The Chamberlen family (1560-1728) and obstetric forceps.

The invention of obstetrics forceps in the 17th century represented a critically important technical advance in the management of childbirth. It was particularly timely in that the new disease, rickets, was becoming widespread and with it, dystocia due to pelvic deformity. The story of the forceps is bound up with five generations of the Chamberlen family (fig 1). Peter Chamberlen, later known as “the elder,” was born in Paris in 1560, the first son of a Huguenot surgeon, William Chamberlen and his wife Genevieve Vignon. Forced to flee because of religious persecution, the family reached Southampton in 1569 where a second son, also named Peter, was born in 1572. Both sons followed their father’s profession, becoming barber surgeons and well known practitioners of midwifery. Peter the elder moved to London in 1596 and became surgeon and accoucheur to Queen Anne, wife of James I. His younger brother followed him to London in 1600. Both had joined the Barber Surgeons Company, first incorporated in 1461 under the reign of Edward IV, and both were in frequent trouble with the Company for minor oVences such as failing to attend lectures. Peter the elder also came into serious conflict with the College of Physicians (incorporated in 1518 under a charter granted by Henry VIII) for prescribing medicines contrary to the rule of the College. In 1612 he was committed to Newgate prison for this oVence and only released after the intercession of the Lord Mayor of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1620 it was Peter the younger’s turn to be prosecuted by the College, but he was able to defend himself with a letter from the Lord Chamberlain. In 1616 the brothers supported a “humble petition of the midwives in and about the city of London ... that the said midwives be incorporated and made a Societye.” The petition was addressed to Sir Francis Bacon, a member of the Privy Council and to the King, who then referred it to the College of Physicians for their consideration. The College recognised the need to improve the skill of the midwives who were for the most part very ignorant, and yet denied the petition stating: “Nevertheless they think yt neither necessary nor convenient that they should be made a Corporation to govern within themselves a thing not exampled in any Commonwealth.” The College added that its senior members would be happy to instruct the midwives in their art and to advise the Bishop on which should be approved to practise midwifery. They also admonished Peter the younger for having “impudently advocated the cause of these women” and for implying that he, his brother, or any obstetric surgeon could know more about midwifery than physicians. There is no record of Peter the elder ever marrying. In 1628 he is known to have attended the new Queen, Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV of France and wife of Charles I, when she miscarried at Greenwich. He died in 1631 at the age of 71. Peter the younger married Sara de Laune, daughter of a French Protestant minister, whose brother Gideon de Laune helped to found the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London. They had eight children, one of whom, also named Peter, became a famous physician accoucheur. Peter the younger died in London in 1626 at the age of 57 and was buried at Downe in Kent. It is not certain which of the brothers invented the obstetric forceps which were to remain a family secret for more than 100 years. Aveling (1882), however, gives that honour to Peter the elder. The Chamberlens went to fantastic lengths to keep their secret. According to Graham (1950) they are said to have arrived at the house of the woman to be delivered in a special carriage. They were accompanied by a huge wooden box adorned with gilded carvings. It always took two of them to carry the box and everyone was led to believe that it contained some massive and highly complicated machine. The labouring woman was blindfold lest she should see the “secret.” Only the Chamberlens were allowed in the locked lying-in room, from which the terrified relatives Figure 1 Family tree of the Chamberlens. William Chamberlen = Genevieve Vingnon