General

In July 2016 we ran a blog about St. George’s Hospital, Morpeth, the former County Lunatic Asylum, describing life in the Asylum. In this blog we will look at a particular class of record found amongst the records of the Asylum and held by Northumberland Archives – the patients’ case books – and use an example of one case to show how the records can be used to build up a biography of a patient. In the early period of the hospital from its establishment in 1859 information concerning patients can be found in the admission registers. These provide brief details about the patient and their condition – name, address, age, gender, marital status, occupation, union or parish responsible for financing patient’s stay in hospital, diagnosis, supposed cause, comments about physical health further information about the illness and the outcome – whether the patient died, was discharged or removed.

In 1890 a new series of records was introduced – patient’s case books. These records provide much more detailed information about the patient as we will see when considering the case of Sarah Davison (patient number 1645).  Introductory information in the case book reveals that Sarah Davison was admitted to hospital on 9 August 1891. She is described as a 38 year old widow, a field worker living at Mitford Steads Farm, an Anglican and that the supposed cause of illness is ‘failure to affiliate child’. Affiliation or filiation refers to making a maintenance claim for financial support of an illegitimate child through the court system. This reference is supported by an entry in the Morpeth Petty Sessions Register of Summary Jurisdiction of 5 August 1891 – Sarah Davison brought a bastardy application case against Luke Youll that was not upheld. A search of the 1891 census reveals only one person named Luke Youll – a 24 year old farm servant living at Sturton Grange, near Warkworth, Northumberland.  Details in the case book suggest some unpleasantness surrounding the filiation case – Sarah was the recipient of ‘taunts and insults from the relatives of the reputed father’ and the failure to secure the affiliation order are attributed as the cause of Sarah’s illness. It does appear that there is at least the possibility that Luke Youll was the father of the child – he had been providing maintenance payments from the birth of the child eleven months ago.

 

The case was not the only distressing circumstances of Sarah’s life. We learn from the case notes that ‘she had a good deal of trouble about 8 years ago her husband and 3 children dying within 13 months …’. The casebook also reveals that Sarah’s father, Joseph Thornton, suffered from mental illness. . We learn that ‘he is said to have been 3 times in this Asylum being 16 years ago. The cause assigned in this case being the loss of a suit at law’. Further evidence of family history of mental illness is provided – the case book notes that ‘the father’s brother is also described as not quite compos mentis’. This information can be used to undertake further research into the family and we will explore this in a future blog.

The case books provide a physical description of the patient. Sarah is described as ‘A slightly built woman somewhat above the average height. Weight about 110lbs. Hair brown turning grey … teeth remarkably bad. Expression not very intelligent’.  Accompanying the physical description there is a photograph of the patient. Many of the patients appear to be wearing similar clothing suggesting that there may have been a hospital uniform.

 

 

 

A description of Sarah‘s mental condition is also provided –  ‘She is noisy restless & incapable of rational conversation. Does not know where she is or when she came here. With a little management she lies quietly in bed during examination, but is reported noisy, restless, knocking on shutter or spitting during the morning’.  Later on she is diagnosed as suffering from ‘acute mania’, in other words suffering from manic episodes. On 13 August 1891 it was recorded as ‘noisy, restless, incoherent, laughs & cries without apparent reason … resists all attempt at examination, occasionally refuses forcible feeding…’.  By 25 August Sarah appeared to have recovered from this episode – ‘She is now up taking food herself and sewing & is in every way greatly improved’. However, on 14 September 1891 it is recorded that Sarah had suffered relapse – ‘… was very excitable & violent last night till midnight & has been noisy since’. This episodic behaviour continued through Sarah’s confinement to hospital. The case book entry of 3 April 1897 records  ‘No change. She is now quite demented and occasionally abusive’. The apparent change in diagnosis is interesting – dementia was another commonly used diagnosis and in some instances may have been used to describe what we know as schizophrenia.  Able patients were expected to be involved in some work activity – hence the reference to sewing.  Later on, we learn that Sarah is employed in the laundry. By 1895 Sarah has been diagnosed as a chronic patient – one with little chance of full recovery – and had been placed in a refractory ward – solitary confinement.  Sarah Davison died at St. George’s Hospital on 24 August 1903. Cause of death was influenza and cardiac failure. She had remained a patient at the hospital since her admission twelve years previously.

 

 

Northumberland Archives holds patients’ case books for St. George’s Hospital from 1890 until the mid-20^th century. These volumes contain information about hundreds of patients that were treated at the Hospital throughout this period and many of the volumes includes photographs of the patients- for some researchers this may be the only photograph of a family member that survives.  Due to the sensitive nature of the content the volumes are ‘closed’ for 100 years – meaning that there is no public access to records that are less than 100 years old. However, it is sometimes possible to gain access to a ‘closed’ record if you are a descendant of a patient. Staff can provide further details about the process to gain access.

 

 

Craster is small village on the Northumberland Coast, famed for its kippers and with a long heritage of fishing. At first glance it would appear to have little connection to country of Tibet. But on closer inspection of the Harbour, a plaque reveals that there is a connection.

 

By George Robinson, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13678994

 

The Crasters have lived in the area since the 11^th Century and built the Tower that bears their name and it was there that John Craster lived after his birth in 1871. His father, also John, had been born in Ireland and his wife Charlotte in Scotland. As well as John they had five other children Thomas [born 1860]; Amy [1862]; Edmund [1863]; William [1867]; and Walter [1874].

John joined the Northumberland Fusiliers and was appointed 2^nd Lieutenant in 1892, being promoted to Lieutenant in 1899 and finally Captain in 1901. He had joined the Indian Army staff in 1895 and throughout the later part of the 1890s took part in campaigns all along the Northwest Frontier. By 1903 he was an Adjutant, the rank he held when he volunteered for the expedition to Tibet.

The reasons for the trade mission to Tibet, which became effectively an invasion, are obscure. But it is argued that the British Government was concerned about potential Russian influence in the area. Rumours were circulating that the Chinese Government, which ruled Tibet, were intending to allow the province to be taken over by Russia. This would have allowed the Russians a direct overland route to India, the jewel in Britain’s imperial crown. Credence had been lent to these rumours by a Russian exploration mission to Tibet, which had taken the first photographs of Lhasa some four years earlier. Tensions between Britain and Russia were high due to the recent conclusion of what was known as ‘The Great Game’, a struggle between the two powers for control of territories in Central and Southern Asia.

Whatever the reasons, the expedition pushed into the interior, inciting a response. Despite the Tibetan forces best efforts, they were grossly outgunned and their flintlock muskets were no match for Maxim Guns. They had particular trouble firing down onto British Forces as their muskets lacked sufficient wadding, causing the musket ball to simply role out of the weapon when at an angle. Most of the Tibetan Muskets were also Matchlock, using a simple lit taper to ignite the powder, a process that became virtually impossible in the rain. It’s estimated that 2000-3000 Tibetans were killed while the British lost some 200. Of one engagement, Lieutenant Arthur Hadow, commander of the Maxim guns detachment, wrote “I got so sick of the slaughter that I ceased fire, though the general’s order was to make as big a bag as possible. I hope I shall never again have to shoot down men walking away.”

It was during fighting at Tsechen, that John Craster was killed. Tsechen consisted of a village, overlooked by a monastery and fortress. Gurkhas stormed the monastery, defended by some 1200 monks mostly armed with rocks, while Craster’s regiment cleared the town. The fighting was all but done, with a only small band in one house giving any resistance. The British forces suffered only two casualties, one of which was John Craster, who was shot through the head at almost point blank range by a musket.

 

 

After his death it soon became apparent that Captain Craster had no Will and that his military service and travelling meant he had assets scattered throughout the British Empire. The task of administering these assets must have been considerable. However, once it was done his estate proved considerable and it was decided to use some of it to fund the building of Harbour, something that had Captain Craster had been a keen advocate of.

Plans were drawn up by Mr J Watt Sandeman of Newcastle and the legal and parliamentary issues were dealt with by Charles Percy & Son, Solicitors of Alnwick. Formal Application to the Board of Trade for a provisional order was made in Autumn 1904 and this received Parliamentary sanction in 1905. The work excavating the rock on the site of the Harbour began in October of that year, and in July 1906 the first concrete for the piers was put in place. The North Pier was completed in September 1907 with work commencing on the South pier the following December.

 

 

It was originally intended to be a smaller Harbour than was eventually built, but extra money was obtained from the Fishery Board for Scotland and from the Treasury. The excavation was out of solid basalt and much of the work had to be done at low tide, which might account for the delay in completion of the South Pier. The Harbour was finally completed in 1910.

 

Horace and Anna Maria’s eldest child, Anna Maria Charlotte St. Paul [always known to the family as Charlotte], born in 1805, seems to have been the family hypochondriac.  Much of the correspondence from her to various family members discusses her various ailments, and the lack of attention and sympathy she receives from her brother and sisters.  She married into a well-known local family when she wed Reverend Leonard Shafto Orde in 1832.  Leonard was the personal vicar to the Duke of Northumberland, so much time was spent in Alnwick.

Elizabeth Katherine and Frances Agnes St. Paul, the middle daughters, are still mysteries to us.  What has been gleaned so far is that Elizabeth and Frances were deemed ‘imbeciles’.  The girls lived with Charles Maximilian and Anna Maria at Ewart Park, under constant supervision because of their so-called violent behaviour.  Letters from their sister, Anne, suggest that the girls were kept in their own private apartments at both St. Ninians and Ewart, and they were not allowed out of their rooms without attendants. An intriguing letter written in 1849 by Anne to her brother Horace about their sisters, notes that Elizabeth is cunning, prone to fits of rage, used violent language as well as violence itself, and that she was deficient in intellect.  The two sisters were also defrauded by their aunt and uncle.  Anna Maria got the girls to sign folded pieces of paper, and the girls did not know they were signing promissory notes, technically handing over their inheritances and allowances to their aunt and uncle, presumably to pay debts.  Frances died in 1862, Elizabeth not until 1881.

Another sister, Jane Isabella, ran off to Ireland at a young age, where she took up with a Captain, before meeting and marrying Dr. Evans.  He died soon after and Jane married again, to another doctor, Dr. Martin Hamilton Lynch, with whom she eventually moved to France.

Horace’s youngest daughter, Anne, was quite an adventuress for her time.  She showed a wilful streak, and followed her sister Jane to Ireland.  Writing in November 1834, she notes that she fled to Jane because two people had informed her that her brother-in-law, the Reverend Leonard Shafto Orde, had declared she was,

…in a state of derangement, that a strait waistcoat was the fittest thing for me, and that he had been advising my relations at Ewart to have me taken care of as a deranged person.

Her father must have looked upon her favourably though, as she seems to have gone unpunished for her exploits.  Anne died in 1883, having never married.

 

 

Sir Horace’s son, Horace St. Paul, was his heir.  The only legitimate son, born in 1812 at St. Ninian’s, Northumberland, he served as MP for East Worcestershire from 1837-1841, and the collection includes extensive political records relating to his campaigns.  He was a Justice of the Peace, advocated teetotal principles, and served as a Deputy Lieutenant of Northumberland.  A somewhat wholesome image of the man is presented when viewing his papers.  A legal document shatters this.  At the age of 50 years, Sir Horace seduced the seventeen year old Fanny Russell of Highgate, after she was sent to his abode by her mother to curry his favour for the family boarding house.  The affair continued for some years and Fanny bore him two children, both of whom died in infancy.

Sir Horace eventually married Jane Eliza Grey in 1867.  She was the daughter of George Annett Grey, and niece of Josephine Butler.  The couple had only one child, Maria (or Mia) St. Paul, born in 1868.  Jane died in 1881, and Mia and her father lived at Ewart until his death in 1891.  The baronetcy then became extinct, although Mia was still entitled to bear the title of Countess of the Holy Roman Empire.

Mia loved Ewart and Northumberland deeply.  At the age of two she had laid the foundation stone for the new nurseries at Ewart. She was an enthusiastic member of the Berwickshire Naturalist’s Club, and greatly enjoyed travelling the county, and talking to her tenants on the estate.  Her godmother was her great-aunt, Josephine Butler, and these great family ties led to the marriage of Mia to Josephine’s son, George Grey Butler, a Senior Examiner to the Civil Service, in 1893.

 

 

George treated Mia as an equal, discussing estate business with her, as well as art and literature.  The couple had three children, Hetha, Horace and Irene Maria Butler.  Their story unfortunately does not have a happy ending.  A diary kept by George after the birth of Irene in 1901 charts Mia’s short illness and death.  It seems that she suffered from blood poisoning after childbirth, and suffered hallucinations for days before she died.

There is an oral history recording of Hetha Butler held within the archives [ref. T/20].  Recorded in 1972, Hetha reminisces about her idyllic childhood on the Ewart estate.  We also hold many of her watercolour sketches of the estate, which cast light on the privileged childhood the children had.  Irene became Private Secretary to Lord Robert Cecil in 1927, and she seems to have continued in this position until 1942, two years before her death.

Hetha and Irene’s brother, Horace was born in 1898.  He served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery during the First World War, and among the collection we have some of his trench maps for Belgium and France. After the War, he struggled to receive an army pension after suffering from “shell shock” or post-traumatic stress disorder.  He married Dorothy Torlesse and the couple moved to Canada before eventually returning to England.  During the Second World War, he served as a Captain in the 1st Battalion Northumberland Home Guard.  Because of the role he held, we have in the collection files relating to the Home Guard.

Although hardly touched upon so far, the hidden gem of the St. Paul story is Ewart Park itself.  The house is Grade II listed, and though constructed by Count Horace, does have nineteenth century additions.  The grounds and parkland in which Ewart sits were also designed by the Count.  The house was sold by the family in 1937, after the death of George Grey Butler.  His son, Horace, did not have the means for the up-keep of the house, especially after death duties.  It was occupied by the military during the Second World War, and has not been inhabited since.