George Hitchings, Surgeon of Oxford

George Hitchings (1791–1851)

George Hitchings was baptised on 14 May 1791 at St Aldate’s church, Oxford. He was the eighth of the eleven children of Edward Hitchings (a prosperous tailor at the time of George’s birth, and later Mayor of Oxford) and Elizabeth Benwell. Of the eleven children Edward and Elizabeth had baptised at St Aldate's Church, five of whom died in their early childhood.

Hitchings was elected to the staff of the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1811, when he was only 20, and remained in the post until his death. Because he was made a freeman of Oxford, he did not have to be matriculated by the University.

On 18 September 1813 Hitchings married Sophia Halse, the daughter of James Halse, by licence at St Cross (Holywell) church. Sophia was “of this parish” and George’s mother Elizabeth was one of three witnesses to the marriage. He is described as a surgeon in each of the following baptism entries of his children at St Aldate’s church:

Elizabeth (born 9 November 1814, baptised 19 December 1814, died aged 2 and buried 24 March 1817 at St Aldate’s)
Maria (born 19 November 1815, baptised 21 December 1815)
Ellen Mary (born 1 December 1816, baptised 31 December 1816, died aged four months and buried 22 April 1817)
Sophia (born 5 December 1818, baptised 5 January 1819)
George Charles Henry (born 1 November 1821, baptised 14 February 1822)
Emily (baptised 20 August 1823)
Harriet Fane (born 17 May 1827, baptised 16 August 1827)
Alice Benwell (born 17 October 1830, baptised 14 January 1831)

The family occupied an interesting house in St Aldates-street (as it was known then) which was formerly called Waterhall, from its situation near the Trill stream. By 1823 directories list Hitchings as a surgeon in St Aldate's, and continued to do so until his death.

The private diary of Mary Latimer, the teenage daughter of a wealthy Oxford wine merchant, records a number of visits by Dr Hitchings. Work at the Radcliffe Infirmary was unpaid, and these diaries give a good idea of the kind of work Hitchings did for the rich in order to make a living:

25 April 1817: " Mamma's finger very bad, obliged to send for Mr Hitchings."
29 April: 1817: "Mr Hitchings sent me a box of ointment for a swelling in my glands."
13 May 1817: "Mamma's finger very bad indeed, sent for Mr Hitchings."
19 August 1817: "The Twins vaccinated by Mr Hitchings in the morning."
24 August 1817: "Mr Hitchings called to see Jane" [Jane, the diarist's younger sister, had had a burst eardrum and suffered from epileptic fits]
10 November 1817: "Digby [the diarist's young brother] went to Mr Hitchings with his hand which had been badly cut with a chisel."
5 December 1817: "Mamma's eyes, which had long been weak, now extremely painful. Mr Hitchings called to see them."
7 December 1817: "Mr Hitchings came to look at Jane's ear, having yesterday performed an operation on it."
14 December 1817: Sally [the Latimers' servant] taken very ill at Church in the afternoon, and continued so; (15th) Sally getting worse, towards evening Mamma had Mr Hitchings to see her; (16th) Sally continued indifferent. Mr Hitchings attended twice; (18th) Sally not quite so well. Mr Hitchings attended twice.
30 January 1818: Mr Hitchings came to cup Jane in the foot by order of Mr Curtis. She fainted during the operation.
30 March 1818: "Jane was cupped in both her thighs by Mr Hitchings, by order of Mr Curtis. She was very poorly afterwards, and went to bed before 6."
4 May 1818: "On our return home we found the party in great consternation in consequence of a very alarming fall Charles [diarist's brother, aged 7] had had from the top of the nursery steps to the bottom of the house. Mr Hitchings attended, and late at night pronounced him out of danger."
14 July 1818: "Jane bled in the morning by Mr Hitchings, and was poorly the rest of the day"
20 August 1818: "Jane was bled in the arm by Mr Hitchings."
29 September: "Mr Hitchings came up to see Jane's ear"; 30 September: "Mr Hitchings called, and applied Caustic to Jane's ear"; 2 October: "Mr Hitchings called, and put more Caustic to Jane's ear"; 5 October: "Mr Hitchings called and put more Caustic to Jane's ear"' 9 October: "Mr Hitchings called to see Jane's ear"
15 November: "Mr Hitchings came to look at my toe, which was better"
20 December: "Papa confined by a strain of his right side, which was occasioned by his falling over a chair. Mr Hitchings attended him, he was bound up & ordered to be kept perfectly quiet"

Until August 1818, the family were living conveniently in All Saints parish, but Dr Hitchings had to travel up to their country estate (Headington House) for his visits after that date. Mrs Latimer also kept diaries, and the family were still summoning Dr Hitching up to Headington as late as 14 October 1836, when Mrs Latimer's husband, who had had " a pain in his stomach with an unusual degree of flatulence"

The operation book of the Radcliffe Infirmary show that in the period from 1838 to 1843 Hitchings was carrying out the majority of operations there, and he was also anatomical surgeon at Christ Church to Dr Kidd from 1836 to 1842.

Hitchings's wife Sophia was buried at St Aldate's Church on 1 April 1851, so she must have died just before the census that was taken on the night of Sunday 30 March. This shows Hitchings (a widower of 59 described as a surgeon) living at 31 St Aldate's Street with his four unmarried daughters: Maria (36), Sophia (32), Harriett (25) and Alice (20), plus three house servants and a nurse.

Hitchings died in his home at Water Hall at the age of 61 on 9 September 1851, and was buried at St Aldate's Church on 13 September 1851. His obituary in Jackson's Oxford Journal reads:

On Tuesday the 9th inst. at his residence in St Aldate's, George Hitchings, Esq., surgeon, in the 62nd year of his age. For forty years he had given his gratuitous service to the Radcliffe Infirmary. During this long period of active usefulness, by the exercise of his professional skill, he had been the means of completely restoring to health, or alleviating the sufferings of multitudes of the poorer classes of this city and the neighbouring counties. His sagacity in discerning the cause of disease, and his ready recourse to the appropriate treatment, as well as his dexterity and accuracy in every operation, however delicate and hazardous, where niceness of hand and vigour of nerve were required, had raised him, most deservedly, to the highest repute with the public at large, and given his opinion the weight of authority among the less experienced members of his profession. His loss will be deeply felt by his family and an extensive circle of friends; especially by the poor, for whom, with the kindest and most compassionate feeling, he was ever ready to use his most strenuous efforts, and availed himself of all the resources of his art, for their succour and relief.

Children of George Hitchings

Maria Hitchings died unmarried, aged 42, and was buried 26 June 1857 at St Peter in the East, Oxford.
George Charles Henry Hitchings qualified as a surgeon at the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. The 1851 census shows him described as a practising surgeon, living with his wife Caroline in a separate house in St Aldate's from his father with his children Edward (3), Rosa (2), and Catharine (1); their fourth child Elizabeth was born in 1853. Hitchings married his second wife Louisa Lacy (of Bexhill, Surrey) in the summer of 1858 in the West Riding of Yorkshire. They had three more children: Ada (born 1860), Louisa (born 1861), and Robert (born 1864). George practised from 37 Holywell Street, and Kelly's 1890 directory lists him as the Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator for Headington and Wheatley and the medical officer for the workhouse.
Emily Hitchings married the Revd John William Freeborn (1824/5–1871), the son of Dr John James Simms Freeborn, in Oxford on 15 January 1850. Her husband became headmaster of Llanrwist School and then Ruthin Grammar School.
Harriet Fane Hitchings died unmarried, aged 69, 1895, in Oxford.
Alice Benwell Hitchings married William Henry Green in 1859 at St George's, Bloomsbury, London and died 1874 in the West Riding of Yorkshire aged 43.
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Most of this information was kindly supplied by Joan Williams

See also:

Jackson's Oxford Journal, 13 September 1851, page 3c (obituary)
A.G. Gibson, The Radcliffe Infirmary (1926), p. 164
A.H.T. Robb-Smith, A short history of the Radcliffe Infirmary (1970), pp. 52–3