"Got up in a garb of the most extraordinary kind”: mental illness and the poor law authorities
[A quick note on the language used in this blog: the word lunatic is an archaic term that would not be appropriate to use nowadays, but it is the language used at the time as a way of describing someone with a serious mental illness.]
In the course of preparing a talk on the Poor Relief system in the North East of Scotland, I decided I would also do some more research on a case I often use as an example of a poor law record: the case of Frank Hamilton.
I use Frank's life as an example because, as you can see from his entry in the Chapel of Garioch parish General Register of the Poor (below), there is quite a lot of detail written about him. It is an understatement to call him a colourful character!
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| AS/AP/chp/1 page 124 |
The description of the case in the entry begins:
This Frank Hamilton has been three times in the Aberdeen Lunatic Asylum within the last eight years – first at the Expense of Ellon. He escaped, sometime after he was taken in Belhevie and was placed in the Asylum at the Expense of Belhelvie.
We can see his entry in the Ellon General Register of the Poor from 1882:
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| Ellon Parochial Board General Register of the Poor, AS/AP/eln/5 page 222 |
And the 1883 entry from Belhelvie :
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| AS/AP/blv/4 Belhelvie Parochial Board General Register of the Poor page 93 |
The Chapel of Garioch entry continues:
He again escaped and after wandering about for two years and 3 months after his second escape, he was for the third time captured at Pitcaple on October 2nd 1885 and placed again in the Asylum on the next day […]
There is a further entry a month later, which records that they haven’t caught him so he’s off the parish's poor roll, but it adds the detail that:
His craze is that having been at the gold diggings in Australia, ships laden with gold are coming to him. Otherwise he is quite wise.
The mention of gold and the fact that he is a repeat escapee always piques my interest. The case raises a really wide range of responses from visitors I've shown it to as well, with some thinking that he might be sane. Sadly the evidence I've gathered below suggests that this is not the case (although at least that means he was being held without some justification).
I have long wanted to pursue research of the other key source relating to Frank - the corresponding records in the Aberdeen Lunatic Asylum collections. The Asylum, later known as Royal Cornhill Hospital, opened in 1800 and provided care for private and pauper patients (pauper patients were later accommodate at the Aberdeen District Asylum at Kingseat). The Asylum's records form part of the NHS Grampian Archives, which are managed by NHS Grampian archivist Fiona Musk and housed at the Special Collections Centre at the University of Aberdeen. Fiona was so helpful in assisting me with researching Frank’s case - it was really fun being the archive user rather than a staff member for once!
This admission entry in the Aslyum's Register of Lunatics was from the parish of Ellon in 1882. It records that he escaped when at work in the ground – his form of mental disorder is described as “Mania”.
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| Courtesy of NHS Grampian Archives GRHB/2/3/10 Asylum Register of Lunatics page 325 |
The corresponding admission paperwork included a certificate from the Sherriff Court warranting that he could be committed to the Asylum after being apprehended at Mill of Waterton for a breach of the peace and malicious mischief. Lunatic cases would generally require a certificate signed by two medical doctors to authorise a patient being committed to an asylum. There is also a petition submitted by the Inspector of the Poor to the Court in order for him to be committed.
This petition records some details about Frank, including his claim that his father is a gold digger at Bendigo Diggings in Australia – this is now a city in Victoria, and had been the site of a gold rush in the 1850s. One of the certifying doctors, Robert John Garden, states “he is subject to various delusions e.g. that he has discovered large quantities of gold. He talks irrelevant[l]y and insistently and he is got up in a garb of the most extraordinary kind.”
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NHS Grampian Archive, Aberdeen Royal Lunatic Asylum: Certificates of Admission, Frank Hamilton 1882, from GRHB 2/5/1 (box 11/12) |
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| Extract from the Peterhead Sentinel and General Advertiser for Buchan District Wednesday, 26 April 1882, from the British Newspaper Archive |
His clothing is also mentioned by the medics in his 1883 admission papers – William Reid MD states that “he is enswathed in a garb of the most extraordinary character. He has got a number of small stones which he says are nuggets of gold”.
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NHS Grampian Archive, Aberdeen Royal Lunatic Asylum: Certificates of Admission, Frank Hamilton 1883, from GRHB 2/5/1 (box 11/12) |
The NHS Grampian Archives also have case notes about the patients held in the Asylum, and these give a bit more information about his escapes. With his first escape, he absconded after being sent from the tool house to Elmhill (an extension to the Asylum opened in the 1860s) by the gardener. According to the documents, “he behaved and worked so well that he was trusted a good deal”. There was a sighting of him the following day in Stonehaven.
His next set of case notes from 1883 give us more details about his unusual clothing and his second escape – this time out of a window.
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| NHS Grampian Archives, Aberdeen Royal Lunatic Asylum: Case book of Admissions GRHB 2/4/19 |
The case notes from his third stay are very short and basically record that he escaped again “owing to some workmen being engaged within the airing courts”.
The last trace of Frank I’ve been able to find is a newspaper report from the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times in Argyll and Bute dated October 1887. Under the heading "Kilcreggan and Cove" the piece states:
A STRANGE WANDERER - Last week a tramp presenting an extraordinary spectacle paid a visit to this district, and was the subject of a considerable amount of talk, wonder, and comment. He appeared to avoid publicity and did not, we believe, solicit charity; [...] The district constable was soon on his track, and found him near Old Kilcreggan. He gave his name as Frank Hamilton, a native of Sidney, formerly a seaman, and aged 60 years of age. His body was covered with wrappings of rags and papers, many layers of thickness, and tightly secured with numerous wires, ropes, and cords, while upon his feet he carried an accumulation of soles of old boots and other material weighing about a quarter of a hunderweight, and which had been gradually pieced together for years. [...] Frank whose uncouth appearance, attracted great curiosity was, with the approval of residenters, transported from the peninsula of Rosneath.
I haven't been able to find any further information about Frank or a death certificate. Sadly, I suspect it may have been difficult to identify him if he died on the road.
Katy Kavanagh
Senior Archivist
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