the Lion Brewery Company, Belvedere-road. Mr. Nunn makes as appeal
to Americans in London on behalf of the family.
At the inquest the
24s. allowed to the jury were at once handed over to the family. 
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