#Lunacy commission series#

However, the response was slow and many patients continued to end up in prisons and workhouses. The County Asylums Act of 1808 encouraged justices of the peace to build county lunatic asylums to house any pauper lunatics in their county.

#Lunacy commission series#

Private ‘madhouses’ were licensed by the justices of the peace, and were examined by several series of government commissioners. Wealthier people had to make private arrangements for the care of family members with a mental illness.

They were therefore likely to end up in workhouses, houses of correction or prisons. Before the establishment of lunatic asylums in the mid-19th century, pauper lunatics were dealt with locally under poor law, vagrancy law or criminal law. Until the 19th century the custody of ‘idiots’ and ‘lunatics’, as well as the ownership of their land and property, fell to the Crown. ‘Idiot’ described ‘natural fools from birth’. ‘Lunatic’ was used to describe a person who was ‘sometimes of good and sound memory and understanding and sometimes not’. These terms reflect the attitudes and language of the historical period in which the records were created and some would now be considered derogatory or offensive. In this guide we have used the terms used to refer to people with mental health problems that you will find in the records themselves. We also hold some records relating to the administration of the estates of people deemed incapable of managing their own affairs (see section 9). The records held by The National Archives relate mainly to the administration of the institutions, though some of these records may include the names of inmates. However, most patient files have been destroyed. Records of lunatic asylums are not held in any one place and often not all their records have survived. Many records of asylums, prisons and houses of correction are kept in local archives and especially those of the patients and inmates. Lunatic asylums were first established in Britain in the mid-19th century. This is a guide to records of lunatic asylums, their inmates and other records relating to mental health, primarily from the 19th century, held at The National Archives. Chancery records: determining lunacy and administering the property of lunatics and idiots

Records of private and county lunatic asylums Records of the Ministry of Health and related organisations (1798-2001) Report by Her Majesty's commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of lunatic asylums in Scotland and the existing law in reference to lunatics and lunatic asylums in that part of the United Kingdom. Proquest LLC Cambridge 2006 Australian/Harvard Citation