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Updated: May 5, 2025
Ballantyne has summed up about all there is to be said on this national monstrosity, and his discussion of the case from its historic as well as teratologic standpoint is so excellent that his conclusions will be quoted "It may be urged that the date fixed for the birth of the Biddenden Maids is so remote as to throw grave doubt upon the reality of the occurrence.
And after this, on the morning after Lammas Day, King William was shot. Now, it is just possible that the birth of the Biddenden Maids may have occurred later, but have been antedated by the popular tradition to the year above mentioned. For such a birth would, in the opinion of the times, be regarded undoubtedly as a most evident prodigy or omen of evil.
Further, Lycosthenes, in his "Chronicon Prodigiorum atque Ostentorum", published in 1557, states, upon what authority I know not, that in the year 1112 joined twins resembling the Biddenden phenomenon in all points save in sex were born in England.
There is, therefore, nothing inherently improbable in the statement that the Biddenden Maids lived for thirty-four years. It is impossible to make any statement with regard to the internal structure of the Maids or to the characters of their genital organs, for there is absolutely no information forthcoming upon these points.
Again, several of the pygopagous twins, of whom there are scientific records, survived birth and lived for a number of years, and thus resembled the Biddenden terata. Helen and Judith, for instance, were twenty-three years old at death; and the North Carolina twins, although born in 1851, are still alive.
The Sussex ironfounders worked chiefly at Cowden, Hawkhurst, and Lamberhurst, and there were forges at Cranbrook, Coudhurst, Tonbridge, and Biddenden. The principal ironmasters of Kent were the Knights and the Tichbornes, whose descendants became baronets.
Sometimes the point of junction was the middle line posteriorly, at other times it was rather a posterolateral union; and it is probable that in the Biddenden Maids it was of the latter kind; and it is likely, from the proposal made to separate the sisters after the death of one, that it was ligamentous in nature.
"On Easter Monday, at Biddenden, near Staplehurst, Kent, there is a distribution, according to ancient custom, of 'Biddenden Maids' cakes, with bread and cheese, the cost of which is defrayed from the proceeds of some 20 acres of land, now yielding L35 per annum. and known as the 'Bread and Cheese Lands. About the year 1100 there lived Eliza and Mary Chulkhurst, who were joined together after the manner of the Siamese twins, and who lived for thirty-four years, one dying, and then being followed by her sister within six hours.
Most of the Sunday School boys and girls have seen him and heard him speak. He is a great and good man. He is the prophet of the Lord to us. Let us be thankful that we live in a day when we can have such men with us to show us by the example of their lives how to be good boys and girls, good men and women. President John R. Winder was born at Biddenden near London, England, December 11, 1821.
The same authority speaks of a female child who was born with "2 bellies, 4 arms, 4 legs, 2 heads, and 2 sets of privates, and was exhibited throughout Italy for gain's sake." The "Biddenden Maids" were born in Biddenden, Kent, in 1100. Their names were Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst, and their parents were fairly well-to-do people.
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