A Middlesex University resource provided by Andrew Roberts |
Who are the madhouse Warburtons?
Thomas Warburton died 1836. daughter married John Dunston Henry Warburton MP (1784-1858) - relationship stated in Stenton, but I am not convinced. Elaine Murphy agrees that he was "nothing to do with our Warburtons". John had an older brother, (Rector of Sible Hedingham Essex, died 1838 in a Colchester pub) called Henry. [Email from Elaine Murphy 14.4.2003] John Warburton MD (1793-2.6.1845) son of Thomas. Proprietor Whitmore House in 1831 and 1844, White and Red House in 1844. Born Middlesex. Educated Caius College, Cambridge. MB 1815 [dissertation On Insanity. MD 1820. Elected a Fellow of the Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1817. [One of the trustees of the Medical and Chirurgical Society was John Abernethy, surgeon (1764-1831)]. FRCP 1821. In 1825 John Mitford says "Dr Warburton of Clifford Street [map], lately married to the daughter of Dr Abernethy, is now sole physician to Hoxton, with the assistance of Dunston, the Apothecary". 19.5.1829 Elected a visiting physician to St Luke's Address 1843: 23 Park-Crescent. Portland Place. Elaine Murphy says "John had two sons: Thomas, who died only two years after his father in 1847, first inherited the business, then he left the empire to brother John Abernethy Warburton." (email 14.4.2003) John Abernethy Warburton (1825-1850) son of John. Succeeded to the three houses in 1846. [No - see above] Thomas Frederick Warburton senior son of John Abernethy Thomas Frederick Warburton junior son of senior. An anonymous note in Tower Hamlets Local History Library says he was, himself, a lunatic, but this is believed to be a confusion with the Monros, where the last one was admitted to Brooke House as a patient. [Elaine Murphy and others]
Two houses: White and Red (Bethnal) House.
1901 Census Bethnal Green: John Will (42) born Cullen, Scotland. Medical Officer. Surgeon. Henry Will (32) born Scotland. Medical Practitioner. Clara Will (28) born Cullen. Ella Will (40). Edward Will (25) Stay Driver. Elizabeth Will (25) and small children. 1920 Dr Kennedy Will, the last director of the asylum, moved his patients to Salisbury. See Robinson and Chesshyre's history
Hoxton Street (below) used to be called "Hoxton Old
Town".
Walking up the present Hoxton Street from south to north one passes Munday Street (on the west), which leads to Hoxton Square, where James Parkinson lived. On the east, Follingham Court, brown brick flats built be the London County Council, is the five storey, redbrick 34 Hoxton Street, whose full address is Hoxton House, 34 Hoxton Street London N1 6LR. This is the surviving part of the old madhouse, not demolished when London County Council built Hoxton House School in 1911.
The school
buildings are now part of Hackney Community College, walled
off behind a
long cream brick wall that runs to Falkirk Street. Looking
above the
wall, one can see a grey and red brick school with the words
"Hoxton House
School, 1911" on the side.
Morris,
A.D.
1958
quoting John Hollingshead (no date):
Hoxton House, Hoxton Street,
Hoxton (East London)
Hoxton House became an asylum in
1695 continued into 20th
century. It was demolished in
1911.
A
"seventeenth century house in use as an asylum by 1695" -
See 1828 notice -
"founded in 1695 with Chatham Chest funds to treat naval and government
cases"
(Jones and Greenberg 5.2006. - See
Wikipedia article on Chatham Chest)
Referred to by Coleridge
in 1803 as the Hoxton madhouse. It included (at different
times) a gentleman's residence where the owner lived, apparently separate
from the asylum, and asylum departments for private (fee-paying) men and
women, for male and female pauper lunatics
(especially from the City of London), and for "maniacs"
from the navy. It was the naval lunatic asylum until
1818. It also received criminal lunatics.
1702 Commissioners for the Care of Sick and Wounded Seamen and of
Prisoners of War, more commonly called the "Sick and Hurt Board",
established. It continued until
1806. At first the navy hired places rather than running its own
hospitals. The contractor provided everything "beds, staff and medicines"
for a fixed price. A movement to establish the navy's own hospitals
developed
by the 1740s.
Crimmin, P.K. 12.1999
1727 Wright's madhouse opened in Bethnal Green A Jonathan Miles of New Windsor, Berkshire, died in 1740. (Will proved 17.10.1740). Bronwyn Miles is reading this to see if any relationship can be shown. 1750s Baumes House became a madhouse mid 1750s Mrs Gold's daughter released by a magistrate.
Admiralty records (ADM 102/415) in the Public Record Office at Kew include
a
Hospital Muster Book "Hoxton House
(Lunatics)" with covering dates
1755 to
1800. This is followed by ADM 102/416 "Hoxton House
(Lunatics)" with covering dates
1801 to
1807 -
ADM 102/417 with covering dates
1807 to
1809 - ADM 102/418 with covering dates
1809 to
1812 -
ADM 102/419 with covering dates
1813 to
1814 -
ADM 102/420 with covering dates
1815 to
1818
"in 1756 James Smith went mad and was put into Jonathan Miles' madhouse at Hoxton, Mdx." - 1768 John Smith (his father) executed a bond with Jonathan Miles for £400 which he could not pay - "so the late creditor intended to sue for his money" - 4.2.1774: a writ de lunatico inquirendo for which John Stanton of Coventry was appointed James Smith's committee. The case went on to 1809, when Rev James Halifax, "John Smith's heir presumptive at law" was attempting to sell mortgaged property to avoid it being seized by other creditors and so that he could "support the Smiths from the proceeds" (Coventry Archives PA 184/5/7 and PA/101/9/16)
Much of the following information about the Miles family was provided by Bronwyn Miles, a descendent. It correlates with information provided by Gillian Ford and other sources cited.
Dr Harness 6.6.1815 p.219 was asked "The seamen were confined in Miles's house, from the year 1791?". He replied "Long before that" "The Navy began contracting with Messrs Miles and Kaye for the confinement of lunatics in 1791, or possibly even earlier, conveying 10-20 new patients a year up to 1814. Most came from the naval hospital at Haslar or direct from the hospital ship Batavia. (Elaine Murphy) Took naval lunatics (officers and men) from 1792 until 1818. The naval lunatics were maintained at public expense, their keep being an annual feature of the naval estimates voted by Parliament (Hansard 16.7.1844). The mistaken dating of naval lunatics at Hoxton House from 1791 appears to be as a consequence of the following table in the 1815 Report. The table is Appendix No 2, p.375 in Sharpe's edition. It is dated "Transport Office" 3.6.1815 and signed by Rupert George, J. Bowen and John Harness.
4.12.1793 Trial at the Old Bailey of Edmund Carvill, baker to Jonathan Miles, for stealing pewter plate. Evidence against from Jonathan Miles; his butcher, William Amos; Eleanor Burriston, his servant for many years. 1795/1796 Charles Lamb a patient - See 1818 5.10.1798 Dr R. Blair's "Visitation to the house of Messrs Miles and Kaye at Hoxton" - "for the reception of Lunatics"... "examined the provisions, accommodation, and general state of the patients; the bread, beef, cheese and beer, were all remarkably good, and the patients whom I examined, among whom were four of the men who lately made their escape, declared that they had them in plenty. The accommodations were also very clean and well aired, and they had sufficient airing ground for walking in the open air; in which last respect theses accommodations have greatly the advantage of Bethlem Hospital. The principal defect in institutions of this kind arises from the convalescent patients not being separated from those in a deranged state. If such separation could be made, and the convalescents were to have the opportunity of inspecting the regulations of the house, and particularly that which requires a continuance of their confinement for some time after an apparent return of reason, in order to guard against the consequences of relapses; and if in this state they were also allowed to lay their complaints freely before the Board (which at present is not suffered in any case) I do not see in what further respect the situation of persons in their unfortunate circumstances could be materially improved" (Presented by Dr Harness 6.6.1815 p.214 Click for numbers From 1800 to 1806 Dr John Harness (like other Commissioners of the "Sick and Hurt Board" - Drs Johnson, Blane and Blair, p.219) "occasionally" visited the "naval maniacs" at Hoxton House. John Harness said he visited, but "less frequently" from 1806 to 1815. (Evidence 6.6.1815 p.215) About 1802 On the death of Doctor Johnson, Dr John Harness became chairman of the "Sick and Hurt Board". Regular visitation of the "naval maniacs" at Hoxton House now fell to Dr John Weir, another Commissioner of the Sick and Hurt Board. He continued visiting as Inspector of Naval Hospitals from 1806. (Evidence 2.5.1815 and 6.6.1815, p.217) 1803 Mary Lamb a patient 1803 "about 200 parish patients, some criminal lunatics and 66 naval patients (5 officers and 61 seamen)" (Elaine Murphy source for paupers not clear) In January? 1806 the Sick and Hurt Board was abolished and then its functions taken over by the Transport Board until 1817 (Crimmin, P.K. 12.1999). - John Harness said he was appointed to the Transport Board in January 1806 (p.219) - Dr John Weir appointed as the first Inspector of Naval Hospitals. (6.6.1815 p.214) Click for numbers - Dr Weir in 1815 (p.210) described how naval maniacs were conveyed "from naval hospitals, marine infirmaries, and prison hospitals, in different parts of the kingdom, in a stage-coach or covered cart, attended by a proper person as a guard, to the Transport Office, when they are immediately put into a hackney-coach and sent to Hoxton, and after this removed backwards and forwards to Bethlem and the Batavia Hospital Ship at Woolwich" - "Every person sent from the Transport Office to Miles's" was examined by John Haslam, at the Transport Office, for which he received a fee (p.130) 1806 Jonathan Miles Sheriff of London 1806 Jonathan Miles stood for the safe (rotten borough) Whig seat of Tregony in Cornwall. He was defeated and, despite corruption against him, failed to unseat the elected candidate on appeal. 1807 Mary Lamb a patient 1807 Jonathan Miles knighted "In the year 1808 the" [Naval] "patients were very badly clothed, and went about the yard stark naked, with only a bit of a blanket on them. I could not get Dr Weir to interfere, and I reported it to the visitors of the College of Physicians, and a letter was written to the Transport Board, and since that time they have been properly clothed, on my representation" (Evidence of Jonathan Miles 8.6.1815 1.3.1810 James Birch Sharpe, born 1789, (of 3 Myrtle Street, Hoxton at this time?) appointed visiting medical attendant. He was paid about £150 a year (see evidence Miles 8.6.1815) for attending the bodily (not the mental health of patients. Miles 8.6.1815). Most of the following family and financial information was sent to me by Gillian Ford. The sources include a case in Chancery in 1843/1844 (Wastell v. Leslie and Carter v. Leslie to determine whether debts were chargeable on the corpus or the income.
"Towards the end of" 1812, Doctor John Harness and "Commissioner Boyle, and Doctor Weir" "made an enquiry into the general management of the Naval Maniacs at Hoxton, by the direction of the Board of Admiralty". 13.11.1812 Critical Report of the Inspector of Naval Hospitals (Dr Weir). This suggested the creation of a naval lunatic asylum at Haslar - A suggestion that Dr Weir continued to push with Dr Harkness. Dr Harkness, however, thought improvements should be made at Hoxton House. Dr Weir (at some time) sent a copy of his report directly to the Admiralty. It was published in 1814 (Evidence 4.5.1815) and 6.6.1815)) 1.5.1813 Letter from the Transport Board to the Admiralty recommending improvements at Hoxton House. It recommended an increased allowance dependant on the improvements. Amongst the suggestions was the appointment of a medical man "accustomed to the diseases and habits of seamen" to attend them. (p.220) 12.12.1813 Marriage of James Birch Sharpe and Ann Ellis at Saint Matthew, Bethnal Green. About January 1814 A new airing and ventilation system established. See evidence Miles 8.6.1815. About the same time, provision made throughout the asylum for the separation of violent and the quiet patients. See evidence Miles 8.6.1815 25.7.1814 House of Commons ordered papers on naval lunatics to be printed. James Birch Sharpe said that he had seen Jonathan Miles "very busily employed about the house" from the "latter end" of 1814... "but not before". This may be the source for the statement by some authors that prior to publication of naval lunatics papers Jonathan Miles had not visited the asylum for about four years (the length of time James Birch Sharpe had been employed), whereas afterward he visited frequently. 27.10.1814 150 navy patients (17 officers, 133 seamen), 89 private patients, 245 pauper patients, plus a few naval and military pensioners from Greenwich and Chelsea, and some French prisoners of war. Total nearly 500. (Elaine Murphy evidence Richard Powell SCHC 25.3.1816, 75) December 1814 or earlier: Jonathan Miles increased James Birch Sharpe's responsibilities to include a concern for the cleanliness, order and management of the patients, as well as their bodily medical condition. See evidence of Sharpe.
January/February 1815: Dr James Veitch (born about 1770, died 1856), a "staff surgeon in the navy" and a member of the Royal College of Physicians, began visiting about once a week. (see below). Weblink about his marriage - See Mary Veitch 1837
Monday 8.5.1815 Martha Wall and Margaret Slater, parish searchers, examined regarding deaths (p.192). Friday 12.5.1815 Dr John Weir examined again Saturday 13.5.1815 Dr James Veitch examined Thursday 18.5.1815 Dr John Weir examined again. Since he last examination (above), he had visited Hoxton House "accompanied as usual by Dr Veitch, when, to my great surprise, I was informed by Sir Jonathan Miles, that the Doctor, though a Navy Surgeon, could not be allowed to visit the patients any longer with me. I should here remark, that Dr Veitch has never interfered directly or indirectly, with the management of the patients, or anything belonging to the establishment" (pp 198-199) Tuesday 30.5.1815 James Birch Sharpe examined. "You are a Member of the College of Surgeons, residing at Hoxton?" - "Yes". "Do you practice as Surgeon and Apothecary?" - "I do". How long have you attended the house of Sir Jonathan Miles at Hoxton?" - "Five years, up to the first of last March." "In what capacity?" - "As Surgeon and Apothecary; generally as Surgeon". "What is your age?" - "I am twenty-six" (p.205) Wednesday 31.5.1815 One of Dr John Weir's visits to Hoxton House Tuesday 6.6.1815 Dr John Weir examined again. Doctor John Harness, a Commissioner of the Transport Board since 1806 and, from 1800 to 1806 a Commissioner for Sick and Wounded Seamen, examined. See 1791 - 1798
James Sharpe re-published an edited version of the Report 1816 Select Committee on Madhouses Three reports.
18.5.1818 Two boys (one Thomas Matthews) looked through the front parlour window of Hoxton House, from the garden. One put his hand through the open window a felt about on a sideboard. James Mayo and Eliza Brown, servants of Sir Jonathan Miles, saw them and Mayo ran after them and caught Thomas Matthews. He found nothing on him. Elizabeth Hewlett, housekeeper to Sir Jonathan, found a spoon (value 3 shillings) and a salt-cellar (value 3 shillings) were missing from the sideboard. Sir Jonathan prosecuted, but the Old Bailey jury returned a verdict of not guilty on 17.6.1818 1818 The Royal Naval Asylum at Haslar opened. Naval officers were moved there from Hoxton House. I am not clear if the Navy ceased using the house completely. There are no Hospital Muster Books for Hoxton House after this date. 30.7.1818 Pembroke House officially opened for East India Company Lunatics. When Charles Lamb was confined at Hoxton in 1795/1796, he was an employee of the East India Company. It is possible that this was another contract Hoxton House lost in 1818.
Easter 1824 Archives of Essex Quarter Sessions contain "proprietor's letter to Essex magistrates re vacant places for pauper lunatics of 9s. per week bill head at Sir J. Miles' Asylum, Hoxton House, near Shoreditch Church" (Q/SBb 475/88); In 1827 referred to as "the late Sir Jonathan Miles's private madhouse, Hoxton" 29.1.1827 Letter from Mr Wastell, proprietor of Hoxton House, private madhouse, inviting the (Middlesex) Justices to visit his establishment and to publish their findings to allay reports in the press of lack of care given to lunatics - London Metropolitan Archives ref. MJ/SP/1827/LC/02/29-30 1828: Resident medical officer required by law
1829/1830 Reports. Visit 31.7.1829: Report signed Ashley, James Clitherow, H.H. Southey, J.R. Hume: "The establishment appears to be conducted with the same care and attention towards the comfort of the unfortunate inmates as the nature of so large a number will admit of. The rooms are clean and airy, the classification of the different patients is well attended to. The patients are generally healthy, there being very few cases in the infirmary although the number this day was 430. The Commissioners noticed a male patient in one of the yards who had a stick in his hand with a large nail stuck through one end of it which might be the cause of some accident. It appeared the patients was a carpenter by trade and that he had amused himself in the room where some repairs were going on. The Commissioners notice this, more as a caution to the keepers in general who with so large a number of patients cannot be too watchful in the most trifling cases to prevent any accident. Upon the whole, the Commissioners have every reason to express themselves satisfied with the arrangements and management of the establishment. Divine service is performed once a week to all such patients as are likely to receive benefit from religion, and particularly on Sundays, but to different portions of the patients on different days. The suggestion of not allowing only two male patients to sleep in the same room has been attended to." 25.3.1830: Ladyday accounts for St Sepulchure, Holborn Visit 2.6.1830 Report signed Frederick G. Calthorpe, F. Baring, Thomas Turner, J.R. Hume: "...the Commissioners are glad to find that the alterations now going on will enable Mr Wastell to remove the noisy patients from the immediate neighbourhood of the Female Infirmaries where they now are. The Commissioners are of the opinion that one day in the week for friends visiting the patients is not sufficient.. Visit 13.7.1830 Report signed G.H. Rose, J.R. Hume, J. Bright: "We have found the House well and cleanly and in all respects in excellent order. Divine service is performed, as we are informed by the surgeon, to the different patients in rotation so that all hear it once a week. The friends of the patients have access to them now on the six days of the week exclusive of the Sundays and on Sundays if they come from the" [sic] "and if there is any particular urgency". Visit 8.4.1831 Report signed Frederick G. Calthorpe, G.F. Hampson, H.H. Southey, Edward J. Seymour: "Those parts of the establishment which are appropriated to the pauper patients appear to be as clean and well ventilated as possible. The Commissioners, however, feel bound to express their very strong disapprobation of the state in which they have found that portion of the buildings called the Cottage, under the care of Mrs Hewlett. When they visited these rooms at nearly two o'clock in the day they found them extremely close and offensive and the cribs used there by females of a superior class then remained in the same wet and filthy condition in which they had been left when the patients rose in the morning..." 1830: see map Will of William Miles, Gentleman of Shoreditch, Middlesex 16.11.1831 PROB 11/1792 4.2.1833 Certificate from the proprietor of Hoxton House lunatic asylum saying that William [II] died from a fit of apoplexy on 31.1.1833 - Coventry Archives reference PA/101/7/17 Burial-certificates for William [II] Bunney of (Wastell's) Hoxton House Lunatic Asylum, interred on 4.2.1833. - Coventry Archives reference PA/101/7/19-20
Application to the Court of Arches by Mary Veitch, seeking separation from her husband, James Veitch on the grounds of cruelty. Amongst other acts, James had threatened to confine her in a madhouse.
1840: Identifiable as house xxxv on
Sykes'
list:
Holly House, Hoxton Street, Hoxton (East London)
Grove House, Bow (East London)
Grove Hall, Fairfield Road, Bow
"... of the country houses that had formerly been common along the lower reaches of the Lea only Grove Hall remained, put to the use frequently found for a Queen Anne mansion in an unsavoury situation, viz. a lunatic asylum. This fine house was destroyed in the eighteen-nineties and its grounds became the narrow strip of public garden known as Grove Hall Park." Millicent Rose in The East End of London (Cresset Press 1951), quoted in a newsgroup. Elaine Murphy: Grove Hall closed in late 1905 and the remaining 67 military patients were moved to Bethnal Green Asylum. Edward H. Byas is listed as an attending (visiting?) physician at the time of closure. "Grove Hall Park" is now at the junction of Fairfield Road and Bow Road.
Camberwell House, Peckham Road (South London)
B. NON-PAUPER HOUSES 1828 - 1844
1. Houses open in 1828 and 1844
This
1847 map shows Pembroke House, just north of
Exmouth Place,
where
Thomas Warburton previously lived. See
1950s map for relative position of the Mare Street
houses.
The information below on Pembroke House
draws heavily
on the research of Raymond
Lee, which he generously shared with me.
Pembroke House,
Hackney
(East London)
"Although Pembroke House was not the only institution in Britain to receive patients who were transferred from the three Indian asylums in the east, it nevertheless provided for the majority of formerly institutionalised returned expatriates. By 1892 about 500 lunatics who had claim on being maintained by the company had passed through the asylum in England" (Ernst, W. 1988 p.57)1828: Resident medical officer required by law in houses with over 100 patients In 1829 and 1830 proprietor William Williams. In 1829, 1830 and 1831 there were three houses with separate superintendents: 1) William Williams (35 patients) 2) David Appleton (35 patients), 3) Elizabeth Evans (15 patients). The 1829-1830 registers show the earliest male patients admitted as John Buck, 31.12.1816; Garliffe Koester, 20.6.1817, and the earliest woman as Hannah Smith on 24.6.1817. Although many patients are identified as connected with India and/or the East India Company, there are others (e.g. a "constable", a "farmer", a "mason" and a "silk-weaver" who do not seem connected. 1840: Likely identification as house xxxvi on Sykes' list 1.1.1844: 95 lunatics. proprietor Walter Davis Williams M.D. 1859: Licence transferred to Dr Christie as Superintendent. 1859 Report Lunacy Commission (p.110) said "Dr Christie" the "new superintendent". 1867 Comments: "Pembroke House, which is now licensed for the reception of 130 male and 16 female patients, is still devoted almost exclusively to the use of officers and soldiers belonging to the Indian Army. The women are either wives or relatives of soldiers. Notwithstanding the unfavourable nature of many of the cases, a very large proportion of the patients are usefully employed in various trades, which, in many instances, they learn in the Asylum. The grounds are somewhat small for the number of patients, but this evil is in a great measure counteracted by the large proportion of inmates who regularly go beyond the premises for exercise. It is to be feared, however, that the limited space for airing ground will before long be still further diminished by the construction of an embankment for a branch of the Great Eastern Railway. This line, if carried out as projected, will not only tend to impede the free circulation of air, but also cut off a considerable piece of the garden, and will pass directly through the centre of a large recreation hall now in constant use, thus rendering a removal of the establishment to some more suitable site almost a necessity" 8.3.1870 Letter from the Great Eastern Railway Company to the East India Company giving Pembroke House three months to look for relocation as the area was to be redevelped. During 1870 patients moved to newly established Royal India Lunatic Asylum in Ealing. 25.3.1870: The East India Company purchased Elm Grove Estate (in Ealing) from Mrs Spencer Percival, the widow of Spencer Perceval junior. The cost of the purchase was £24,500. The company spent a further £11,750 to convert the property into Royal India Asylum and it officially opened on 27.8.1870. 1881 Census 24.6.1892 The Ealing asylum closed.
Northumberland House, Green Lanes, Stoke Newington
(East London)
1954 moved to Ballard's Lane, Finchley
A Registered Mental Nursing Home under the 1959 Mental Health Act 1977 Post Office Directory: Northumberland Nursing Home, 237 Ballards Lane In 2004: Northumberland House, 237 Ballards Lane, Finchley, N3 1LB is a block of 29 private flats. (map)
Whitmore House,
Hoxton
(East London)
an elite
house
"In 1757, the press noted that Balmes House had been taken by 'an eminent physician', Meyer Schomberg, for the reception of lunatics."
[Meyer Low Schomberg was born
Fetzburg, Germany in 1690. He graduated as a doctor of
medicine at Giessen
in 1710, came to England about 1720, LRCP 1722, FRS
30.11.1726. He was
physician to the Great Synagogue. He died Hoxton 4.3.1761.
His son, 1778 physician
commissioner Isaac
Schomberg, who converted to Christianity, was born
in Germany in
1714, educated in London, naturalised by private Act of
Parliament in 1749
and died 1780].
"In the 1770s it
was administered by
Dr John Silvester and his partner, Roger Devey"
[Sir John
Baptist Silvester
FRCP died 1789]
(Quotes from
(Watson, I. 1998 p. 56)
Metropolitan Archives catalogue: 1773 Assignment by way
of mortgage
capital mess. called Balmes/Bames, formerly in possession of
William
Whitmore snr, deceased, William Whitmore, jnr, deceased,
Richard Beauvoir,
deceased, Osmond Beauvoir, snr, deceased, with small field,
all late in
occupation of Meyer Schomberg, Dr of Physick, now of Roger
Devey and John
Baptist Silvester, Dr of Physick - E/BVR/430
The following part of its history as a madhouse relies heavily on an attack on the Warburton's published in 1825. The madhouse is said to have had not many patients and no medical attendance. Thomas Warburton, a country butcher's boy, obtained employment as gatekeeper and worked his way up to head keeper. When the owner died, Thomas and the owner's wife were married. "Tom having scraped together £200, presented it to the late Dr Willis, and engaged him for that sum annually to recommend the house. He soon had every ward of it filled and managed to get a lease of the extensive premises at Hoxton for a mere trifle". Became the Warburtons' house for rich patients.
A 1950s guide to Hackney says "it was here that
Charles Lamb
brought his
sister Mary
during her
attacks". A similar suggestion has been made by Sarah Burton
(2003)
Follow
this link to
see why I think this unlikely.
1790
Elaine Murphy says that Thomas
Warburton took
over the madhouse business.
1801. Warburton provided
attendants during
King
George third's second madness crisis.
Monday 22.2.1801:
Rev
Thomas
Willis sent "to Mr Warburton of Hoxton" for "four
of his most
respectable men to attend and sit up with His Majesty" (Willis
MSS). Two
arrived that evening. The three Willis brothers, supported by
Warburton's
men, were in constant attendance on the King for a fortnight.
The keepers
were not sent away until 14.4.1801. However, the fears
of the King's
family led to the Willis brothers, with four Warburton men,
re-capturing
the King and holding him captive at Kew House until
19.5.1801.
(
Hunter, R.A. and Macalpine, I.
1969 pages
114-129.
19.10.1807 Alexander Bedell admitted (still a patient in 1829/1830). Said to be a talented amateur pianist. 10.9.1811 Caroline Rolleston admitted (still a patient in 1829/1830). Said to be the daughter of Stephen Rolleston, Second Chief Clerk Foreign Office from 1804 to 1817 and First Chief Clerk from 1817 to 1824.
1815: One licence for more than ten patients to Thomas Warburton. [At about this time it "housed some eighty patients"] Sarah Ann Benfield born in Hackney about 1816 about 1822 Thomas Warburton Benfield born He became a surgeon. 1825 "Crimes and Horrors in ...Whitmore House" published. "Dr Warburton of Clifford Street [map], lately married to the daughter of Dr Abernethy, is now sole physician to Hoxton, with the assistance of Dunston, the Apothecary". 1828 Elaine Murphy (email) says that Thomas Warburton stopped running the mad business about 1828, when John Warburton took over. 27.7.1828 Christening at St Leonard's, Shoreditch of Letita Benfield, the youngest daughter of Ruth and Robert Benfield. 1829/1830 Reports. "Whitmore House, Hoxton. Dr John Warburton. Superintendent Mr Binfield" Visit 9.7.1829: Report signed G.C.H. Somerset, Ashley, J.R. Hume, J. Bright: "We found the establishment in very good order. Divine service is performed every Sunday by the Rev Mr Kelly, a clergyman of the established church, to about 20 patients." [The other reports are similar] Visit 15.10.1829: Report signed F. Baring, J.R. Hume, Frederick G. Calthorpe , Thomas Turner, "...in some instances the visits of relations have not been in accordance with the Act of Parliament. They are desirous that Mr Binfield should call the attention of the friends of the patients to this point". 1830: see map 21.3.1831: Proprietor Dr John Warburton. Superintendent: Robert Benfield. 55 patients. 30 men. 25 women. 10.5.1831: Report in The Times (page 4) of a Writ de Lunatico Inquirendo on Miss Sophie Ellison
Some members of the Benfield (and, possibly, Warburton) family
were
living in York Place, by Shoreditch Workhouse on Kingsland
Road, at least
from 1831. - map
link -
The Times contained a death notice for a Mary
Benfield, wife
of James, who died, aged 97, on 31.10.1831 at York
Place, Kingsland,
Hackney. Charles Benfield, Robert's publican cousin, was at 1
York Place
1832/1834. Robert's sister, Ann Benfield (1766-24.11.1849)
lived at 2
York Place with Thomas Warburton's niece, Sarah Marsh,
from 1836, or
before, to her death.
1.4.1832 Thomas Warburton's will (21 pages) signed. It
says 'of
Hackney' with no further address given. [Information on will
from Thorby
Walker and Elaine Murphy]
1834 Proceedings in De Beauvoir v Rhodes. Court case
over the
arrangements between William Rhodes and Rev Peter de Beauvoir
(deceased)
over the development of Beauvoir-Town Estate. A plan ("about
1825")
reproduced by
Isobel Watson (1998 p.96) shows "Warburtons" in
grounds
surrounded by Wharf Road, Francis Road, Downham Road and
Hertford Road.
Thomas Warburton's will proved on
10.3.1836 (Public Record Office, PROB11/1860). It made
provision for
Ann Benfield (relationship not stated) and
his niece Sarah Marsh. At the time of his death, these two
women were
living together at 2 York Place, Kingsland.
16.6.1838 Death of Robert Benfield (aged 57) from liver disease at Whitmore House. Registered in Hackney. Informant C Mills, servant, Whitmore House. Succeded by his daughter, Sarah, who would have been about 22 years old. Robert asked to be buried with his wife, Ruth, at St Johns Hackney. 1840: Likely identification as house xxxiv on Sykes' list 1841 Census: Whitmore House Private Lunatic Asylum. Parish of Hackney. Matron: Sarah Benfield, aged about "25". Three other Benfields were resident on the night of the census: Letitia (aged about "10"), Thomas (aged about "20") "Medical Student" and Emma (?) (aged about "20"). July 1843 The Metropolitan Commissioners recommended the use of bodily restraint on a patient, a "gentleman" they found "sitting in a room with a number of other patients, who had a short time previous bitten the hand of one of the attendants, so as to cause serious apprehensions that it would have been necessary to amputate the arm. This patient had been secluded in a padded room some portion of the day on which we saw him, and at the time of our visit was unrestrained, but under the watch of two keepers, who were in the apartment for that purpose. The medical superintendent and keeper both stated that notwithstanding the precautions then in use, they were apprehensive of a similar injury being inflicted by him upon some other patient or attendant; but in a deference to the popular opinion, they did not apply mechanical restraint, although they though it was necessary. We recommended that bodily restraint should be employed. Shortly after giving this recommendation..." 1.1.1844: Proprietor Dr John Warburton. 41 patients 30.6.1846 39 patients on last visit Shown as licensed to John Warburton, but he died 2.6.1845. At the Lunacy Commission Board on 24.9.1845, Procter "stated the arrangements which had been made with regard to Bethnal House and Whitmore House". On 27.11.1845, Ashley and Turner directed the Secretary to write to "Mr Beverley of Whitmore House requesting information relative to the late Dr Warburton's private single patients to whom they were transferred upon his death". On 22.12.1845, Beverley called at the office. Dr Warburton had only had one single patient for three or four years prior to his death. This was Mr P.L. Fector who he attended when Mr Fector lodged at Miss? Benfield's, Kingsland Road when visiting town for six weeks each year. Mr Fector's mother lived in St James's Street, Dover and saw him weekly. He was "under the charge, in his own house, of a keeper from Whitmore House and a bailiff". His trustee or agent was Major Watson of Pall Mall. 30.6.1847 Licensed to Mrs Sarah Benfield [ Elaine Murphy says Whitmore House was registered under the name of Charles Beverley in 1847 but changed in 1851 to Miss Sarah Benfield] 33 patients on last visit 1.1.1849: 20 male and 13 female patients (= 33) 3 male and 5 female (= 8) found lunatic by inquisition. 1851 Census: following on from 10 De Beauvoir Crescent: Warburton's Licensed Madhouse. Head: Edward P. Beverley MRCS, aged 23, unmarried. Resident Surgeon - Others include: Sarah A. Beaufield, aged 34, unmarried - Matron - Letitia Beaufield, aged 22, unmarried, Visitor - Emma Beaufield, aged 22, unmarried, Visitor, Governess - 1851 Sarah Benfield moved most of the patients to Derwentwater House in West London. In 1852 there were only 10 patients left at Whitmore House (Elaine Murphy) 26.5.1852 A letter in The Times from JY of Hoxton said that the ancient mansion was about to be demolished ("there it stands a few days longer") and that members of the various "literary societies interested in British antiquities" should be allowed to meet there to examine it minutely.
Derwentwater House, Acton
1859
licensed to "Miss Benfield" 9 patients,
1 male, 8 female. 3 women found lunatic by inquisition.
1861 Census: Sarah Benfield described as proprietor of Derwentwater House. 1867 Comments: "Most of the patients in Derwentwater House have resided there for many years. They are old chronic cases, and very little change takes place among them. The house, which is spacious and well furnished, is always kept in the best order, and the gardens are extensive. The majority of the ladies were last year taken to the sea-side" 1871 Census: Derwentwater House, Acton. Horn Lane? [Between a school and the Rectory] Sarah Benfield, head, Proprietor of Lunatic Asylum, aged 54, born Hackney. Emma Benfield, sister, Governess, aged 52, born Hackney. A visitor. Six female patients, all "lunatic": Harriet Willett, widowed, aged 70. The others, unmarried, initials only, aged from 69 down to 34. One companion. Two attendants. One Cook. One Parlour Maid. One House Maid. One Under House Maid. Last quarter 1872: Sarah Benfield died, aged 56, in Acton (at Derwentwater House?). Death registered Brentford Registration District (which covered Acton) in the quarter ended December 1872. The entry reads: "BENFIELD, Sarah Ann. 56. ...Brentford 3a. 57" She had never married. No Benfield family members continued on with Derwentwater House. Emma Benfield moved to stay with other family members. (Thorby Walker and William De Villiers) Not listed 1.1.1874
Cowper House,
Old Brompton
(West London)
Brooke House was probably the earliest
Hackney (as
distinct from Hoxton)
house I have listed. [See areas included in
Hackney parish]
Brooke House, Upper Clapton
(Hackney,
East London).
an elite
house
This is a list of Monros in Munk. Those I believe to have been
proprietors
of Brook House are marked with an asterisk *
Sutherland's Houses (West and Central London)
I conclude from the following that Sutherlands first had an
interest in
Fisher House (a mixed-sex house
in Islington,
run by a woman) and
Blacklands House (a mixed-sex house in
Chelsea,
also run by a woman). In the 1830s it was decided to separate
the sexes in
different houses. Men went to Blacklands and women to
Otto House,
in
Fulham.
Fisher House, Islington
Mary Lamb
was a patient
in an Islington house following her murder of her mother in
1796. As a
patient still resident in 1829/1830 was admitted in 1797,
Fisher House's
history goes back to the period of Mary's admission, and I
think this is
the same house. The
charge for Mary was about one
guinea a week -
without any medical fees - for a room and nurse to herself.
Blacklands House,
Chelsea
Otto House, "North End",
Fulham
William Stilwell of
Ealing, died 1857
James Stilwell died 1839 and Ann Stilwell born about 1773 were probably "Mr and Mrs Stilwell" who ran Moor Croft together with James (junior). Mrs Stilwell became a patient. James Stillwell junior born Stoke near Guildford about April 1798, died 1870, would be their son. Arthur Stilwell (surgeon) born Stoke 16.12.1813. Son of James (presumably junior) and Ann. Died 1853. Dr George James Stilwell, born Ewell 1833 died 1867. Son of George and Jane Mrs E S Stilwell Dr Henry Stilwell, born Uxbridge about 1836 John Finnis Stilwell, born Hillingdon about 1847
Moor Croft House, Hillingdon, Middlesex
Western House, St Pancras (Central London)
Althorpe House, Battersea (South London)
Ayres' and Oxley's (West London, moved to
East London by 1844)
Ayre's, Mare Street,
Hackney
London Retreat/House, Mare Street,
Hackney
(East London)
There is an argument that this might have been the same
building as the
house listed in
1815 as "Samuel Fox, London
Lane, Hackney".
[visited
by Wakefield
1815]
If so, it may have been on the corner of London Lane and Mare
Street.
On Greenwood's
1830 map, London Lane faces St
Thomas Square.
(modern map). Notice that, in
1830, Mare
Street becomes Church Street just north of this point.
Elaine Murphy says "Samuel Fox
and his wife
ran... London House in London Lane, from 1813
to 1822 but moved their business to ...
Northumberland
House. If it is the same house, there is a gap
between 1822 and
1831:
1829/1830
Reports: Mr William Oxley, London House,
Hackney
entered last in a half empty book and entered on the printed
list at the
front in ink. One visit minuted:
Dr Alexander Morison is said to have been consulting physician to London House, Southall Park, Earls Court House and Elm Grove Asylum (Scull, MacKenzie and Hervey 1996 p.149, unreferenced) 31.3.1831 "The arrangements of this house are very satisfactory; Divine Service is performed morning and evening to the Females, but neither of the present patients is capable of attending it". S. Perceval, A.M. Campbell, J.R. Hume, E.J. Seymour,The house was licensed for fifteen patients, but only two (both male) were in it: Gorge Pybus McDonald, a single man aged 31 who worked as a clerk and lived with his mother at 13 Great Hermitage Street, St George's East was admitted by his mother (Hannah McDonald) on 4.4.1831. Robert Fry Yeatman, a solicitor from Southwark aged 38, was admitted by his brother, John C. Yeatman, a surgeon from Frome in Somerset, on 7.5.1831. 1841 Census: [South Hackney District] London House [Or London House Private Lunatic Asylum]. William Oxley, aged 62, physician. Born Yorkshire. Ann Oxley, aged 60, born Northumberland. Harriet Lawson, aged 52, born Yorkshire. plus servants and about 29 (female and male) patients. One of the patients appears to be a "Mary Ayer" aged 31, born Middlesex. London Retreat, Hackney on 1844 list Licensed to William Oxley, Surgeon (28 patients) London House, Hackney on 1846 list onwards 30.6.1846: Licensed to William Oxley, Surgeon (29 patients) 30.6.1847: Licensed to William Oxley, Surgeon (27 patients) 1848 Cholera 1.1.1849: 25 patients. 11 male, 14 female. One male and one female found lunatic by inquisition. 1.1.1859 Licensed to: Dr Oxley and Mrs Ayres (18 female patients) 1861 Census: London House (Lunatic Asylum), South Hackney 1868: "London House. Only female patients are received at London house. The license formerly held by Dr Oxley has, since his death, in the early part of last year, been granted to his daughter Mrs Ayre (sic) and the establishment is now entirely under her management, the patients being visited twice a week by a medical man." The entry goes on to complain of the gloomy atmosphere and the use of seclusion and restraint for difficult patients.(22nd Annual Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy 1868. p22 emailed to me by Elaine Murphy)
1.1.1874: Licensed to:
Mrs Ayres (12
female patients)
Mary Bradbury's (West London)
2. Houses open in 1829 closed by 1844
Gloucester House, Camden Town (Central London)
Plaistow, Essex (East London)
Sleaford House, Battersea Fields (South London)
Surrey House, High Street, Battersea (South London)
Hope House, Hammersmith (Middlesex)
1841 Census:
[District St Paul's Hammersmith] Brook House Lunatic
Asylum, Brook Green
Hope House, Brook Green
3. Houses opened between 1831 and 1843
Manor House, Chiswick (Middlesex)
an elite
house
Grove House, Stoke Newington Green (East London)
Dartmouth House, Lewisham (South London)
Lampton House, Hounslow (Middlesex)
4. Smaller Houses (less than ten patients) listed 1829 to
1844, and new
houses listed in 1844 without patient numbers, plus notes on
London houses
opened after 1844
Mary Douglas, Ealing
Warwick House, Fulham Road
Jane Holmes, Winchmore Hill
Turnham Green Terrace, Turnham
Green
Rebecca Law,
Brompton
William Moyes, Lower Tooting
Munster House
Fulham, Kensington
Thirty four chancery lunacy inquisitions: first October 1855, last May 1884 1861]; Fulham Munster House: C.A. Elliott
Effra Hall Brixton, Lambeth
Twickenham House
Sidney House, Hackney Wick
an elite
house
Wyke House, Sion Hll, Brentford
October 1977 Wyke House, now derelict, demolished "despite local efforts to save it and acquire a listed building status" 1995 Isleworth Old photographs of Isleworth and its surrounding district from the collection of Kevin and Mary Brown (paperback, 128 pages); ISBN 075240346X. Images of London Series, Chalford Publishing Company. Contains photographs about 1890 (two), about 1905, about 1920, 1932. 1998 Isleworth: The Second Selection; Old photographs of Isleworth and its surrounding district from the collection of Kevin and Mary Brown (paperback, 128 pages); ISBN 0752415018. Stroud : Tempus, 1998 Contains photographs about 1890 (domestic staff with local policeman etc) and about 1920 (Wyke House standing isolated etc) January 2005 email from Therese Caudell: "My Granny, born Minnie Elizabeth Field Bloomfield in 1870, was a nurse at Wyke House. I seem to remember my mother telling me she was Head Nurse at aged 19. I have a photo of the matron and staff taken at a fancy dress ball there about 1890. I believe my grandparents met there when my grandfather did some work at the hospital, they are both in the photo. Granny used to speak about the King's chair, I think it was used by George 3rd, but with the passing of time I cannot be 100% sure my memory is correct. Others have mentioned hearing of this chair to me but did not know what had happened to it. Matron is seated in it in the photo. Mary Brown (West Middlesex Family History Society) has produced other photos of Wyke House staff in her book on the area. I was told that in spite of many efforts to save the building it was demolished, workmen engaged in burning records and documents refused to let local historians take them. I do remember her speaking about a Dr Willett and one patient was Mrs Davenport, a widow of I think a judge and of the china manufacturing family."
Harefield Park, Uxbridge
17 Pembroke Square,
Kensington
Oak Tree Cottage, Harrow
Pope's - Hanwell
1829/1830
Reports: Licensed in 1829 to "Executers of Ann
Pope". Six
(female) patients are listed. The earliest admmisssion date is
1804
(but the house is not on the
7.6.1815 List). Licensed in 1830 to Mr Jonas Hall
Pope. The
house was generally in excellent order. Most patients were not
capable
of attending divine service, but a Mrs Hammond as in the habit
of reading a
religious book to herself.
Elm Grove House, Hanwell
Family information about the
Wood and the
Ellis families has been provided by Debra Jahn, who
is researching her family connection to Susan Wood. Debra has
provided
census data and the copy of William Ellis's will that gives
the full name
of
"Mrs Ellis". Further information about the Ellis
family has been
provided by Geoffrey Castle, whose mother was a direct
descendent of Sir
Charles and Lady Mildred Ellis. Information about Mildred
Ellis's brother
and sister-in-law comes from
Hervey,
N.B.
1987 and draws on his research with Alexander
Morison's diaries
Southall Park
The Shrubbery, Southall
Private residence of Dr and Mrs Steward, where they sometimes had patients. A license would only be required if more than one patient was staying. Dr Steward was at Southall Shrubbery in 1847, with no patients listed. The house does not appear in 1849 or 1859. 1867 Comments: "This is the private residence of Dr Steward who also holds the license and acts as Medical Superintendent for Southall Park. The license is for 4 female patients, but only 1 has resided there in the past year" 1.1.1874: Licensed to Dr J.B. and Mrs Steward with 4 female patients. 1881 Census: The Shrubbery, North Road, Norwood. Harriet I. Rosser, unmarried female, aged 55, born Madras, East Indies Proprietor Of Private Asylum and her companion Jane H. Stenhouse, aged 53 born Scotland, a Governess with two Gentlewoman patients, aged 33, and servants. [A Miss Rosser was joint licensee of Hendon House in 1874)
Vine Cottage, Norwood Green, Southall
South Lodge Southall "It is only licensed to receive 2 ladies, who are sisters, and for whom everything appears to be done that each respectively requires. One of them is able to make frequent visits to public places of amusement, and both had a trip to Cornwall during the past year" (1867 Comments)
Martha Mugnall's, Hanwell
Lawn House, Hanwell
"From 1845 until 1866, he used his own residence, Lawn House, Hanwell, as a small, select asylum for up to six ladies and, in 1848, he is recorded as being one of the co-licensees of Wood End Grove, Hayes, Hayes, Middlesex. His brother, Dr William Conolly, was proprietor of Castleton House, Cheltenham, from 1835 to 1849, before moving to Hayes Park licensed house, Middlesex. When he, in turn, retired in 1852, his son-in-law, Charles Fitzgerald, continued the work, but ran into financial difficulties in 1859, whereupon Conolly and his son, E.T. Conolly, took over the licence until 1861."1852 Census: John Conolly, head of household. Edward Tennyson Conolly, aged 28, single, "law student Inner Temple"; Sophia Jane Conolly, aged 24; Anne Caroline Conolly, aged 21. Two visitors, four patients and supporting staff of butler, house maid, kitchen maid and three attendants. 1852 Sophia Jane married Thomas Harrington Tuke 1859 Licensed to Dr J. Conolly with four female patients 1863 Conolly sharing Harrington Tuke's consulting rooms at 37 (57?) Albermarle Street Conolly's A study of Hamlet and Charles Reade's novel Hard Cash in which "Dr Wycherley's" London asylum was run on the "non-restraint system". (Chapter 36). Dr Wycherley has been identified with Conolly but it should be noticed that Conolly specialised in women patients (not mixed sex as in the story). 1866: Lease on Lawn House transferred to Anne Caroline Anne Caroline married Henry Maudsley 3.5.1866 Conolly died at the Lawn Henry Maudsley proprietor. Also taking over from Conolly as visiting physician to Moorcroft House and Wood End 1870: Dr H. Maudsley 1.1.1874: licensed to Dr H. Maudsley with 8 female patients. By 1876 the licence had been transferred to Emma Dixon who had previously been matron at Otto House 1881 Census The Lawn, Hanwell, Middlesex. Emma Dixon, Head, unmarried, aged 66, born Portsmouth, Hampshire. "Proprietor Private Asylum For Ladies" ; Louisa F. K. Dixon, niece, unmarried, aged 18, born Ramsgate, Kent. Jemima Cooper, Companion, unmarried, aged 27, born Great Munden, Hertfordshire. Eight boarders. A cook. Four domestic servants. Five attendants on ladies.
Wood End Grove, Hayes, Middlesex
Hayes Park
1850 Report p.395 New
licence granted
to
Dr William Conolly at Hayes
Park for
10 male patients and 10 female patients.
Other houses
1867:
Upper Mall
House
[Mall House, Hammersmith , Kensington
1861]
"The license for Upper Mall House was held by Mrs Gale and her
daughter Mrs Cotes and is for 8 female patientsof harmless
nature. Mrs Gale
has recently died"; See
map of London Corinthian Sailing
Club
Hendon House:
British History Online:
There was a private lunatic asylum for ladies run by Miss
Dence at Hendon
House, Brent Street, in 1861. Dr Henry Hicks had an asylum at
Grove House
in the Burroughs from 1879 to 1899
(1881 he is at Heriot House, which is just a family
home). The
new Hendon isolation hospital in
Goldsmith Avenue... by 1970... had become a geriatric
hospital. Its grounds
contained the Northgate clinic, opened in 1968 by the North
West
Metropolitan regional hospital board for the treatment of 25
psychopaths.
51 Priory Road, Kilburn "This house is the residence of
Mr Moseley, who only receives 2 female patients. The ladies
who reside with
him are sisters";
Great House Leyton
Halliford House
3.9 CLAIMS FOR THE COMMISSION'S EFFECTIVENESS The commission's evaluation The Metropolitan Commission made great claims for itself. In 1841 Ashley told the House of Commons that they:
"had, he would venture to say, brought the asylums into a most complete state of order", whereas,
"the provincial asylums had no visitation whatsoever that was worthy of the name".
"trusted the country visitations were not altogether and universally mockeries" and Ashley
"briefly explained, that there were exceptions" (Hansard 21.9.1841 cols 698-9).
"No one", Ashley said in 1842, "could be properly acquainted with the defects of the provincial system but one who had seen the working of the metropolitan system". (Hansard 17.3.1842 col.806). The commission's effectiveness was qualified by the objectives of the Acts, however. Ashley prefaced his 1841 claim by saying that the commissioners:
"had done all that could be reasonably expected of them ... the Act under which they derived their powers was not an Act directing the methods to be employed in the cure of patients ... it was an Act for the purpose of controlling those enormous abuses which, from time to time, had been laid before Committees of that House - abuses under which persons were very easily confined ... but which rendered it almost impossible for them to obtain their liberty. Such was the state of the law when the present Act was introduced." (Hansard 21.9.1841 col.697) This last point was misleading. The 1774 Select Committee of the House of Commons on Madhouses had been the last one centrally concerned about wrongful detention. The 1827 Select Committee on Pauper Lunatics was principally about allegations of ill-treatment. 3.9.2 Bethnal Green as evidence of the Commission's effectiveness The commission claimed, in fact, to have transformed the White House, the asylum criticised in 1827:
The statement that the Houses at Bethnal Green were "amongst the worst" before the Metropolitan Commission was founded, does not square with the evidence. In 1827 Thomas Warburton was indignant that his house had been singled out, he admitted some of the defects alleged, but:
Dr Alexander Frampton (Physician Commissioner 1804-1805, 1812, 1820 and 1826) attended the Select Committee at Warburton's request. He considered the house "excellently regulated ... a very good house." The absence of glass in the windows was "usual" in institutions of this kind (1827 SCHC p.134 and passages cited Jones, K. 1972 p.105). In as far as the evidence of Warburton and Frampton is taken as endorsing the relative superiority of Warburton's pauper houses over other London pauper houses, I see no reason to disagree with Robert Gordon, who told the House of Commons that he:
Whatever the relative merits of Warburton's vis-a-vis other houses, however, extensive alterations in it were undoubtedly made after 1827. Ashley claimed that this transformation showed "the beneficial effects of continued visitation".He predicted that without such "constant vigilance"..."these places of confinement ... would again become dens of iniquity and oppression".He recalled that the state of the White House had been so bad that a Commission of Inquiry had been instituted:
"when scenes of the most cruel and disgusting nature were revealed, which made one shudder at the very recital of them. He remembered well the sounds that assailed his ear, and the sights that shocked his eye, when visiting that abode of the most wretched." But in 1844 it was
"a most consolatory picture of what might be done by vigilant inspection." (Hansard 23.7.1844 col. 1270)
London houses improving
The commission reported favourably on the general condition of
London
houses every year, and claimed most of the credit. In 1841:
Their "constant and vigilant supervision" had brought about
"gradual but
striking and salutary change". Offenses against "the letter or
the spirit"
of the Madhouse Act
Colonel Sykes outlines the commission's functions
Addressing the
Statistical Society of London in
June
1840,
commissioner Sykes explained the commission's constitution,
power and mode
of working
He stressed the commission's meticulous, routine observance of
the law's
provisions:-
He outlined the commissioners' powers of release, and to visit
at night,
how they minuted the results of each visit, and inspected
"narrowly" the
medical journal. He listed the offenses rendering a proprietor
subject to
the penalty of a misdemeanour.
Paupers could be confined with fewer forms and restrictions:
Sykes and Ashley describe the county visitors
In 1840 Sykes explained that the Madhouses Act applied to "all
of England".
"Beyond the jurisdiction of the commission": JPs in Quarter
Sessions
supplied the places of the commissioners, the Clerk of the
Peace that of
the London Clerk, and the expenses fell on the County rate
instead of the
Treasury. Finally he pointed out that County Clerks were
supposed to send
Visitors names to the Commission and a complete annual
transcript of
visiting minutes. (Sykes 1840 pp 144-147)
In 1844 Ashley alleged that the County Visitors "shamefully
neglected"
visiting and that this was shown by the
1844
Report:
In 1845 Ashley cited the case of
Green Hill, a house in Derby
(borough)
that the commissioners first visited on 21.10.1842 when they
discovered,
and released, a lady confined without certificates since May:
There follows in Ashley's speech a passage printed as if from
the 1844
Report, but not actually there, and, slightly later, a quote
from "the
Report" which is also not in the 1844 Report. This material, I
assume,
comes from a later (unpublished) report or from Ashley's
notes.
The following background information is in the Report, but was
not quoted
in the speech. The material in the speech, not in the Report,
follows that.
The paupers in Green Hill "having been nearly all sent thither
by the
Magistrates of the County". The Commission wrote on
10.11.1842 to the
Chairman of the Quarter Sessions at Derby and to the
Magistrates of the
Borough (who licensed the house) - bringing the state of the
paupers to
their notice. They received an immediate answer (content not
stated) from
the Borough JPs.
Their letter to the Chair of Derby Quarter
sessions was
acknowledged in a letter received 1.3.1843 - but no further
communication
followed.
[1844 Report of
the
Metropolitan Commissioners p.57]
The passages from Ashley's speech not in the Report are:
"Now here", Ashley commented "is an excellent sample - though
there are
exceptions I admit - of the mode and measure of provincial
visitation by
the ... magistracy". He continued:
But Derby was neither an
"excellent
sample", as Ashley said,
nor was it a
"fair
sample"
in the sense that Robert Gordon
spoke of another
house
in 1828. Gordon had used one of the best
London pauper houses in his efforts to show how bad they all
were. Ashley
had a different technique. He frequently presented extreme
cases from the
1844 Report as representative of the usual state of affairs.
This is what
he did with Derby. As a
sample of County visiting Derby
was one of
the
Report's extreme cases.
The way that the report represented the general County
Visiting was by
citing five cases of deficient visiting and then saying that:
Derby is not one of the five deficient cases mentioned on page
68 and
others could, no doubt have been cited, but the overall
impression from the
Report is that County visiting was regularly carried out in
most areas.
Derby JPs had particular problems not mentioned by Ashley or
the 1844
Report. In November 1841 their clerk was unable to make a
return of the
lunatics in Green Hill:
The Derby Visitors may, or they may not, have been as
deficient as the
Report and Ashley generally indicate. There some items of
information,
rather hidden in the Report, that could mean they took
decisive action. We
are told that they responded promptly to the Commission's
letter of
10.11.1842 and that the conditions were improved on the second
visit. They
then deteriorated and the Commission, it appears from Ashley's
speech,
wrote another letter. The Report tells us, in separate
places, that:
The general criticism that the 1844 report made of the County
Visitors was
not they did not visit but that their reports were not as full
systematic
as the Commission would have liked.
"In a great proportion of the cases" the minutes were just
brief
statements that the house was satisfactory. The Report said
this might be
"less objectionable" with respect to private asylums catering
for the
"wealthier classes", but in houses taking poorer patients and
paupers the
minute should note areas where there was room for improvement.
[1844 Report of
the
Metropolitan Commissioners pp 69-70]
3.10
Reasons for effectiveness
Although the Commission, and Ashley in particular, exaggerated
(grossly in
my opinion) both its own effectiveness and the County JPs
defects, I think
we can accept that the London Commission was more efficient,
and ask why?
The Counties had the same statutory powers. Were County JPs
fired with
less enthusiasm? If so one wonders what made the difference
when so many
of the Commission's unpaid commissioners were themselves
County JPs.
The London commission was described by Sykes as the equivalent
of County
Quarter Sessions, Visitors and Clerks. Somerset in 1842,
however, said
that they were, in fact, two "separate and distinct" systems.
The
commission had seven professional commissioners and
The remedy for County deficiencies should not be "left to ...
gratuitous
exertions". He cast no reflection on the County visitors
The commission was professional with honorary (unpaid)
elements and paid
for from national funds. County regulation was honorary with
professional
elements,
and any expense in excess of licence receipts was a charge on
the local
rates. Neither the scale nor the structure of County
provisions allowed the
development of professional 'commissioners' on the model of
London.
3.10.2
Excess costs
All authorities charged licence fees on the same scale
(3S.4.1). Salaries
were the main expense, so the ratio of licence income to
expenses gives a
rough index of the extent to which each used paid labour:-
The commission's cost exceeded licence income by 120% in
1828/1829; rising
to 216% in 1840/1841. In 1828/1829 it collected just over
£1,000 from
licences, but spent £2,246 (£1,154 on
commissioners' fees). In
1840/1841 it only collected £889, but spent £2,812
(£1,942 on commissioners' fees). The Treasury,
therefore, paid
£1,200 in 1828/1829 to £1,923 in 1840/1841 a year
on the
commission.
This excess of costs over fees had not always been the case in
London. A
most important consequence of the
1828 Madhouse
Act
was that licence fees
ceased to be a source of profit in London (and several
Counties). Before
1828, Surrey seems to have been the only authority that spent
more than it
collected. Between 1774 and 1828, the Physician Commission
accumulated a
credit balance of £854.9/11d and Wiltshire one of
£1,113.17/-.
(Return
3.4.1828)
Between 1838 and 1841, at least twenty Counties paid all costs
from
licence income. Sixteen of these made a profit ranging from a
few shillings
to twenty, thirty, forty and even (on one occasion) fifty
pounds a year.
Five of the Counties accounts were too ambiguous for
me to determine what they did, and the remaining fifteen made
some annual
contribution to costs from rates, although this seldom exceed
the cost of
the cheapest licence (£15).
The main reason for this difference between London and the
Counties appears
to have been the lower cost of County visits. After 1832,
London visits
were probably made by three professional commissioners
(3.6.2);
and four series a year had to be made
(3S.4.2.A). The
Acts suggest County
visits were to be made by unpaid visitors accompanied by one
professional, and this appears to have bee the usual practice
(See
3.10.3 for the
example of
Hampshire). Form 1832 only three series of visits were
required
(3S.4.2.B).
If the London commissioners' fees for 1840/1841 had been
reduced by two-
thirds, and then by a quarter (to bring them in line with the
County costs
after 1832, outlined above), their total costs would only have
exceeded
licence income by £466, or 52%.
The commissioners' fees in 1841/1842 were 218% of licence
income. This
reduced by two-thirds plus a quarter is 54%, and we can argue
that that
should have been the proportional amount of licence fees spent
on medical
fees by the Counties. In fact, half the Counties spent between
33% and 66%.
More spent less than 33% than spent over 66%, and only three
showed medical
fees on their accounts in excess of licence income.
3.10.3
Hampshire and the commission compared
General reference:
Return
3.2.1842
pp 12-15.
Hampshire
County Quarter Sessions licensed four houses with a total of
232
lunatics (1843/1844), or about 13% of the number in London
houses.
The four houses were:
Grove
Place, near Southampton
Hilsea;
near Portsmouth
Carisbrook
on the Isle of Wight (27 pauper patients
in
1844).
Whilst its two largest houses
received almost unqualified censure from the
Commissioners in 1844, this was not because of irregular
visiting. Lainston had six visits in 1837; six again in
1838; ten in
1839; eight in 1840; ten in 1841. Visiting Commissioners in
1843 found it
had been visited "several times" by the local JPs who "in the
Visitors
Book, condemned in unqualified terms the managements of that
large asylum"
[1844 Report of
the
Metropolitan Commissioners pp 58 + 66]
Why did Quarter Sessions not
revoke or refuse to renew
the licence? The house contained 84
pauper lunatics and Hampshire had no County Asylum. If the
house had been
closed Quarter Sessions would have had to find other
accommodation for the
paupers - many of whom would have been sent there in the first
place
because they were unmanageable in workhouses.
Lainston and Grove Place were nine miles apart, the others
were up to
twenty miles apart. As the crow flies, that is - or perhaps
the seagull.
Portsmouth harbour, Southampton Water and the Solent
intervened between
Grove Place, Hilsea and Carisbrook. The London to Southampton
Railway,
founded in 1836, linked Winchester and Southampton, but this
was, I think,
the only railway link, and the houses (Lainston and Grove
Place?) were all
several miles from a station.
In these circumstances, Quarter Sessions appointed four
separate groups of
visitors - one group for each house. Each consisted of JPs
and Drs who
lived near one of the houses. Thirteen JPs and Dr Phillips, a
physician,
were the visitors to Lainston. Thirty JPs of the Southampton
Division and
W.S.M. Oakes M.D. were visitors to Grove Place. Three JPs and
Mr George
Martell, a
surgeon, were visitors to Hilsea. Eighteen JPs and Mr Keele,
a physician,
[why "Mr"?] were visitors to Carisbrook.
So, including Quarter Sessions, there were five groups
concerned in
controlling four houses. The link between them was Thomas
Woodham, Deputy
Clerk of the Peace and Visitors Clerk. His office was at
Winchester, the
county town. He would have attended Winchester Quarter
Sessions to lay
before the Licensing JPs: licence applications, any plans
submitted, the
Licences he had prepared and copies of the Visitors minutes
(see
law).
The Visitors "meetings" were their visits. Woodham attended
Lainston
visitors first visit on 10.12.1840 to take his oath.
Generally, however,
he and the visiting groups appear to have communicated by
post. In his
detailed and meticulous accounts £14..13/6d of the total
of
£44..17/2d
charged for his services in 1840/1841 was for letters to
individual
visitors summonsing them to attend visits at the times
appointed by Quarter
sessions
(see
law)
and enclosing a "fair copy" of the order of the Court
making the appointments.
The medical visitors appear to have been paid two guineas plus
expenses for
each visit attended. As a rule they attended every visit
although some
irregularities between visits recorded and sums paid to
visitors may have
been due to the doctor missing a visit (or making it alone).
I would infer from the number of JPs appointed that
individually they were
irregular visitors, so several were required to ensure one or
more
attended.
Although the doctors were the regular visitors, they could not
(unless also
JPs) take part in licensing. Their visiting minutes were laid
before
Quarter sessions by Woodham, but they had no means of ensuring
the minutes
were effectively acted upon, and could play no part in the
development of
an integrated system of control.
The integration and development of the system depended on
Woodham (who took
no part in visiting) and such JPs who had sufficient
enthusiasm to visit
and serve as licensing JPs.
The knowledge of the visitors as limited to one house, and
there was no
occasion for the medical visitors to meet, exchange
experiences, or
evaluate their visiting procedure. Visiting licensed houses
was, in any
case, only a minor part of their professional lives. In
1840/1841, Phillips
made ten visits, Oakes five visits, Keele three visits and
Martell only
two.
The professional part of the London Commission was (by 1841):
the clerk,
his assistant, five medical and two legal commissioners. Six
of the
professional commissioners each spent fifty days a year on the
work
(see table).
Legally the professionals were competent to handle all aspects
of the
commission's work (including licensing) and, in practice, only
had honorary
assistance regularly from the chairman and occasionally from
other
commissioners (see
above). Not
only was the commission predominantly professional, but the
professional
staff were very experienced. Turner and Bright could date
their experience
in the control of madhouses from 1811 and 1820 respectively;
Hume and
Southey from 1828; Procter, Mylne and Dubois from 1832
If the commission was not many times more systematic than
Hampshire it
ought to have been. The Metropolitan system cost 15 times as
much per
patient as the County system cost Hampshire. Over and above
licence
income Hampshire paid an average of 1/3d per year per patient
for its
system. On the same basis, the Metropolitan Commission cost
the Treasury
nearly 19/- a patient in 1841.
3.11
Limitations of effectiveness
The Commission's Reports and Ashley's speeches were partizan
accounts
devoid of any self criticism. We have to look very closely at
the small
print of the evidence to find the limitations to its
effectiveness the
commission perceived. And there was a considerable gap
between the
commission's self-image and how it was perceived by others.
First I will
look at the limitations others perceived (3.11.2), then
(3.11.4)
at the
limitations the Commission saw to its own effectiveness.
© Andrew Roberts 1981-
See ABC
Referencing for general advice.
Study
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known Warburton relatives: Sarah Marsh, Thomas Warburton's niece, lived at 2 York Street, Kingsland with Ann Benfield. In Thomas Warburton's will, an annuity paid to Ann Benfield and Sarah Marsh was to be paid out of the messuages and lands called Exmouth Place, Mare Street, St John Hackney. Have not been able to find out where or when Thomas Warburton was born, or who he married. Thorby Walker believes he had six children, two girls and four boys. The two eldest boys may have died young. One daughter married John Dunstan, and another married Dr William Dansey. Thomas Dunston (died 1830) and Mrs Dunston (died 1816) were Master and Matron in charge of St Luke's Hospital. John Dunston, who married a daughter of Thomas Warburton, was their son. John Abernethy (1764-1831). Surgeon at St Bartholomews Hospital. A daughter married John Warburton.
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