Do you know the story of "Peter The Wild Boy"??
Every once in a while I come upon a story from history that has largely been forgotten.
The story below is one of these. I read about Peter in a history magazine the other evening and I was thoroughly intrigued.
If Peter could have told his own story, it would have been a magnificent story to tell.
Meet "Peter The Wild Boy of Kensington Palace"......
A modest headstone sits in the cemetery St. Mary’s Church, Northchurch, Hertfordshire, simply inscribed “Peter the Wild Boy – 1785”
The gravestone is in good condition, but it’s the man who is buried under it who makes it historically significant.
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| Peter's Gravestone at St. Mary's Church |
Wild Boy Found in German Forest
Peter was found as a youth living a feral existence in the woods at Helpensen, about 25 miles southwest of Hanover, Germany, in May of 1724.
When local farmer Jurgen Meyer found him, Peter was naked, filthy, with matted hair and long fingernails, walking on all fours and unable to speak.
He was seen climbing up trees like a squirrel and running through the woods like a deer.
He had apparently been subsisting on a diet of acorns and whatever else he could forage for an unknown length of time. Small in stature, he was thought to be about 12 years old.
Meyer turned him over to the town mayor who turned him over to the St. Spiritus Poor House. Peter lived there nine months before being moved to the hospice adjacent to the prison of Celle, reportedly because he ate so much the poor house could no longer support him.
There he was named Peter as he seemed to respond to the name, and it was there that Peter met the most elevated of patrons: King George I of England, who was visiting in his capacity as Elector of Hanover.
Peter & The King
"Life At The Royal Palace"
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| King George I of England |
The King had heard about the Wild Boy and his interest was piqued.
The King and the Wild Boy had dinner at the royal palace in Hannover, which must have been an interesting study in contrasts. George left him in the care of the gardener in Hanover, but the story of the feral child returned to London with him and curiosity spread.
In February 1726, Caroline, then Princess of Wales, had Peter brought to court.
He became something of a pet to King George, an unwitting jester, amusing the aristocracy and nobility of England with his uncivilized antics. He liked picking the pockets of courtiers and royalty, tried to kiss fine ladies, snatched the Lord Chamberlain’s staff, wore his hat in the king’s presence, fought tooth and nail every morning when servants attempted to dress him in his elegant green suit.
It wasn’t all fun and games. Peter was baptized and given a tutor, Scottish doctor John Arbuthnot, who tried to teach him to speak. He learned how to say his name and a garbled version of “King George,” but that was as far as he got. There’s a painting of him of the east wall of the King’s Staircase in Kensington Palace.
He’s standing next to Dr. Arbuthnot on a trompe l’oeil mural that depicts King George I’s courtiers and favorites as if they were clustered on a balcony overlooking the stairs. Peter is wearing his green coat and holding oak leaves and acorns, still his favorite food, in his right hands.
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| Mural in Kensington Palace showing George I's favorite Courtiers |
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| Close up of Peter and Dr. Arbuthnot |
London society went wild over the Wild Boy. He was the subject on everyone’s lips in 1726, as a novelty and as a scientific and philosophical exhibit. To Enlightenment thinkers, Peter was a prism through which to address the question of nature vs. nurture, the “noble savage” and man’s origins in a “state of nature” before civilization permanently alters his mind and soul. Daniel Defoe called out those attitudes in a pamphlet published July 23rd, 1726, entitled Mere Nature Delineated Or a Body without a Soul.
“[Peter] seems to be the very which the learned World has for many Years past to wish for viz one that being kept entirely from Society so as never to have heard any one speak must therefore either not speak at all or if he did form any Speech himself then they should know what language Nature first form for Mankind.”
The social and intellectual reactions to an abandoned boy were prime fodder for the great satirists of the era. Jonathan Swift satirized the Peter craze in his 1726 piece It Cannot Rain But It Pours, Or, London Strewed With Rarities. Later that year, he and Dr. Arbuthnot collaborated on another satirical broadside about the lionizing of Peter, The Most Wonderful Wonder that ever appeared to the Wonder of the British Nation.
He wasn’t a boy raised by bears (seriously, in the discussion about which animal raised him, Mama Bear was one of the most popular theories) or evidence of the theoretical state of nature. From an examination of his portrait on King’s Staircase, geneticists now believe Peter suffered from Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, a chromosomal disorder characterized by drooping eyelids, prominent “Cupid’s bow” lips, coarse hair and a severe intellectual disability.
Life on the Farm
Of course, when a person is a trend, he’s going to fall out of favor soon enough. After Queen Caroline’s death in 1737, Peter was sent to live with a Mrs. Tichbourne, one of the late Queen’s bedchamber ladies, in her farm in Hertfordshire. She was paid generously to take care of him and by all accounts she was kind to him. He traveled with her on several trips to visit farmer James Fenn at Axters End in Berkhamsted, finally moving from Mrs. Tichbourne’s home to Mr. Fenn’s.
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| Peter in Middle Age |
He was happy there. The government granted Peter a lifetime pension of £35 a year (paid to his caretakers) and the farmers treated him well. He liked being out in the open, helping the farmers with their work. Sometimes he wasn’t all that helpful. He liked loading manure on carts, for instance, but he liked it so much that he’d assiduously unload a full cart just to load it again. He would spend nights out of doors, looking at the stars, and would sometimes wander off impressive distances.
After James Fenn died, Peter moved in with James’ brother Thomas Fenn at Broadway Farm. His drive to go walkabout got dangerous once when he disappeared in the summer of 1751 and could not be found. Ads in the paper with offers of rewards bore no results. Months later, in October 1751, inmates were released from a Norwich jail when the building caught fire. One of the inmates was hairy and spoke in grunts and was soon identified as the missing Wild Boy. Norwich is 130 miles away from Berkhamsted. How Peter got that far, nobody knows.
He was returned to Thomas Fenn’s farm where, to avoid any future such incidents, Mr. Fenn fitted him with a leather and iron collar inscribed “Peter the Wild Man of Hanover. Whoever will bring him to Mr Fenn at Berkhamsted shall be paid for their trouble.”
That collar still exists today, in the library of Berkhamsted School.
During his many years on the farm, many people would visit Peter and would comment on him through the years. Some of the people who would visit him and their notes on Peter:
Peter would live at Broadway Farm, which passed through several hands after Thomas Fenn’s, for the rest of his life.
Last Days on the Farm
Peter spent the last 15 years or so of his life with one last caregiver, Farmer Brill, who Peter had grown very attached to. Farmer Brill was likely a kind man who allowed Peter to help him around the farm in various ways. Peter loved to drink gin and eat raw onions, and he rarely went anywhere without Farmer Brill. Nor did he ever run away during this time.
James Bennet, a Scottish Judge and Philosopher, visited Peter and said that Peter was in good health and sporting a great white beard. Another visitor said that he looked like Socrates.
Peter's Death and Epitaph
Peter lived approximately seventy two years of life. When his caregiver Farmer Brill died suddenly, Peter became despondent and refused to eat anymore. A few days later on February 22, 1785, Peter the Wild Boy passed away. He was buried in Northchurch and his grave is now a heritage site.
He died on February 22nd, 1785, around the age of 72 and was buried at St. Mary’s. The grave is well-tended to and there are often flowers left on it, a symbol of the affection in which Peter’s memory is still held.
A plaque inside the church reads:
To the memory of Peter, known as the Wild Boy, having been found wild in the forest of Hertswold near Hanover in the year 1725. He then appeared to be about 12 years old. In the following year he was brought to England by the order of the late Queen Caroline, and the ablest masters were provided for him. But proving himself incapable of speaking, or of receiving any instruction, a comfortable provision was made for him at a farm in this parish, where he continued to the end of his inoffensive life. He died on the 22nd of February, 1785, supposed to be aged 72.
In one fell swoop, Peter’s life went from the forest to one like nobility at Kensington Palace. The child who was probably cast off by his parents in his youth survived and found himself amongst the most powerful people in the known world at the time. He is fondly remembered for the joy that he brought to so many.
Rest in Peace Peter The Wild Boy
Sources and further reading:
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/23687
https://www.historicmysteries.com/peter-the-wild-boy/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/mar/20/peter-wild-boy-condition-revealed
https://web.archive.org/web/20131003031705/http://www.marie-angelique.com/peter-the-wild-boy
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