Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T13:38:34.300Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Early History of Psychiatry in Newcastle upon Tyne

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

John Le Gassicke*
Affiliation:
St. George's Hospital, Morpeth, Northumberland

Extract

The development of psychiatry in England in the eighteenth century is particularly interesting because it shows the growth of public concern for the insane which led to the establishment of Public Subscription Hospitals and, later, the County Asylums. The general history of the period has been covered in works by Kathleen Jones, Denis Leigh, and Hunter and Macalpine, and books have also been devoted to the history of individual hospitals founded during those years, such as Bethel Hospital, Norwich (1725), St. Luke's Hospital, London (1751), the Manchester Lunatic Hospital (1766), and the Retreat, York (1792). For affluent patients there were, of course, a number of private madhouses, later officially ‘Licensed Houses', scattered about the country; in 1880 there were 40 of these outside the metropolitan area, and in London and Middlesex 14 are recorded in 1807 and 20 in 1815. The Private Madhouse Act (1774) provided for the provincial houses to be inspected by the local justices. In practice this Act was not very effective (11).

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1972 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Battie, (1758). A Treatise on Madness. Whiston and White, London.Google Scholar
2. Boswell, J. Private Papers of James Bo swell from Malahide Castle: In the Isham Collection. Edited by Scott, G. and Pottle, F. A. Privately printed 1928–34. 10, 66.Google Scholar
3. Ibid, 11, 35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4. Ibid, 10, 119–21.Google Scholar
5. Ibid, 16, 199.Google Scholar
6. Ibid, 16, 6875.Google Scholar
7. Hall, J. (1755). De febra acuta puerperis superveniente. Hamilton and Balfour, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
8. Hall, J. (1767). A narrative of the proceedings relative to the establishment of St Luke's House. Newcastle: White and Saint.Google Scholar
9. Harvey, J. (1794). A sentimental tour through Newcastle. Newcastle: Akenhead.Google Scholar
10. Hunter, R. A., and Macalpine, I. (1963). Three-Hundred Tears of Psychiatry (1536–1860). Oxford, 467.Google Scholar
11. Jones, K. (1955). Lunacy, Law and Conscience. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 3740.Google Scholar
12. Lunatic Hospital Records (1686). City Archives, Newcastle upon Tyne.Google Scholar
13. McKenzie, E. (1827). A descriptive and historical account of the town and county of Newcastle upon Tyne including the Borough of Gateshead. Newcastle: Mackenzie and Dent, 527.Google Scholar
14. Newcastle upon Tyne, Common Council Book, City Archives, 1763, 380.Google Scholar
15. Ibid, (1765). 427–8.Google Scholar
16. Ibid, (1817). 411.Google Scholar
17. Ibid, (1824). 540–55.Google Scholar
18. Pottle, M. S. (1970). The Tale Edition of the Private Papers of James Bowell. Personal Communication.Google Scholar
19. Roberts, N. (1967). Cheadle Royal Hospital. Sherrat, 12.Google Scholar
20. Rules of the Hospital for Lunaticks for the Counties of Northumberland, Newcastle upon Tyne and Durham (1766). Central Library, Newcastle upon Tyne. Local Tracts, Miscellaneous I.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.