A Salford Boy's Leprosy-Like Skin Affliction of Eight Years Cured by John Watts's Anointing and Administration (1849)

A young woman named Lea asked John Watts to see her brother, who was afflicted with a severe skin disease, described as leprosy. The boy, eight and a half years old, had been afflicted since he was six months old. The entire lower part of his face, under his chin, and the backs of his hands and wrists were a mass of scabs. He had been treated at infirmaries and by a surgeon who could do nothing for him. After John Watts administered oil and laid hands on him, the boy was free of the disease within three weeks, and his flesh was renewed like that of a young child. His parents had not had a regular night's rest due to his condition, and it took three hours to wash him.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

Last winter, a young woman addressed me in the Carpenter’s Hall, the daughter of a fustian cutter, named Lea, residing in Cook-street, Salford, and said, her parents were desirous that I should go and see her brother who was very bad with a leprosy. I went in company with one or two of my brethren. I think I never saw any thing so bad as the boy was (the small pox excepted); the whole of the lower part of his face and under his chin, as well as the backs of his hands and wrists, were one entire mass of scabs; indeed, you could not have inserted a needle’s point, they were so thick. He was eight and a half years of age, and had been afflicted since he was six months old; they had him at the Manchester infirmary and the Salford Dispensary, and are at this time paying the surgeon’s bill who attended him as a private patient. The surgeon told his parents he could do nothing for him, as the disease was too virulent for medicine to reach it. His parents told me they did not know what it was to get a regular night’s rest with him, and that it frequently took three hours to wash him. The first night we went, they were not disturbed during the night, and in three weeks he was entirely free, and his flesh was renewed like that of a young child.