Biomaterial Database

The New Poor Law and the County Pauper Lunatic Asylum--the Devon experience 1834-1884. 1996

B Forsythe, and J Melling, and R Adair

Department of Social Work and Probation Studies, University of Exeter, UK.

In this article we examine the impact of the policies and practices of the Guardians of the New Poor Law Unions on the management of pauper lunatics in four Devon Poor Law Unions in the critical period 1834-84. The central role of the Victorian Poor Law in provision made for the insane has only recently been recognized in the research literature. Scholars have been much more concerned with the activities of professionalizing physicians and the general project of state management than they have with the micro-politics of the local Poor Law and the magistracy who were responsible for the legal disposition of the insane. In this paper we argue that not only were the Guardians of the Poor Law Unions central in the determination of the lunatic's journey through the institutional systems provided in the mid-nineteenth century, but also that there were significant variations within the Poor Law system which made for contrasting systems of disposal of lunatics as between the Unions themselves. These variations in disposal of lunatics in Devon raise important questions of ideology, policy, and practice which, if repeated elsewhere, point to a need to refine significantly our assumptions regarding the disposal of pauper lunatics in England and Wales in the fifty years following the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007883	Legislation, Medical	Laws and regulations, pertaining to the field of medicine, proposed for enactment or enacted by a legislative body.	Medical Legislation
D009111	Local Government	Smallest political subdivisions within a country at which general governmental functions are carried-out.	City Government,County Government,Government, Local,Metropolitan Government,Municipal Government,Government, City,Government, County,Government, Metropolitan,Government, Municipal
D011203	Poverty	A situation in which the level of living of an individual, family, or group is below the standard of the community. It is often related to a specific income level.	Federal Poverty Level,Federal Poverty Threshold,Indigency,Low-Income Population,Absolute Poverty,Extreme Poverty,Indigents,Low Income Population,Federal Poverty Levels,Indigent,Level, Federal Poverty,Low Income Populations,Low-Income Populations,Population, Low Income,Population, Low-Income,Poverty Level, Federal,Poverty Threshold, Federal,Poverty, Absolute,Poverty, Extreme
D006113	United Kingdom	Country in northwestern Europe including Great Britain and the northern one-sixth of the island of Ireland, located between the North Sea and north Atlantic Ocean. The capital is London.	Great Britain,Isle of Man
D006778	Hospitals, Psychiatric	Special hospitals which provide care to the mentally ill patient.	Mental Hospitals,Hospitals, Mental,Mental Institutions,Psychiatric Hospitals,Hospital, Mental,Hospital, Psychiatric,Institution, Mental,Institutions, Mental,Mental Hospital,Mental Institution,Psychiatric Hospital
D012946	Social Welfare	Organized institutions which provide services to ameliorate conditions of need or social pathology in the community.	Community Services,Services, Community,Community Service,Service, Community,Welfare, Social
D049672	History, 19th Century	Time period from 1801 through 1900 of the common era.	19th Century History,19th Cent. History (Medicine),19th Cent. History of Medicine,19th Cent. Medicine,Historical Events, 19th Century,History of Medicine, 19th Cent.,History, Nineteenth Century,Medical History, 19th Cent.,Medicine, 19th Cent.,19th Cent. Histories (Medicine),19th Century Histories,Cent. Histories, 19th (Medicine),Cent. History, 19th (Medicine),Century Histories, 19th,Century Histories, Nineteenth,Century History, 19th,Century History, Nineteenth,Histories, 19th Cent. (Medicine),Histories, 19th Century,Histories, Nineteenth Century,History, 19th Cent. (Medicine),Nineteenth Century Histories,Nineteenth Century History