Disability Employment and Livelihood (1): The history of Jonathan Kerr

On the occasion of UK Disability History Month 2024, LHSA contributed to a Lunch and Learn session with NHS Lothian’s Disabled Employee Network. Through the lens of our varied collections, we explored the role that disabled people have held historically in the workplace and the job market at large. This is the first of a series of blogs exploring the role of disability employment and livelihood.

Victorian Edinburgh. 1830s. A deaf man, Jonathan Kerr, is a cupper at the Royal Infirmary. But… what was a ‘cupper’? The position of ‘cupper’ at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh seems to have been first proposed by Mr Henry Mapleson in February 1826, at which point he also offered to take on the role himself. In Mr Mapleson’s words, the role ‘has for its object the local abstraction of blood by means of cupping […] requiring a considerable dexterity, and long experience’ (Letter of Application, February 1826).

Excerpt from the Minutes of Managers of RIE discussing Mr Mapleson's application for the role of cupper (LHB1/1/10).

Jonathan Duncan Kerr applied for the role of Cupper at RIE in April 1830. Both Mr Mapleson and Mr Kerr were appointed for this position, although in later minutes Mr Kerr is described as ‘Junior Cupper’. Both men worked as joint Cupper to the House until the Manager found Mapleson ‘had not been attending his duties and that some difficulty had occurred to the medical gentleman of the house in communicating their directions to Mr Kerr’, at which point the Managers reached out to Mr D S Cafe, who was offered the role (to be shared with Kerr) on 23^rd May 1831.

Excerpt from the Minutes of Managers of RIE detailing Mr Mapleson's performance (LHB1/1/10). 

On 25^th January 1837 a complaint was made against Kerr by Dr Craigie – which seems to have involved Mr Kerr making a mistake in regards to some orders for bloodletting. In October 1838, Mr Cafe made a complaint against Kerr although the Minute Books do not record the reason for the complaint. The sequence of events takes us to the 28^th January 1839, when Mr Kerr resigned as cupper and in February of that year, Mr Cafe would be the sole Cupper to RIE.

Excerpt from the Minutes of Managers of RIE mentioning Dr Craigie's complaint against Mr Kerr (LHB1/1/10).

Excerpt from the Minutes of Managers of RIE addressing Mr Cafe's complaint against Mr Kerr (LHB1/1/10).

While there are three records of complaints made against Mr Kerr by different hospital staff, these don’t provide the later reader with much insight. The volume informs that there were difficulties communicating directions to Mr Kerr and that he made a mistake regarding some orders for bloodletting several years later. However, there is no mention of his deafness, which may or may have not been the cause of these misunderstandings and his eventual resignation, but which would have played an essential part in his role at the hospital. Although it is tempting to try to make assumptions about his working relationships and the challenges he faced daily, his colleagues’ difficulties in adjusting to his disability may or may have not led to his eventual resignation.

 

Excerpt from the Minutes of Managers of RIE highlighting Mr Kerr's intention to resign his role as cupper (LHB1/1/10).

How do we know he was deaf you’re asking? Only because we received a query from a researcher who was tracking Mr Kerr’s story. His account highlights the many underlying issues around the acknowledgement of disability that already preceded Victorian society and have perpetuated up to this date.