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MARY DAVIES, THE HORNED LADY OF SAUGHALL
BY ANDREW WOOD
Mary Davies (or Davis) who was variously said to have been born
in Great Saughall, in 1594 or Shotwick, in 1604. However, she lived
in Saughall for the whole of her life. She married Henry Davies and
they lived on a farm. Henry unfortunately died and Mary went on
to practice as a midwife. (In 1512, under Henry VIII, an Act had
been passed which permitted representatives of the Church to grant
licences for the practice of medicine and surgery to people who
had first been examined by the Bishop of London or the Dean of
St Paul’s.) It seems likely that ecclesiastical licensing of qualified
midwives began soon afterwards. Tradescantianum, the Museum of Jurassic Technology, in Culver City,
California, says, “We were then shown a very an extraordinarily curious
horn which had grown on the back of a woman’s head. It was exactly like
a horn, except that it was thinner and browner in colour. It is somewhat
of a curiosity and it appears that men-folk bear their horns in front and
such women theirs behind. It was noted on a label that it originated
from a Mary Davis of Saughall in Cheshire, England. No doubt it will
have been mentioned in the Transactiones Angl., or in the Hist. nat. of
Cheshire. The horn was blackish in colour, not very thick or hard, but
well proportioned.”
But Mary began getting headaches, swelling and soreness of her head.
This was put down as the result of wearing a tight hat for so long. The
symptoms continued for five more years, until she noticed two lumps
on either side of her head which grew into horns. After a while these fell
off and the Reverend Huson, Vicar of the parish church of St Michael’s,
Shotwick, kept them. However, two more horns grew back. By what
means is not known, but an English Lord acquired one of these horns
and, bizarrely, gave it to the French King. Mary grew a third pair in turn
and these were given to Sir Willoughby Aston, 2nd Baronet (1640–1702)
of the Aston family, the High Sheriff of Cheshire. Mary Davies’ only remaining horn is preserved and can be viewed
at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, framed and mounted in the
fashion of hunters’ trophy heads. The 21st century, for all its faults,
can elucidate many of the miracles or curses that seemed to be visited
on our predecessors. So-called “Human Horns” are now a recognised
medical phenomenon that is not as uncommon as one might think.
After centuries of misunderstanding, fear and scorn aroused by this
phenomenon, researchers now finally have an answer that explains this
strange and unsettling skin condition.
The growth of the horns had started when Mary was sixty years old
and over the next twelve years, she grew a total of four pairs of horns.
When the fourth pair grew, she was taken to Charing Cross Hospital
at London. When she was 72 the fourth pair of horns came off and
one was preserved in the Ashmolean Museum and the other in the
British Museum. She also had three portraits painted. One of these was
preserved at Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire and two at the British
Museum in London. To this day the British Museum has an oil painting
of Mary in profile, looking to the right, and wearing a dark dress with a
large white collar. The inscription on the back of the painting says, “This
is the portraiture of Mary Davis, an inhabitant of Great Saughall near
Chester [...] taken Ano. Dom. 1668, Aetatis 74 when she was 28 years
old an excrescence rose upon her head which continued thirty years
then grew into two horns. After 5 years she cast them then grew 2 more,
after 5 years she cast them These upon her head have grown 4 years”.
The portrait in the British Museum seems to have been displayed there
since at least 1761. Rather ambiguously it is mentioned as being in the
“Collectio Sloaniana” of paintings and it is elaborated as, “A woman who
had two horny substances grew out of the back Part of her Head. [...] A
Picture of the same woman and another Horn are shown at Oxford”. The
“Collectio” belonged to Sir Hans Sloane Bt, one of the British Isles’ most
influential figures in medicine and the natural sciences.
It is clear that Mary was taken to London, though by whom is not known.
A reference in the “Phoenix Britannicus”, a periodical described as
“being a miscellaneous Collection of scarce and curious Tracts” edited by
Joseph Morgan in 1732, said, “Take but a Walk to the Swan in the Strand
[…] and there thou mayest [...] see a Woman with Horns growing upon
the hinder Part of her Head”. This is the portrait of Mary Davies who
was on display to the curious public. Her condition, properly described
as a sebaceous horn, was rare, but instances of the condition still occur
today. In London, she caused quite a sensation and she is probably
Saughall’s most famous inhabitant. An early visitor to the Museum
70 wirrallife.com
The medical profession refers to these bizarre, even frightening growths
as Cutaneous Horns that may outwardly resemble the horns of goats,
deer, cattle and other ungulates. The resemblance is only skin deep,
however - with the emphasis on “skin”. Though hard and apparently
bony to the touch, human horns are actually keratotic, meaning that
they are made of the same material as hair and fingernails. According to
the “World Journal of Surgical Oncology”, “Cutaneous horn may arise
from a wide range of epidermal lesions, which may be benign, pre-
malignant or malignant.” It is estimated that up to one-third of these
odd protuberances have a cancerous connection; but explaining the
remaining two-thirds of occurrences is more complicated. In Japan
such horns are known as “Kakuhi” (Horned Skin) and a unique record
of such horns, (one large and one small) was created by members of
the Tokyo University Medical Department. The shockingly large horn
and a portion of the head of a Chinese man were first photographed
and then directly moulded in wax. One of the most well-known current
cases of cutaneous horn is that of a 101 year old woman called Zhang
Ruifang from Lushan Country, Henan Province, China. According to
the centenarian ’s 60 year old son, “The horn started as a patch of thick,
rough skin on the left side of her forehead. We didn’t pay too much
attention to it at first, but as time went on it just grew and grew. And
now there is something growing on the right side of her forehead and it
seems quite possible that it’s another horn”.
Historically, a London surgeon called Everard Home was credited
with the earliest descriptions of cutaneous horns as far back as 1791.
However, cases from as early as the 16th and 17th centuries have also
been described in the medical literature. According to Dr Tina Tian, a
New Zealand Oncology Registrar, Cutaneous horns are more common
in older patients, peaking in people between 60 and 70. They are equally
common in men and women, although there is a higher risk of the
“horn” being malignant in men. They are also more common in people
with fairer skins.