‘The society for the relief of the ruptured poor’ is a pamphlet to be published on the 16th of January 1803, according to the Sunday Monitor. Now I am used to being ‘broke’ but I have yet to describe myself as ‘ruptured’! Where did I hear about this? I was simply browsing the 17th and 18th Burney collection.
I also found a possible relative called Peter Finnerty, a printer from Dublin who was pilloried and sent to prison for publishing pamphlets advocating Irish Home Rule in 1798. Rupturing and getting pilloried – talk about the bad old days.
The digitisation of Reverend Charles Burney’s (1757-1817) collection of newspapers and pamphlets means 200 years of news is now online. Read contemporary accounts on:
- Slavery and the abolition movement;
- Advice on medicines for women’s ‘distempers’;
- Accounts of the voyages to New Zealand and the Boyd massacre;
- What sermons King George II heard at church on December 30, 1798.
Many other interesting electronic resources can be found in the Source. Access this from home with your library card number and PIN, or at our open community libraries.
