ABSTRACT
In autumn 1878 the Poor Law Guardians of Axminster in Devon received correspondence from their counterparts at Bodmin concerning the legal maintenance of a clergyman's wife admitted to the Cornwall lunatic asylum. As the wife of a former curate of Membury parish, Anna M. had some claim to settlement in the Axminster Union. The Axminster Board moved quickly into action, seeking to contest settlement even though Anna's sister wrote from Devizes offering to refund the cost of her maintenance in Bodmin, and later Devon, Asylum. 1 Delicate but persistent enquiries were made to discover whether the Ms or the Archdeacon had paid their house rent in Membury, and only after satisfying itself did the Axminster Board decide not to oppose an order of settlement. 2 The sister's promise to reimburse most of the residential costs was duly honoured when Mrs M. entered the Devon Asylum at Exminster in early spring 1879, and the following year the clergyman himself entered the Axminster workhouse as a pauper. 3 The circumstances of Mrs M.’s original diagnosis remain obscure, though it appears that her husband's impecunious condition and her sister's generosity were secondary to the determination of the Poor Law authorities in Devon and Cornwall to clarify her legal status and their obligation for maintenance. 4 Rather different was the case of Reverend Henry T. who was certified as suffering from ‘general paralysis’ by a physician in April 1882, sent to Exminster as a pauper patient, dying within two months. 5
