"The Father Of Inoculation"

St Wilfrids, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire

Kibworth Beauchamp lies about 10 miles south of the centre of Leicester on the main A6 road. Last year it was made famous by Michael Woods "The Story Of England" which traced the history of the village from Roman times. The church sits in the centre of the village on high gound and is easy to find. It still has St Wilfrid sitting in an ancient Saint Niche above the door and a variety of Victorian Stained glass.

Not so easy to spot though is the above memorial which is on the south outer wall to the right of the porch. It is made of Swithland slate and commemorates Mr Lewis Powell Williams a Surgeon who died on January 9th 1771. Famous for being the first to introduce into practice inoculation without preparation. I love the detail in the two upper corners.

The Parish register for 1771 records all the deaths for that year and details of the vilage or town of residency except for the entry for Lewis which just records -"stranger" after the entry, this would suggest that he probably died whilst passing through the village, rather than having been a resident.

The following advert was placed in the Northampton Mercury at the end of 1768 by Williams.

‘INOCULATION WITHOUT PREPARATION (Established by a five years successful Experience, commonly called the Williams Short Method). Mr Williams . . . and a Number of Partners, have inoculated and lightly carried through many thousand persons without the usual tedious and too often injurious preparative Treatment by very strict Diet and strong Mercurial Purges ...’

So Williams was an entrepreneurial doctor who set up in business in the Northampton area where he took the Turkish practice and  simplified the technique so that it could be used routinely.

Twenty five years after Williams death Edward Jenner introduced a safer form of inoculation with cowpox which conferred immunity against the much more serious smallpox. This became known as "vaccination" from the Latin Vacca meaning Cow.

St Wilfrids is usually open for visiting.