After doing some more research, notably in the British Medical Journal article "
Did The Mad Hatter have mercury poisoning?" it looks like my probable ancestor wasn't mad. It also suggests that The Hatter in Alice wasn't mad either. The chapter in Alice in Wonderland was called "A Mad Tea-Party" though, and the Cheshire Cat warns Alice that he is mad. The BMJ and Wikipedia say that the character of the hatter was based on
Theophilus Carter, a man who invented an alarm clock bed - which I thought had been invented by
Caractacus Potts in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (or maybe by
"Doc" Emmett Brown in "Back to the Future"). The phrase "mad as a hatter" predates the Alice books apparently - and possibly predates hat making as an industry.
As for James Hamer, he died of "
Delerium Tremens": also known as "The DTs" which means he was probably an alcoholic and was suffering withdrawal.
He was in the Union workhouse in West Street, London. This was formerly St Sepulchre's workhouse near Newgate and Smithfield. Conditions here were pretty grim.
The Police came round last night. 3 PC's from Whitehill Police Station, not Sting and the band. They were handing out Neighbourhood Watch packs round the street.
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