Hewitt

This is a story of a life of conflict, failed initiative and decline that was accidentally ended before it became a tragedy. Henry Hewitt was born in Clifton-on-Dunsmore near Rugby Warwickshire on 3rd April 1828 and died by what appeared to be drowning following a fit, on 6th July 1869. He lived and worked in the village throughout his life. In 1848 his father died suddenly of a stroke and still a minor Henry inherited the family milling business and an important position in village life. He married at twenty-one with hopes of siring the fourth generation of Hewitt’s to run the mill. But when he died, aged 41, he was childless, his business, his reputation and his dreams of success were all in tatters and there were many who did not mourn his going. He may also have had a greater impact on the village than either he or the villagers realised. The author puts forward a convincing argument for believing that during the 1860s he unwittingly introduced mycotoxins into the flour that he produced. This resulted in infertility in some women and a consequent reduction in live births in the village. Mycotoxicosis could also have accounted for his fits and his wife’s infertility.

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