Catalogue description Content: Folios 25-26. Report on a visit by A Proctor, on behalf of the Commissioners...

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Details of MH 12/11001/16
Reference: MH 12/11001/16
Description:
Content: Folios 25-26. Report on a visit by A Proctor, on behalf of the Commissioners in Lunacy, made on 3 November 1855 to Southampton Incorporation Workhouse. It notes that there are 8 men and 123 women of unsound mind and that the medical officer is Patrick Mackay. The house contained 311 patients at the time of the visit and Mr Proctor considered it unfit in every respect for the residence of lunatic patients. The Commissioner notes the case of Francis Goodwin, formerly a patient of the lunatic asylum at Nursling [Hampshire] who had been subject to such excessive mechanical restraint that his hands, arms and legs were lacerated. This took place during the temporary absence of the master. Mr Proctor recommends that there should be a paid attendant for the male patients and another for the female. He recommends that George Steele and Caroline Hicks are transferred to the Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum as soon as practicable. George Steele threatens to kill himself and Caroline Hicks is occasionally violent. In a footnote Proctor states that he has learned that Caroline Hicks has been sent, not to the County Asylum, but to a licensed house in Camberwell [London] and that George Steele is still an inmate in the workhouse. Annotated: note to Mr Hawley that the three lunatics mentioned appear now to be non-chargeable. Mr Hawley [W H Toovey Hawley] Inspector, Poor Law Board writes that he concludes the three paupers mentioned are no longer chargeable. The guardians should be asked to consider the appointment of paid attendants. He notes the guardians are planning some extensive alterations to the workhouse which should provide better provision for the lunatic and idiot inmates. A further annotation in another hand states that an extract of the report should be sent to the guardians and they be requested to give consideration to the appointment of paid attendants and also to report on any plans they have for improvement of the lunatic wards. The Board also presumes that the three lunatics are no longer chargeable. Poor Law Union Number 407. Counties: Hampshire.
Date: 1856
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Closure status: Open Document, Open Description

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