Yorkshire Family History Fair

I was pleased to have been able to help out on the Wakefield and District Family History Society stand at the annual Yorkshire Family History Fair held in the Knavesmire Exhibition Centre at York Racecourse on Saturday 2nd July. This was also an opportunity to promote my book Proper People which sold well confirming my belief that many family historians also have a wider interest in social history.



Richard and David, with Amanda behind the camera.
 

Our stand was ably manned by Richard Bailey, myself and my fiancée Amanda Crossley who did a sterling job at what was her first family history fair.

From the many conversations I had on Saturday it is clear that family historians are beginning to realise that asylum records may provide the answers to some of their brick walls or missing people.

Ancestry have recently published the records of the Commissioners in Lunacy which should show all  patient admissions across all asylums in the UK after January 1846 so one might expect to find a lunatic ancestor within that database. Have a look at my Early Asylum Life blog post Searching for Early Asylum Ancestors for comments on my experience of searching for patients using Ancestry which was actually much better than I had expected.




1841 Census for West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Courtesy Ancestry.

Consider the census which is one of the key resources used by family historians. The 1841 census return for the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum is much as one would expect for any other institution. It records all the staff, some living with their families, and all the patients are named in full.







1851 Census for West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Courtesy Ancestry.

Thereafter, from 1851 to 1901, while staff and their families are named, the patients are only identified by their initials. This might look like an early form of data protection but I suspect it had more to do with reducing the clerical effort. Not all asylums adopted the practice of using just the patients' initials.



In 1911 full names of patients are again recorded leaving a gap of 60 years during which a Yorkshire  ancestor may well have disappeared into the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. More about how to search for your ancestors another day.

Review of "Early Asylum Life" presentation to Wakefield and District FHS

At the beginning of April I was delighted to deliver my presentation "Early Asylum Life" to fellow members of Wakefield and District Family History Society. As usual I managed to over-run my allotted hour but this was with the blessing of the chairman, Chris, and the audience who seemed fascinated to hear what I had found in the records.

May's edition of the society's journal The Wakefield Kinsman carries a review of my presentation which I am reproducing here with the kind permission of Secretary, Ron Pullan.

At our April meeting David Scrimgeour gave an illustrated talk based on his recently published book, Proper People, which is an account of lives of some of the patients admitted to the West Yorkshire Pauper Lunatic Asylum between 1818 and 1869. This institution was built in Wakefield and later became known as Stanley Royd Hospital.

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David’s interest in mental health developed while researching his family history when he learned that his great-grandmother died in an asylum in Scotland in 1919. Living in Wakefield and passing the hospital many times his interest in the subject of mental health grew. He learned that there was a wealth of material on the subject that could be accessed at the West Yorkshire Archives in Wakefield. Using case notes from the hospital’s ledgers David gave examples of the reasons why people were committed, how they were treated and the outcome.

One of several examples given was that of Hannah Brierley who was arrested for receiving stolen goods. She was acquitted on the grounds of insanity because it was discovered that she had previously tried to destroy herself. Hannah was admitted into the asylum but the staff there became convinced that she was in fact sane. She was given a position of trust as a nurse and was released four months later.

Early treatment for mental illness was relatively new and bizarrely included clamping an individual on a chair which was then raised from the ground and caused to spin rapidly, causing dizziness and vomiting to the patient. Electric shock was also used but purging by using various emetics such as rhubarb was thought to help and widely used. William Winter, an inmate, suffered from constipation and it is recorded that upon receiving a warm bath he parted with a stool measuring 4ft 5ins! The length of time a patient spent in the asylum varied but one inmate spent 49 years there.

David showed great sympathy and understanding throughout his talk which was very well received and appreciated.   

To book David to give a talk to your society please email david@scrimgeour.biz.