Joseph Dalby

Joseph Dalby, apothecary, was buried at the east end of the south cloister of Westminster Abbey on 27th July 1784 aged 70. He seems never to have had an inscribed gravestone. He was the inventor of the "sweet boon to children" known as Dalby's Carminative. His wife Anne was buried with him on 3rd May 1786. Their daughter Frances married Anthony Gell, an Abbey official, and inherited the secret of preparing the mixture. She was buried in the north cloister with her husband. His other children were Charles Edward, Joseph (living in Jamaica), Thomas and Jacques (both in the navy), John, Elizabeth (Mitchell), Anne (Spencer) and Katherine. The editor of the published version of the Abbey registers says his will "is an extraordinary literary curiosity, portions of it being unfit for publication and it is somewhat surprising that the authorities admitted it to probate and allowed it to be copied into their records".