ABSTRACT
The archives of the Bethlem Royal Hospital have been open to the public for research since May 1967. The written reference to Bethlem as a place of cure is probably the one which is found in the same MS as William Gregory’s ‘Chronicle of London’, dating from about 1450, in which the author writes of, ‘A church of our Lady that is named Bedlam. The reference usually sounds convincing and circumstantial, and has probably been introduced for the purpose of reinforcing some general point with evidence of pertinent historical fact. Bethlem first employed a physician as such from some time in the 1630s, but Dr Hilkiah Crooke was appointed ‘master’ or ‘keeper’ of the hospital, at the King’s instigation, in 1619. Bethlem had such a high regard for medicine as a means of cure at this time, that in 1700 there was set up a fund through which it could be supplied to discharged patients on an out-patient basis.
