Asylum record

I found the article on lunacy in your July issue veryy interestingg as my friends and I – as the EurekA Partnership – are transcribing asylum records, among other things. The 1828 Madhouses Act of Parliament made it mandatory for asylums to send admission and dismission certificates to either the Clerk to the Metropolitan Commissions on Lunacy or, if the asylum was outside London, to the county clerk. We have found these documents with the quarter sessions records for the two Oxfordshire asylums at Hook Norton and Witney. They cover a very large area taking patients from Bristol, London, Hampshire and Warwickshire to name but a few. Though there are no certificates for the Great Foster House asylum in Egham, the visitors book, which begins in 1774, is also among the quarter sessions and gives quite full information on its inmates before the county asylum was built – please see our list of publications. Both sets of records name other asylums that patients have stayed in, which may help people to find an asylum where their ancestor may have been sent, so a check in the relevant quarter sessions holdings may be worthwhile. Angela Hillier, by email Editor replies: Many thanks for that information Angela – it’s useful to know that if you can’t find details of an ancestor who was in a lunatic asylum, a search through the quarter sessions records may reap rewards. You can find out more about Angela’s project on her website at eurekapartnership.com.