ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to provide an outline of the history of the four institutions which will feature as the main case studies for the remainder of the book. These institutions were all governed by legislation passed during the period we are discussing and it is worth briefly recalling the statutory obligations laid upon them. Before 1845, the acknowledged places of confinement for lunatics were private licensed houses, charitable and subscription hospitals, in individual dwellings or in those County Asylums which were established under enabling legislation of 1808. 1 This early statutory provision was followed by four major periods of reform from 1845 until 1890. The legislation of 1845 provided a new framework for the provision and administration of institutions designed to confine the lunatic. The two acts passed in that year established a central body responsible for the regulation of asylums and licensed houses in the shape of the Lunacy Commission. Its first and highly influential chairman was Lord Shaftesbury who had played a prominent part in the passage of these reforms. The Commissioners were responsible for the inspection of all such institutions. The legislation also required every county and borough authority to provide asylums for the reception of pauper lunatics. These institutions were to be governed by Boards of Visitors composed of Magistrates appointed by the Quarter Sessions which assembled each quarter to administer justice and oversee local governance. The legislation also provided for the certification and committal of individuals to the pauper lunatic asylum. An individual was first certified as insane by a licensed medical doctor and the order to commit such a person to the asylum was issued by a Magistrate or alternatively by an officiating clergyman together with a Relieving Officer of the Poor Law for the Union in which the person resided. 2 These features of Poor Law administration form an important part of our later discussion of the asylum, the Relieving Officer being the senior official in the service of the Guardians who were responsible for the implementation of the Poor Law in each district.
