A while ago I wrote a blog post about Lucy Silversides (1840-1887), born Lucy Rhodes, an ancestor of mine who died within two weeks of her admission to Broadgate Hospital, the East Riding County pauper lunatic asylum in Walkington near Beverley. I found information about Lucy’s stay in the hospital’s case book number 5 held by the East Riding archives. Lucy had been admitted from the Selby Union on 1 March 1887. It is known that in 1881 she was living with her husband John, a labourer, and six children in Dam End, Riccall, Yorkshire

Broadgate opened on 25 October 1871 on part of Broadgate farm and was demolished in 1989. The following OS Yorkshire CCX.II map, dated 1893, shows the location of the asylum to the north east of the village of Walkington, just off the B1230 road.

The hospital case book mentioned that Lucy’s first mental health attack had lasted for eight months, although it did not say where she was when this occurred. Perhaps she had spent some time in the workhouse in Selby before being admitted to Broadgate? The book went onto describe Lucy as being aged 50, married and that she was Church of England. Lucy’s physical condition was described as tall, poorly nourished and dirty. With regards to her mental health, she was of a nervous temperament, dangerous and with her form of insanity described as mania. She was said to be excited and that “the patient talks to herself”. The case book explained that on 4 March “her conversation was silly and voluble”. By 11 March Lucy was “physically in a very bad state and appears to be getting weaker daily…she is nervous and excited and most difficult to manage in short nothing can be done with her…she won’t eat.” It went onto say that “the diet for the most part consists of butter, eggs milk mixture with brandy”. Lucy had diarrhoea. She died on 13 March 1887 at 8.50pm in the presence of nurse Phebe Allan. Her cause of death was Phthisis, now more commonly known as pulmonary tuberculosis. An autopsy was conducted and the record certified by the asylum Medical Superintendent Dr Murdoch Donald Macleod. After her death Lucy was buried in St Mary’s churchyard, Riccall.

When Lucy died in 1887, the medical superintendent of the asylum was Dr Murdoch Donald Macleod. Deaths in County Pauper lunatic asylums were reported in the asylum annual reports and the reports themselves often covered in local newspapers. At the moment the East Riding archives are closed to visitors so I wondered if the local newspapers had information relating to the asylum in 1887. A summary of 16^th annual report for the asylum (for the year 1887) was published in the Beverley Recorder on 4 February 1888. Dr Macleod reported that “during the year 56 patients were admitted, and 51 discharged, while 13 men and 16 women died”. Lucy was one of those women. Dr Macleod held the view that those patients “admitted from this district usually suffer from varieties of insanity which as a rule do not present hopeful prospects of care”. He was reported as saying that:

“In many of the more isolated villages of the Riding there appears to be a considerable amount of hereditary tendency, not so much to actual insanity as to an ill-balanced ill-developed nervous system, producing individuals who are never very bright, and who, when subject to the strain of some exciting cause, develop habits and tendencies which necessitate them being placed under care.”

In Lucy’s case she came from a more populous village and the agricultural depression mentioned later in the report by Dr Macleod was more likely to have been a contributing factor to her physical and mental health than a lack of intelligence. Lucy and her husband John (1822-1888) came from different villages in the Riding.

Turning next to a project I am involved with, the FACHRS (Family and Community Research Society) asylums project, I have been looking at local newspaper reports and found them a useful source particularly when tracing the changes in medical superintendents during the project study period 1861-1901.

Broadgate hospital was built to serve patients from the East Riding of Yorkshire when the North and East Ridings asylum in Clifton, York became over crowded. It opened in 1871 and closed in 1989. In its first 10 years of operation it had the following three medical superintendents:

• Dr Niel Grey Mercer (1841-1877) – Dr Mercer was a Scot who had trained in Edinburgh where he gained MD and LM qualifications. With his appointment in 1871 he was the first medical superintendent for Broadgate. He had previously been the Senior Assistant Medical Officer at the Lancaster County asylum. A report of his sudden death from illness on 1 January 1877, at the age of 36, was reported in the Beverley Guardian of 6 January 1877.
• Dr Richard Greene (1844-1927) – Dr Greene was born in the USA and trained in Edinburgh where he gained LRCP, LM and LRCS qualifications and LSA in London. The Hull Packet of 19 July 1878 reported that he had been offered a more lucrative appointment in Northampton. He may have “poached” some of his staff as some were recorded as moving to Northampton in 27 August 1878 edition of the Yorkshire Post. Dr Greene continued to practise at Northampton for the remainder of his career. He was awarded a pension according to the Northampton Mercury of 25 February 1898.
• Dr Edmund Bancks Whitcombe (1843-1911) – Dr Whitcombe was born in Shropshire and gained his LSA in Birmingham and his MRCS in England. The Hull News of 24 August 1878 reported that he had just started work at Broadgate hospital. Dr Whitcombe’s move to the Birmingham City asylum was reported in the York Herald of 3 January 1882 together with details of his successor Dr Macleod. In 1881, while in Birmingham, Dr Whitcombe advocated changes to the system of care for lunatics and proposed the need to trial a separate hospital system (Birmingham Mail 15 March 1888). He died in post in Birmingham in 1911.

So, it seems that two out of the first three medical superintendents at Broadgate went onto having careers lasting more than 20 years in the asylums they moved to. Perhaps they saw Broadgate as an interim appointment until they found where they wanted to be.

The fourth medical superintendent at Broadgate, Dr Murdoch Donald Macleod, was a Scot born in 1852. He gained his MB and LRCS in Edinburgh. Before his appointment he had been the Assistant Medical Officer at the Cumberland and Westmorland asylum. While at Broadgate he involved himself with the local community; on one occasion he arranged a series of first aid classes for the ladies of Beverley (Beverley and East Riding Recorder 7 May 1887). According to his obituary in the Beverley Independent (7 March 1908) Dr Macleod retired due to ill-health on 30 June 1906 and had subsequently become a physical wreck. He left a widow, three sons and two daughters.

A series of local newspapers proved invaluable in tracing the changes of medical superintendents at Broadgate hospital. I will leave you with one final thought. With the demise of local newspapers in many parts of the country will future family historians be able to carry out this kind of detective work.

Note: the map used in this blog has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the following creative commons license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ and sourced from the NLS maps site https://maps.nls.uk/.

Abbreviations:

LM – Licentiate in Midwifery

LRCP – Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians

LRCS – Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons

LSA – Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries

MB – Bachelor of Medicine

MD – Doctor of Medicine

MRCS – Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons

Bibliography:

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Beverley Guardian. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ : accessed December 2023.

Beverley Independent. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ : accessed December 2023.

Birmingham Mail. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ : accessed December 2023.

Births, marriages and deaths. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed December 2023.

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Broadgate hospital case books. NH/6/64/20, pp 131-132.

Census records. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed December 2023.

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Yorkshire baptisms, marriages and burials. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ : accessed December 2023.

Yorkshire Post. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ : accessed December 2023.