England Lunatic Asylums - International Institute

Lunatic Asylums
First a word about the meaning of term asylum which nowadays tends to mean a place of treatment for the mentally ill. This was not the case formerly when the word had its original meaning of a sanctuary or place of refuge. This might have been for criminals, debtors, or any afflicted or destitute persons. Thus not every institution termed an asylum was for the mentally ill.

The genealogist will encounter various terms to describe those with mental problems of one kind or another. It is impossible to really define these, they were not used consistently in the past, and some have different meanings today. A rough guide follows:


 * Feeble-minded—Senile dementia


 * Idiot—Congenital mental deficiency with no lucid periods. Natural fools from birth. Incapable of attending to own personal needs


 * Imbecile—Persons who have fallen in later life into a state of chronic dementia. Could perform some simple functions of self-help, whilst having only a limited grasp of ideas.


 * Lunatic = Insane = Mad (but see other meaning) In the 17th C it was used for a person who had lucid periods, thought to coincide with phases of the moon. Some were merely highly intelligent and/or eccentric in their behaviour. By 1845 the term was officially persons of unsound mind. In the 19th century censuses the term sometimes included idiots and imbeciles. Now we restrict these old terms to those having such mental unsoundness as interferes with civil rights or transactions.


 * Mad—Formerly a raging lunatic, but nowadays has connotation of being a wildly foolish person.


 * Melancholia—Clinical depression.


 * Mentally ill—A more modern term for having a temporary, usually treatable, disordered mind.


 * Mentally disabled—A more modern term for having a permanent insufficiency of mental power.

The last column on 19th century census returns (the so-called deaf-and-daft column) asked householders to classify their mentally infirm relatives as imbeciles, idiots or lunatics but the results are very untrustworthy.

Before the Mid-1700s
Prior to the mid-18th century mental illness was not recognized as such and the sufferers were treated as criminals, paupers or vagrants. Most would have spent time in the workhouse, prison or wandering and constantly hounded by the authorities. In London, there was one ancient hospital which catered for them, St. Mary of Bethlehem or Bethlem, founded as a priory in 1247 and converted into an asylum in 1547. It was known colloquially as Bedlam, from whence derives the modern word for a cacophonous situation, and people were allowed to view the inmates as an entertainment!

Those who could afford to do so committed relatives whose behaviour was an embarrassment to fashionable society to one of the numerous small private mad houses. They were profit-motivated and conditions in many were deplorable. Hawker has stated that none kept records identifying inmates, a discreteness required by their families. However from 1774, when they had to raise their standards to be licensed by the justices of the peace, records of the JPs and medical practitioners survive in county archives. These include admissions, discharges, deaths, the official visitors’ reports and minutes of meetings. Hawker reports on some examples in Dorset, Burt on Hampshire and Jenkins in more detail about treatments and records at the Somerset asylum. Adams reports on conditions prior to and during his 30-year career as a male lunatic nurse.

The County Asylums Act of 1808 encouraged the provision of a lunatic asylum in each county, and in 1854 this was made mandatory. Numbers of beds rose from 12,000 in 1850 to 100,000 in 1900 (Mitton), but harmless paupers were left in workhouses from the 1870s as it was cheaper; only the dangerously insane being sent to the county asylums. Commissioners in Lunacy were appointed in boards of ten for inspecting asylums. Other terms that will be encountered in the records are:


 * Commission of Lunacy which authorized an enquiry into a person’s sanity.
 * Visitor or Master in Lunacy was the officer investigating cases of alleged lunacy.
 * A single lunatic was one being cared for at home.
 * A chancery lunatic was a wealthy person who became insane and incapable of managing his own affairs and the Chancery Court protected his estate.
 * A criminal lunatic was a convicted criminal whose reason was impaired and was considered dangerous to society.

Most of the surviving patient records will be found in the county or local archives in sections on private madhouses, poor law records and county asylums, as well as in quarter sessions. Some institutions which continue as hospitals retain their records. Others, such as criminal cases involving the insane, poor law returns of insane inmates, naval lunatics, and chancery records concerning property of lunatics can be found at The National Archives (TNA). The registers of patient files from 1846-1960 are at TNA in MH94 and contain name and sex of the patient, institution, admission and discharge (or death) dates (Cleaver 2003). Chart: Bill and Receipt from Kent Lunatic Asylum to Crayford Parish 1833 - Overseers Misc PA/103/16/2

For further information consult TNA leaflets D104-105 for official acts, commissions and central records and Mitton’s The Victorian Hospital for information about lunatic hospitals. Faithfull gives the history of how lunacy was viewed, treatments and asylums, as well as how to find records of lunatics. She has separate sections on women, chancery, criminal and naval lunatics as well as famous mad doctors i.e. doctors specializing in treating lunatics; all this in one inexpensive booklet. The Wellcome Institute has a register of the location of most hospital records.

An application for a chancery inquisition concerning the supposed lunacy of a distant relative in 1859 is given below. These records are at TNA under C 211/32/24/116938. Chart: Application for Chancery Lunacy Inquisition for Rachel DASHWOOD 1859

Chart: Chancery Lunacy Inquisition for Rachel DASHWOOD 1859

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