Peter the Wild Boy

Gravestone of Peter the Wild Boy at St Mary's Church, Northchurch, Hertfordshire.

King George I

Peter the Wild Boy (fl. 1725-February 1785) was a mentally handicapped boy from Hanover in Northern Germany who was found in 1725 living wild in the woods near Hamelin, the town of Pied Piper legend. The boy, of unknown parentage, had been living an entirely feral existence, surviving by eating forest flora; he walked on all fours, exhibited uncivilized behaviour, and could not be taught to speak a language.

Once found, he was brought to Great Britain by order of George I, whose interest in the unfortunate youth had been aroused during a visit to his Hanover homeland.

Life in London

After Peter's transportation to Britain, an extraordinary amount of curiosity and speculation concerning Peter was excited in London. The craze was the subject of a biting satire by Jonathan Swift, and of another entitled The Most Wonderful Wonder that ever appeared to the Wonder of the British Nation, which has been attributed to Swift and John Arbuthnot. Daniel Defoe also wrote on the subject, and James Burnett, Lord Monboddo in his Origin and Progress of Language presents the "Idiot Peter" as an illustration of his theory of the evolution of the human species.

The Princess of Wales, Caroline of Ansbach, took an interest in Peter's welfare after the initial public curiosity began to subside, and in 1726 she arranged for Dr Arbuthnot to oversee his education. All efforts to teach him to speak, read or write failed, though he is said to have developed a love of music.

The interior designer and painter William Kent included a depiction of Peter in a large painting of King George I’s court which can be seen today on the east wall of the King’s Staircase at Kensington Palace in London. Peter is shown wearing a green coat and holding oak leaves and acorns in his right hand.

Northchurch

After George I's death in 1727 Peter was given in charge to a schoolmistress, Mrs King of Harrow and then to a farmer, James Fenn of Axter's End farm, Northchurch, Hertfordshire, with an annual allowance provided by Queen Caroline. Peter remained at this farm until Fenn's death when his care was taken over by Fenn's brother, Thomas of Broadway farm. He was to live here for the remainder of his life, only venturing further afield once.

In the late summer of 1751 Peter went missing from Broadway Farm and could not be traced. Advertisements were placed in newspapers offering a reward for his safe return. On 22 October 1751 a fire broke out in the parish of St Andrew's in Norwich. As the fire spread, the local bridewell (a house of correction or gaol) became engulfed in smoke and flame. The frightened inmates were hastily released and one aroused considerable curiosity on account of his remarkable appearance, excessively hirsute and strong, and the barely human sounds he uttered, which led some to describe him as an orang-utan. Some days later he was identified as Peter the Wild Boy, possibly through a description of him in the London Evening Post. He was returned to Thomas Fenn's farm, and had a special leather collar with his name and address made for him to wear in future should he ever stray again.

Death and burial

St Mary's Church, Northchurch, Hertfordshire

Peter lived to an estimated 70 years of age. He was visited in 1782 by the Scottish philosopher and judge James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, who provided the last description of Peter, who was said to have a healthy complexion with a full beard, and apparently understood what was said to him but was himself only capable of saying the words "Peter" and "King George".

Peter died in 1785 and was buried in Northchurch. His grave can still be seen in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, Northchurch, directly outside the main door to the church.

Modern assessment

In 2011, the condition that afflicted Peter the Wild Boy was suspected to be the chromosomal disorder Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome, a condition only identified in 1978, nearly 200 years after Peter's death. Various physical attributes of Peter's which are evident in the Kensington Palace portrait have been matched to the condition, such as his curvy "Cupid's bow" lips, his short stature, his coarse, curly hair, drooping eyelids and thick lips. It was also said that Peter had two fingers fused together, another Pitt-Hopkins symptom.

An item on the BBC Radio 4 programme Making History broadcast in March 2011 examined the history of Peter the Wild Boy, tracing his life in Northchurch and later in Berkhamsted, where an iron collar once used to restrain Peter is preserved at Berkhamsted School, and describing his probable Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome.

See also

• Feral child

References and further reading

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Paul Collins, Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism, Bloomsbury, 2004, ISBN 1-58234-367-5
• Henry Wilson, The Book of Wonderful Characters, London, 1869.
• Netwon, Michael (2002) Savage Girls and Wild Boys. A History of Feral Children
• Courtiers Lucy Worsley, Faber & Faber
• Megan Lane (2011-08-08). "Who was Peter the Wild Boy?". BBC. Retrieved 2011-08-08.

External links

• Wild Peter and other feral children at FeralChildren.com
• Peter the Wild Boy - an article by historian Roger Moorhouse
• Mere Nature Delineated - an account of Wild Peter by Daniel Defoe