Networks of Care: Asylum Children, Typology, and Experience

Taylor, Steven J.

doi:10.1007/978-1-137-60027-1_3

Steven J. Taylor⁴

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood ((PSHC))

327 Accesses

Abstract

Children are profiled in this chapter to identify how asylums operated during the period. It looks at the ‘types’ of youngsters kept in each institution and attempts to place them in the broader socio-economic atmosphere of the time. This chapter looks at experiences through each asylum while considering the broader ethos of management and operation. Doing so reveals distinct fractures in the function of asylums and demonstrates typological differences between urban and rural areas.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

eBook: USD 19.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 27.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
B. Forsythe, J. Melling, and R. Adair, ‘The New Poor Law and the County Pauper Lunatic Asylum—The Devon Experience 1834–1884,’ Social History of Medicine, 9/3 (1996), pp. 335–355; Adair, Melling, and Forsythe, ‘Migration, Family Structure and Pauper Lunacy in Victorian England: Admissions to the Devon County Pauper Lunatic Asylum, 1845–1900,’ Continuity and Change, 12/3 (1997), pp. 373–401; Melling, Adair, and Forsythe, ‘“A Proper Lunatic for Two Years”: Pauper Lunatic Children in Victorian and Edwardian England. Child Admissions to the Devon County Asylum, 1845–1914,’ Journal of Social History, 31/2 (1997), pp. 371–405; Adair, Forsythe, and Melling, ‘A Danger to the Public? Disposing of Pauper Lunatics in Late-Victorian and Edwardian England: Plympton St Mary Union and the Devon County Asylum, 1867–1914,’ Medical History, 42/1 (1998), pp. 1–25.
2.
C. Cox, H. Marland, and S. York, ‘Emaciated, Exhausted and Excited: The Bodies and Minds of the Irish in Late Nineteenth-Century Lancashire Asylums,’ Journal of Social History, 46/2, pp. 500–524; Cox, Marland, and York, ‘Itineraries and Experiences of Insanity: Irish Migration and the Management of Mental Illness in Nineteenth-Century Lancashire,’ in Cox and Marland (eds.), Migration, Health and Ethnicity in the Modern World (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), pp. 36–60.
3.
R. Ellis, ‘The Asylum, the Poor Law and the Growth of County Asylums in Nineteenth-Century Yorkshire,’ Northern History, 45/2 (2008), pp. 279–293; Ellis, ‘The Asylum, the Poor Law, and a Reassessment of the Four-Shilling Grant: Admissions to the County Asylums of Yorkshire in the Nineteenth Century,’ Social History of Medicine, 19/1 (2006), pp. 55–71; C. Smith, ‘Parsimony, Power, and Prescriptive Legislation: The Politics of Pauper Lunacy in Northamptonshire, 1845–1876,’ Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 81/2 (2007), pp. 359–385; ‘Family, Community and the Victorian Asylum: A Case Study of the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum and its Pauper Lunatics,’ Family and Community History, 9/2 (2006), pp. 109–124; ‘Living with Insanity: Narratives of Poverty, Pauperism and Sickness in Asylum Records 1840–76,’ in A. Gestrich, E. Hurren, and S. King (eds.), Poverty and Sickness in Modern Europe: Narratives of the Sick Poor, 1780–1938, pp. 117–142; D. Wright, Mental Disability in Victorian England: The Earlswood Asylum, 1847–1901 (Oxford: Clarendon, 2001); Wright, ‘“Childlike in His Innocence”: Lay Attitudes to “Idiots” and “Imbecilies” in Victorian England,’ in A. Digby and D. Wright (eds.), From Idiocy to Mental Deficiency: Historical Perspectives on People with Learning Disabilities (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 118–133; Wright, ‘Getting Out of the Asylum: Understanding the Confinement of the Insane in the Nineteenth Century,’ Social History of Medicine, 10/1 (1997), pp. 137–155; D. Gladstone, ‘The Changing Dynamic of Institutional Care: The Western Counties Idiot Asylum, 1864–1914,’ in D. Wright and A. Digby (eds.), From Idiocy to Mental Deficiency, pp. 134–160.
4.
A. Scull, Museums of Madness: The Social Organisation of Insanity in Nineteenth-Century England (London: Allen Lane, 1979), p. 16.
5.
C. Smith, ‘Parsimony, Power and Local Politics’; E. Hurren, Protesting about Pauperism: Poverty, Politics and Poor Relief in Late-Victorian England, 1870–1900 (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2007).
6.
Ellis, ‘The Asylum, the Poor Law’.
7.
NRO, Annual Report of the Northampton County Lunatic Asylum at Berry Wood, near Northampton for the year 1880 (Northampton: Cordex and Sons, 1881), p. 3.
8.
E. Hurren, Dying for Victorian Medicine: English Anatomy and its Trade in the Dead Poor (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), p. 136.
9.
NRO, Annual Report, 1888, p. 2.
10.
NRO, Memorandum Prepared by the Medical Superintendent for the Committee of Visitors, NCLA/1/2/2/1/5.
11.
NRO, Account Book for Nursing Staff and Servants, NCLA/5/2/2/1.
12.
GMCRO, Proceedings of the Lancashire Asylums Board and arrival Reports of County Asylums, A/Pres/Box 647 1894–1912.
13.
GMCRO, Proceedings of the Lancashire Asylums Board and arrival Reports of County Asylums, A/Pres/Box 647, 28 February 1895.
14.
Ibid.
15.
Ibid., 29 August 1895.
16.
Ibid., 25 February 1897.
17.
N.L. Tranter, Population Since the Industrial Revolution: The Case of England and Wales (London: Croom Helm 1973); Eric Lampard, ‘The Urbanizing World,’ in H.J. Dyos and M. Wolff (eds.), The Victorian City: Images and Realities, vol. 1 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1973), pp. 3–58; R.J. Morris, ‘Urbanization,’ in R.J. Morris and R. Rodger (eds.), The Victorian City: A Reader in British Urban History 1820–1914 (London: Longman, 1993), pp. 43–72; E.A. Wrigley, Poverty, Progress, and Population (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); J. Stobart and N. Raven, “Introduction: Industrialisation and Urbanisation in a Regional Context,’ in J. Stobart and N. Raven (eds.), Towns, Regions and Industries: Urban and Industrial Change, 1700–1840 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005).
18.
Wrigley, Poverty, Progress, and Population, p. 90.
19.
R. Wood, The Population of Britain in the Nineteenth Century (London: Macmillan, 1992), p. 25
20.
P. Clark, ‘Introduction,’ in J. Stobart and P. Lane (eds.), Urban and Industrial Change in the Midlands 1700–1840 (Leicester: Centre for Urban History, 2000).
21.
J. Langton, ‘Town Growth and Urbanisation in the Midlands from the 1660s to 1841,’ in Stobart and Lane (eds.), Urban and Industrial Change in the Midlands 1700–1840 (Leicester: Centre for Urban History, 2000).
22.
Roger Scola, Feeding the Victorian City: The Food Supply of Manchester, 1770–1870 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992), pp. 17–19.
23.
Claire Townsend, ‘County versus Region? Migrational Connections in the East Midlands, 1700–1830,’ Journal of Historical Geography, 32/2 (2006), pp. 291–312.
24.
Wood, Population of Britain, p. 28.
25.
Scull, Museums of Madness.
26.
Wrigley, Poverty, Progress, and Population, pp. 107–108.
27.
‘Insanity and Agricultural Depression,’ BMJ, 1881, 1/1053, p. 351.
28.
J. Stobart, The First Industrial Region: North-West England, c.1700–60 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), p. 10.
29.
C. Pooley, ‘The Influence of Locality on Migration: A Comparative Study of Britain and Sweden in the Nineteenth Century,’ Local Population Studies, 90/1 (2013), pp. 13–27.
30.
Barrie Trinder, ‘Towns and Industries: The Changing Character of Manufacturing Towns,’ in Stobart and Raven, Towns, Regions and Industries, pp. 102–120, p. 113; Ron Greenall, A History of Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough (Chichester: Phillimore, 2000), pp. 114–116.
31.
Greenall, Northamptonshire, p. 114; Trinder, ‘Towns and industries,’ p. 113.
32.
Northampton Mercury, 22 December 1883, p. 6.
33.
Northampton Mercury, 27 February 1891, p. 2.
34.
Bucks Herald, 8 February 1873, p. 4.
35.
Bucks Herald, 16 November 1872, p. 4.
36.
Bucks Herald, 8 February 1873, p. 4.
37.
Trinder, ‘Towns and Industries,’ p. 114.
38.
Northampton Mercury, 29 December 1899, p. 7.
39.
Northampton Mercury, 29 December 1899, p. 7.
40.
Northampton Mercury, 22 December 1883, p. 6.
41.
M. Hanly, ‘The Economy of Makeshifts and the Role of the Poor Law: A Game of Chance?,’ in S. King and A. Tomkins (eds.), The Poor in England 1700–1850: An Economy 2003), pp. 76–99, p. 77.
42.
Greenall, Northamptonshire, p. 119.
43.
C. Cox et al., ‘Emaciated, Exhausted and Excited’.
44.
GMCRO, Lancashire Asylums Board Processdings, 29 November 1894, A/Pres, pp. 11–12.
45.
W.A.F. Browne, ‘What Asylums Were, Are, and Ought to be,’ in A. Scull (ed.), The Asylum as Utopia: W.A.F Browne and the Mid-Nineteenth Century Consolidation of Psychiatry (London: Routledge, 1991), p. 58; J. Bucknill and D.H. Tuke, A Manual of Psychological Medicine: Containing the History, Nosology, Description, Statistics, Diagnosis, Pathology and Treatment of Insanity (London: John Churchill, 1858).
46.
E.F. Torrey, Schizophrenia and Civilisation (New York: Jason Aronson, 1980); E. Hare, ‘Was Insanity on the Increase?,’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 142/4 (1983), 439–455; E. Hare, ‘Aspects of the Epidemiology of Schizophrenia,’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 149 (1986), pp. 554–561.
47.
Melling, ‘Proper Lunatic’.
48.
LMA, Friern Hospital (Colney Hatch), Male Casebook 6, H12/CH/B/13/006, William Langley, Admission no. 1746.
49.
Melling et al., ‘Proper Lunatic,’ p. 374. In Devon there were 101 children identified that were admitted to the asylum. However, these figures included 23 children that were aged fourteen. In order to make an accurate comparison these 23 children were not included in the calculation.
50.
Wright, Earlswood, chap. 3; Wright, ‘Familial Care of “Idiot” Children in Victorian England,’ in P. Horden and R. Smith, The Locus of Care: Families, Communities, Institutions, and the Provisions of Welfare since Antiquity (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 176–197.
51.
Smith, ‘Living with Insanity’.
52.
V. Skultans, English Madness: Ideas on Insanity, 1580–1890 (London: Routledge, 1979), p. 7.
53.
BLAS, Three Counties Asylum, Male Patient Casebook 2, LF31/2, p. 140.
54.
LRO, Prestiwch Asylum, Male Patient Casebook 6, QAM6/6/6, Brocklehurst.
55.
C.H. Lee, ‘Regional Inequalities in Infant Mortality in Britain, 1861–1971: Patterns and Hypotheses,’ Population Studies, 45/1 (1991), pp. 55–65, p. 63.
56.
H. Newton, ‘Children’s Physic: Medical Perceptions and Treatment of Sick Children in Early Modern England,’ Social History of Medicine, 23/3 (2010), pp. 456–474, p. 461; H. Newton, The Sick Child in Early Modern England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
57.
A. Borsay, Disability and Social Policy in Britain Since 1750 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), p. 74; Also, Digby on the size and evolution of the Retreat, Madness, Morality and Medicine: A Study of the York Retreat, 1796–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
58.
P. Bartlett, The Poor Law of Lunacy: The Administration of Pauper Lunatics in Mid-Nineteenth-Century England (London: Leicester University Press, 1999); P. Bartlett, ‘The Asylum and the Poor Law: The Productive Alliance,’ in J. Melling and B. Forsythe (eds.), Insanity, Institutions and Society, 1800–1914: A Social History of Madness in Comparative Perspective (London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 48–67; D.M. Jones, ‘The Custody and Care of the Mentally Ill in Lancashire—Historical Perspectives and Sources,’ in J.V. Pickstone (ed.), Health, Disease and Medicine in Lancashire 1750–1950 (Manchester: North West Community Newspapers Limited, 1980), pp. 66–86.
59.
J.F. Saunders, Institutionalised Offenders—A Study of the Victorian Institution and its Inmates, with Special Reference to Late Nineteenth Century Warwickshire (University of Warwick: Unpublished PhD Thesis, 1983), pp. 137–154.
60.
NRO, St Crispin Collection, Male Casebook, NCLA/6/2/2/5, Arthur Hillam, Admission no. 2725, p. 229; NRO, St Crispin Collection, Out of County Casebook 1, NCLA/6/2/3/1, Thomas Thomas, Admission no. 2842, p. 250; NRO, St Crispin Collection, Out of County Casebook 1, NCLA/6/2/3/1, Jane Ball, p. 618.
61.
BLA, Three Counties, Female Casebook 9, LF29/9, Elizabeth Mead, Admission no. 5434, p. 194; BLA, Three Counties, Female Casebook 9, LF29/9, Mary Ann Pilgrim, Admission no. 5198, p. 80; BLA, Three Counties, Male Casebook 2, LF31/2, Sidney Woodland, Admission no. 1795, p. 227.
62.
M. Archer, Idiocy and Institutionalisation in Late Victorian Britain. The Warwick County Idiot Asylum 1852 to 1877 (University of Warwick: Unpublished MA Thesis, 2010).
63.
BLA, Three Counties, Male Casebook 7, LF31/7, William Clarvis, Admission no. 4595, p. 199.
64.
BLA, Three Counties, Male Casebook 6, LF31/6, Samuel Parrish, Admission no. 3966, p. 144; BLA, Three Counties, Female Casebook 7, LF29/7, Kate Chapman, Admission no. 8277, p. 175.
65.
BCA, All Saints, Male Casebook 13, MS344/12/13, Thomas Skirrow, Admission no. 8621, pp. 429–430.
66.
NRO, St Crispin Collection, Female Casebook 5, NCLA/6/2/1/5, Caroline Clements, Admission no. 1927, p. 35.
67.
BLA, Three Counties, Male Casebook 5, LF31/5, George Clark, Admission no. 3186.
68.
Melling, ‘Proper Lunatic’.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
Steven J. Taylor

Authors

Steven J. Taylor
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Taylor, S.J. (2017). Networks of Care: Asylum Children, Typology, and Experience. In: Child Insanity in England, 1845-1907. Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-60027-1_3

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-60027-1_3
Published: 11 November 2016
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-60026-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-60027-1
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics