Unsavoury Receptacles In Early Modern Urban Britain

Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century urban dwellers are certainly not renowned for their contribution to waste-disposal technology. Today, this period in particular conjures up a notion of mass indifference to the outdoor environment's hygienic condition, and consequently filthy and malodorous streets and open spaces, typified by the 'chamber pot out of the window' stereotype. Admittedly, the seventeenth century did not come to a close with a water closet installed in every home, with a comprehensive, underground sewerage system in every urban centre, nor with regular, centralised waste collections taken for granted in every community. Nevertheless, the years between 1500 and 1700 were not completely devoid of technological advances in hygiene. It is significant, for example, that the water closet, basically in its modern form, was first invented not in the nineteenth century, but in 1596, by Queen Elizabeth's Godson, Sir John Harrington. From grand and elaborate contraptions such as his, to dry privy pits, to close stools, plate jakes and chamber pots, to the pails, barrels and buckets used by the poor, contemporaries designed, built and maintained an impressive array of receptacles to facilitate the act of nature which they called 'taking their ease' or 'easie' - an important aspect of their daily lives which has at best been marginalised and has at worst been completely ignored by most early modern historians.

Stationary toilets were called privies, which were usually separate outbuildings, but not all of early modern Britain's urban dwellers enjoyed access to one. Most were dry privies, which were deep pits below simple wooden seats, with holes cut out of them, but some were wet privies which drained directly into sewers and rivers. Dry privies were dug out quite regularly, but householders also used lime and sand to cover the waste and thereby suppress the privy's malodour. Some urban dwellers had access to publicly funded communal toilets, known as common houses of office or easement. Edinburgh Council built two privies in August 1684: `the Counsell appoints two Jaques to be made . and that a board be put up at the . closs heads for directing them that are to ease themselves to find the . Jaques And that the same be convoyed by a syre to the northe Loch`.

Town councils and corporations were not responsible for emptying householders' privies, but they did enforce individuals to dig them out if they leaked into the streets or became offensively malodorous. Nuisance courts, such as The City of London's Assize of Nuisance and Edinburgh's Dean of Guild Court, sent sworn viewers to assess such nuisances. Presumably in preparation for the coming summer heat, in April, 1585, Edinburgh Council ordered that 'none suffer their privies to gorge, break, and run out in the streets in due times'. This nuisance seems to have been relatively rare, however, only accounting for 1% of extant insanitary nuisance cases presented in seventeenth-century Carlisle, which suggests that the majority of people who had dry privies dug them out and cleaned them sufficiently frequently.

Those who lacked access to a stationary privy could use chamber pots, made from pewter, wood, brass, earthenware or glass, which those who had stationary privies also used at night for convenience. More elaborate cushioned chamber pots known as plate jakes and mobile close stools, complete with a storage compartment underneath the seat for removable pans, were also available. In 1605, for example, George Denton, gent., of Carlisle, died leaving two pewter chamber pots and 'ij plate jakes couered w[i]th cloth', worth 2s 6d. For those of less prosperous social strata, however, buckets, pails, simple chamber pots and outdoor privies were the norm; close stools were prohibitively expensive luxuries for most. The 1634-35 Carlisle City Chamberlains' accounts note that 1s was paid 'for a herring barrel and making it new for a close stool'. Inhabitants, too, might have created their own facilities using inexpensive receptacles such as barrels.

In 1596, Sir John Harrington, a courtier, writer and Queen Elizabeth's godson, published the pamphlet, A New Discourse of a Stale Subject called the Metamorphosis of Ajax, in which he proposed a solution to the domestic waste-disposal problems of the day. Basically, it was a flushing mechanism with a cistern, which stopped the running water after the waste had exited the bowl down into a river, sewer or airtight storage vat below. The word 'Ajax' refers to a common contemporary word for a toilet or chamber pot, jaques or jakes, and the title was designed to depict a metamorphosis, i.e. the purifying of privies themselves. Admittedly, Harrington's invention was effectively a court joke, a shocking and indeed base subject for someone of his social standing to have published on at the time. Moreover, the pamphlet was not disseminated widely, only among social elites. While Queen Elizabeth had one of Harrington's water closets installed at Richmond, those at court and wider society were largely disgusted by the invention, which was generally ignored. Nevertheless, this invention was hugely sophisticated for its time and while sadly it failed to solve the problem, this 'unsavory discourse' is hugely significant as an insight into one man's proposed solution.

It is important to appreciate that householders used their own initiative to facilitate this important element of their daily routines. Contemporaries surely made many more ingenious and imaginative contraptions than those which were recorded in the documentary records. One can only learn about the converted herring barrel at Carlisle because the Chamberlain kept detailed accounts, whereas the majority of householders did not. While much of the history of this aspect of everyday life has unfortunately been lost, there are elucidatory clues in many documents, especially nuisance court cases. From grand and elaborate water closets, to simpler wet and dry privies, to close stools and plate jakes, right down to the pails, barrels and buckets used by the poor, contemporaries designed, built and maintained an impressive array of receptacles to facilitate the act of nature which they called 'taking their ease'. While such technology was arguably rudimentary, the 'chamber pot out of the window' stereotype does not do justice to the array of ingenious mechanisms which contemporaries devised for careful use in this important part of their daily lives.

Word Count: 1,024 Bibliography

Manuscri pt Primary

Carlisle Record Office, Chamberlains' Accounts: Ca4/2. Carlisle Record Office, Carlisle Probate, Wills and Inventories, 1605. Edinburgh City Archives: Edinburgh Town Council Minutes, SL1/1/7, SL1/1/31.

Printed Primary and Secondary

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