Editing William Chester Minor

{{short description|American surgeon, dictionary contributor, and psychiatric patient}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name                = William Chester Minor
| image               = Dr. William Chester Minor.jpg
| caption             = Minor c. 1900
| birth_date          = June 22, 1834
| death_date          = {{Death date and age |1920|3|26|1834|6|22}}
| resting place = 
| birth_place         = [[Ceylon]]
| death_place         = [[Hartford, Connecticut]], US
| resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} -->
|relations            = [[Thomas T. Minor]] (half-brother)
| known_for           = Contributions to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]''
| alma_mater          = [[Yale University]]
| module              = {{Infobox military person|embed=yes
| allegiance          = [[Union (American Civil War)|Union (United States)]]
| branch              = [[Union Army]]
| serviceyears        = 1863/1864 to 1871
| rank                = Commissioned officer (surgeon)
| battles             = [[Battle of the Wilderness]]
| awards              =}}
}}
'''William Chester Minor''' (also known as '''W. C. Minor'''; 22 June 1834 – 26 March 1920) was an American army surgeon, psychiatric hospital patient, and lexicographical researcher.

After serving in the Union Army during the [[American Civil War]], Minor moved to England. Affected by [[delusion]]s, he shot a man who he believed had broken into his room, and was consequently committed from 1872 to 1910 to a secure British psychiatric hospital.

While incarcerated, Minor became an important contributor to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]''. He was one of the project's most effective volunteers, reading through his large personal library of antiquarian books and compiling quotations that illustrated how particular words were used.{{Sfn | Winchester | 1998}}

In 1910, responding to protests about Minor's treatment, [[Winston Churchill]], then British [[home secretary]], ordered Minor deported to the United States. Minor was hospitalized in Connecticut, where he died in 1920.

==Early life==
Minor was born in [[Ceylon]] (now [[Sri Lanka]]), the son of Eastman Strong Minor and his first wife, Lucy Bailey. His parents were [[Congregational church]] [[missionary|missionaries]] from [[New England]]. He had numerous half-siblings, among them [[Thomas T. Minor]], mayor of [[Seattle, Washington]].{{Sfn | Winchester | 1998 | p = 47}} At age 14, he was sent to the United States, where he lived with relatives in [[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]] while attending [[Hopkins Grammar School]].<ref>Catalog of the Trustees, Rectors, Instructors and Alumni of the Hopkins Grammar School, 1902. p. 61</ref> He subsequently enrolled at the [[Yale School of Medicine]], supporting himself during his years as a medical student with part-time employment as an instructor at the Russell Academy and as an assistant on the [[Webster's Dictionary#Unabridged edition 1864|1864 revision of Webster's Dictionary]],<ref>Kendall, Joshua. "A Minor Exception", ''The Nation'', April 4, 2011.</ref> then in preparation at Yale under the supervision of [[Noah Porter]]. Minor graduated in 1863 with a medical degree and a specialization in comparative anatomy. After a brief stint at Knight General Hospital in New Haven he joined the [[Union Army (American Civil War)|Union Army]].

==Military career==
He was accepted by the [[Medical Corps (United States Army)#19th century|Union Army as a surgeon]] and may have served at the [[Battle of the Wilderness]] in May 1864, which was notable for the terrible casualties suffered by both sides. There is an unverified story of Minor also being given the task of punishing an Irish soldier in the Union Army by [[human branding|branding]] him on the face with a ''D'' for "[[deserter]]"{{Sfn | Winchester | 1998 | loc = ch 3}} and that this incident later played a role in Minor's delusions.{{Sfn | Winchester | 1998 | loc = ch 3}} Historians disagree as to whether the Union Army used branding as a punishment for desertion,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/desertion,-cowardice-and-punishment.html |title= Desertion, Cowardice and Punishment |last=Weitz |first=Mark |date= April 2012 |access-date=March 2, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author = <!-- not stated --> |title = Deserters in the Civil War |url = https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/23934 |website = TeachingHistory |publisher = Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University|access-date = May 9, 2025 }}</ref> which means that the story may be fabricated. Moreover, it is unlikely Minor was present at the Battle of the Wilderness, which took place May 5–7, 1864, since his military records place him at Knight USA Hospital in New Haven at that time and do not show him arriving at 2 Division Hospital USA at Alexandria, Virginia, until May 17.<ref>William C. Minor, Acting Assistant Surgeon, USA, Hospital Muster Roll, 2 & 3 Divisions U.S.A General Hospital and Returns, Veterans Records, National Archives, Washington, D.C.</ref>

After the end of the Civil War, Minor saw duty in New York City. He was strongly attracted to the [[red-light district]] of the city and devoted much of his off-duty time to consorting with prostitutes. By 1867, his behavior had come to the attention of the army and he was transferred to a remote post in the [[Florida Panhandle]]. By 1868, his condition had progressed to the point that he was admitted to [[St. Elizabeths Hospital]], a [[lunatic asylum]] (as [[Psychiatric hospital|mental health hospitals]] were then called) in Washington, D.C. After 18 months he showed no improvement.

==Move to England and the killing of Merrett==
[[File:Picture of the Lion Brewery.jpg|thumb|The "[[Lion Brewery Co|Lion Brewery]]" where Minor shot George Merrett]]
In 1871, Minor went to London for a change of pace to help his mental condition. In 1872, he was living in Tenison Street, [[Lambeth]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000443/18720224/018/0005|title=Frightful murder in Lambeth|work=South London Chronicle|access-date=30 January 2021}}</ref> where once again he took up a dissolute life. On February 17, 1872, haunted by his paranoia, he fatally shot George Merrett, whom Minor wrongly believed to have broken into his room. Merrett had been on his way to work to support his family: six children and his pregnant wife, Eliza.

After a pre-trial period spent in London's [[Horsemonger Lane Gaol]], Minor was found [[Insanity defense|not guilty by reason of insanity]] and incarcerated at the [[Broadmoor Hospital|asylum in Broadmoor]] in the village of [[Crowthorne]], Berkshire.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Blair|first=Jenny|title=A tortured soul finds redemption in words|url=https://medicine.yale.edu/news/yale-medicine-magazine/a-tortured-soul-finds-redemption-in-words/|access-date=2021-12-02|website=medicine.yale.edu|language=en}}</ref> As he had his [[Veteran's pension (United States)|US Army pension]] and was judged not dangerous, he was given rather comfortable quarters and was able to buy and read books.<ref>{{Citation | archive-date = April 17, 2010 | publisher = Institutions | url = http://www.institutions.org.uk/asylums/england/BRK/broadmoor_asylum.htm | title = Asylums | place = UK | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100417050639/http://www.institutions.org.uk/asylums/england/BRK/broadmoor_asylum.htm | contribution = Broadmoor Asylum}}.</ref><ref>{{Citation | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091128021718/http://www.berkshirerecordoffice.org.uk/documents/William_Chester_Minor.pdf | archive-date = November 28, 2009 | url = http://www.berkshirerecordoffice.org.uk/documents/William_Chester_Minor.pdf | type = biography | contribution = William Chester Minor | publisher = Record office | place = Berkshire, UK | title = Documents}}.</ref>

==Contributor to the ''Oxford English Dictionary''==
{{Main|Oxford English Dictionary#Early editors}}
It was probably through his correspondence with the London booksellers that he heard of the call for volunteers for what was to become the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (OED). He devoted most of the remainder of his life to that work.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://oed.com/public/contrib/contributors#minor | contribution = William Chester Minor | title = Contributors | publisher = Oxford English Dictionary}}.</ref> He became one of the project's most effective volunteers, reading through his large personal library of antiquarian books and compiling quotations that illustrated the way particular words were used. He was often visited by the widow of the man he had killed, and she provided him with further books. The compilers of the dictionary published lists of words for which they wanted examples of usage. Minor provided these with increasing ease as the lists grew. It was many years before the ''OED''{{'}}s editor, [[James Murray (lexicographer)|James Murray]], learned of Minor's history and visited him in January 1891 (as well as many times thereafter). In 1899, Murray paid compliment to Minor's enormous contributions to the dictionary, stating, "we could easily illustrate the last four centuries from his quotations alone".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary|author= Winchester, Simon|year=2004|page=201|publisher=[[OUP]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Caught in the Web of Words: James A.H. Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary|author=Murray, Katharine Maud Elisabeth|year=2001|page=306|publisher=Yale University Press |quote=In 1899 alone, Minor provided 12,000 quotations for the ''OED''}}</ref>

==Mutilation, decline, and death==
Minor's condition deteriorated. In 1902, he was suffering delusions that he was being abducted nightly from his rooms and conveyed to such distant places as [[Istanbul]], where he was forced to commit sexual assaults on children. He cut off his own penis ([[penectomy|autopenectomy]]) to prevent such actions. He used a knife he otherwise used in his work on the dictionary.<ref name="forsyth">{{Citation| title = The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language | first = Mark | last = Forsyth |date=November 2011}}</ref> His health continued to worsen and, after Murray campaigned on his behalf, Minor was released in 1910 on the orders of the then Home Secretary, 35 year-old [[Winston Churchill]].<ref name="forsyth"/>

Minor was deported back to the United States and resided at [[St. Elizabeths Hospital]]. There, he was diagnosed with [[schizophrenia]]. In 1919, he was moved to the [[Retreat for the Elderly Insane]] in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], where he died in 1920.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/dnb/66721.html |work=[[ODNB]]|title=Minor, William Chester|author= Winchester, Simon|author-link=Simon Winchester}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
In July 1915, the Washington D.C. ''[[The Washington Star|Sunday Star]]'' published a "sensationalized" story beginning with the line "American Murderer Helped Write Oxford Dictionary".{{Sfn | Winchester | 1998}} The book ''[[The Surgeon of Crowthorne]]'' (published in America as ''The Professor and the Madman''), by [[Simon Winchester]], was published in 1998 and chronicles both Minor's later life and his contributions to the creation of the ''Oxford English Dictionary''. A movie based on the book, called ''[[The Professor and the Madman (film)|The Professor and the Madman]]'', starring [[Mel Gibson]] as Murray and [[Sean Penn]] as Minor, was released in May 2019.<ref>{{Citation |last=Safinia |first=Farhad |title=The Professor and the Madman |date=2019-05-10 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5932728/ |type=Biography, Drama, History |access-date=2024-01-09 |others=Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Eddie Marsan |publisher=Voltage Pictures, Fábrica de Cine, Definition Films}}</ref>

Minor's life was also detailed in an episode of ''[[Drunk History]]''. He was portrayed by [[Bob Odenkirk]].

==References==
{{reflist |64em}}

===Other sources===
*{{Citation | last = Winchester | first = Simon | author-link = Simon Winchester | year = 1998 | title = The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary | publisher = HarperCollin/Publishers | place = New York | edition = 1st | isbn = 978-0-06-017596-2 | oclc = 38425992 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/professormadmant00winc }}).
**{{Citation | last = Winchester | first = Simon |author-mask=3 | year = 1998a | edition = 1st | place = UK | title = The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the love of words | isbn = 978-0-14-027128-7 | oclc = 42083202| title-link = The Surgeon of Crowthorne }}.
*{{cite book | last = Aurandt | first = Paul | title = Paul Harvey's the Rest of the Story | publisher = Bantam | location = London | year = 1984 | isbn = 978-0-553-25962-9 |pages=31–33t |chapter= 14. Pen Pals}}

==External links==
{{commons category-inline}}

*{{Find a Grave |9991}}
*{{cite ODNB |last1=Winchester |first1=Simon |title=Minor, William Chester (1834–1920) |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/66721 |year=2004 }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Minor, William Chester}}
[[Category:1834 births]]
[[Category:1920 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:19th-century American lexicographers]]
[[Category:20th-century American people]]
[[Category:Union army surgeons]]
[[Category:American expatriates in England]]
[[Category:American people acquitted of murder]]
[[Category:People acquitted by reason of insanity]]
[[Category:People detained at Broadmoor Hospital]]
[[Category:People with schizophrenia]]
[[Category:United States Army Medical Corps officers]]
[[Category:Yale University alumni]]
[[Category:Yale School of Medicine alumni]]
[[Category:American expatriates in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:People deported from the United Kingdom]]