“I intend to give the prescriptions a trial, when I perceive any symptoms of a return of my complaint. I have been pretty well for several weeks but dread the return of cold weather and unavoidable exposures to the storms of winter. W. Kirkby, Esq. Being in this neighbourhood, favoured me with a call in August. I was then in only a very indifferent state of health having some slight symptoms of spitting blood, but accompanied him to Furness Abbey”.
On Sunday, 27 June, 1813, Dr.William Close, aged 38 died of tuberculosis at his Dalton home. His wife Isabella, his son, John, and his daughter, Jane, were at his side. Two days later the funeral took place. The eight bearers of his body were each presented with a pair of high legged boots which they wore as they carried the coffin on their shoulders from Dalton to Walney Chapel, a distance of five miles.
They took the following route: * from Castle Street via Market Square and over Bow Bridge (Dalton).They continued along Barrow Road, to Little Mill Brow, turning right at Dalton Lane passing High Cocken and Ormsgill, to the shore at Ormsgill Nook, across Cocken Cross at the Meetings, by the eastern shore of Walney, passing Hurlgut Pool, North Scale, Oak Head, the Parsonage and Chapel Pool to the Walney Chapel burial ground. Dr. Close was finally laid to rest in a grave, nine feet deep, (at his own request), under his favourite ash tree at the North West corner of the Chapel Yard. No memorial stone marks his grave.
On Sunday, 27 June, 1813, Dr.William Close, aged 38 died of tuberculosis at his Dalton home. His wife Isabella, his son, John, and his daughter, Jane, were at his side. Two days later the funeral took place. The eight bearers of his body were each presented with a pair of high legged boots which they wore as they carried the coffin on their shoulders from Dalton to Walney Chapel, a distance of five miles.
They took the following route: * from Castle Street via Market Square and over Bow Bridge (Dalton).They continued along Barrow Road, to Little Mill Brow, turning right at Dalton Lane passing High Cocken and Ormsgill, to the shore at Ormsgill Nook, across Cocken Cross at the Meetings, by the eastern shore of Walney, passing Hurlgut Pool, North Scale, Oak Head, the Parsonage and Chapel Pool to the Walney Chapel burial ground. Dr. Close was finally laid to rest in a grave, nine feet deep, (at his own request), under his favourite ash tree at the North West corner of the Chapel Yard. No memorial stone marks his grave.
Now, 189 years later, the imbalance has been redressed; today a blue plaque commemorates the achievements of William Close. This Famous Man of Furness was a polymath ie a great scholar, a person of much or varied learning.
There is no doubt that had Dr. William Close lived longer, more would have been known about the history of the district, for the information that was accessible to him then, is no longer available.
There is no doubt that had Dr. William Close lived longer, more would have been known about the history of the district, for the information that was accessible to him then, is no longer available.
AFTERWORD
The doctor’s daughter Jane, the wife of William Holt, died at 2 Castle Street in 1866. Following in her father’s footsteps, she devoted her life to the care of the sick, even visiting and caring for those with infectious diseases. She was known like others of her ilk as a wise woman. Interestingly, the French words for a midwife are sage femme – the literal translation being wise woman.
In those days a medical career was for men only.
It is thought that the first woman doctor to set up her practice in Furness was Dr. McCullough. Her surgery was in Hartington Street, Barrow.
In those days a medical career was for men only.
It is thought that the first woman doctor to set up her practice in Furness was Dr. McCullough. Her surgery was in Hartington Street, Barrow.
