Madhouse Networks in Devon and Somerset (1800 - 1850)

 Now that I am done with the PhD, I can finally share some of the discoveries I made whilst completing it! One of the very first things I did, back when I started was to map out the locations of private mental health establishments from 1750 - 1860. (Any info in this blog post can be further explored by reading my thesis which will be available online from 11/4/25 or cited as "Emma Barrett, A Delicate Matter: the private asylums of the South West of England 1770 - 1851, PhD Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2024.")

First, let me briefly explain what a private asylum was! 

So, back in the 1700s, the care of the mentally unwell fell to what was called "The Parish" - think like a local council. This was later changed to unions but still run locally. Hospitals for the mentally unwell as we think of them now just didn't exist because people were only just starting to realise that mental illness was an illness at all!  There was of course the infamous Bethlem in London and other charitable institutions but most likely if you were poor and mentally unwell you were bound for the nearest workhouse. The rich and unwell were predominantly cared for at home. 
In the mid 1700s a new "craze" began, as businessmen, clergy, and doctors too began to realise there was the potential to make money by housing the mentally unwell (and later treating them) in privately run "lunatic asylums" - also known as madhouses. These started out as almost like care homes for the rich mentally unwell, but were soon taking on poorer patients too, paid for by the parish unions.  Before 1770 this was completely ungoverned! No lists of patients, licencing or records had to be kept at all and anybody could set up shop as a madhouse. In 1770, a bill passed into law that any houses such as these had to at least be licenced and had to keep a register of who they housed. This suddenly became a booming business - especially in the south west of England but all over the country too! 

However, madhouses soon picked up a bad reputation! 

Stories became rife of mistreatment, unnecessary detainment and people being forced into asylums in order to steal fortunes. Women, it was told, were especially vulnerable to being locked away by unscrupulous husbands and fathers. Now, this reputation doesn't entirely hold up when these asylums are studied, and my thesis goes further into how this damning reputation was created, however for this post all we need to say is that there was a real mixture of different types of asylums, all with different conditions within (from the very good, to very poor). There was not, however, the abundance of forcibly held sane people that literature and public opinion would have you believe. 

In the south west, there were more private asylums than anywhere else in the country - three times as many at one point! I will attach a map I created for my thesis to demonstrate the sheer numbers here - it's a little hard to read on this scale but at least shows you the numbers and rough locations:

The details are as follows:

What becomes even more interesting than the sheer numbers, is the network of people running them. Of the above, most of the men (and women!) running these asylums were doctors. Unusual for the time. More unusual were the links between them. At least 5 of the above, for example, were run by (at least for a short time) 1 of 2 brothers - the "Duck" brothers. 3 of the others were run by a family named Langworthy and there was a link by marriage between the two families too (James Duck's son married Caroline Langworthy - the daughter of another asylum owner). These families then, had a huge influence over mental health care in the region. Many of them were in (and on occasions ran) the Taunton branch of the local medical society too. Unfortunately, being run by one of these men was a sure-fire sign, however, that the asylum's conditions would be poor as all of the Langworthy asylums and most of the Duck asylums were heavily censured in inspections once those became commonplace in the 1800s.  (for more info on this, see my earlier blog post about Plympton House Asylum HERE )


Additionally, 

For anybody interested, or anybody doing family history, here is also a list of the persons running asylums in the south west of England and which asylums they ran :) 
(I apologise for the wonky columns. No matter what I do, they don't seem to want to play!)

Edward Long Fox                         Physician                          Cleave hill, Brislington

William Finch (2)                          Physician                          Laverstock

Charles Langworthy                   Physician                          Kingsdown

Robert Langworthy                      Physician                          Longwood, Kingsdown

William Finch (1)                          Not Medical                    Laverstock

Ann Hinks                                      Not Medical                    Nailsea

Martha Hinks                                Not Medical                    Nailsea

Justinian Mercer                          Not Medical                    Halstock

Caroline Finch                             Not Medical                    Laverstock

William Gillett                              Not Medical                    Fivehead

Robert Willett                               Not Medical                    Market Lavington

Zachariah Jefferies                      Physic                               Kingsdown

Nehemiah Duck                           Surgeon                            Cleve, Ridgeway

James Rich                                   Surgeon                            Ford House

Richard Langworthy                    Surgeon                            Plympton

john J Mercer                                Surgeon and Apoc         Halstock

William Spicer                             Not Medical                    Broadhayes

William Symes                             Surgeon                            Cranbourne

William E Gillet                             Surgeon and Apoc         Fivehead, Fairwater

James Duck                                  Physician                          Cleve, Fullands, Plympton

Charls Finch                                 Not Medical                    Fisherton (plus others)

Joseph Spry                                  Not Medical                    Bailbrook

Elizabeth Langworthy                 Not Medical                    Kingsdown

Joseph F Spencer                        Surgeon                            Fonthill

William C Finch                          Surgeon                            Fisherton (plus others not in region)

Betsey Mercer                            Not Medical                    Halstock

Alice Mercer                              Not Medical                    Halstock

 

For anybody who is interested, I do have a future post planned which will explain the different job titles the medical professionals had - when it's done I will add a link here :)