The Management of Lunacy in Seventeenth Century England. An Investigation of Quarter-Sessions Records

Fessler, A.

doi:10.1177/003591575604901107

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Primary sources of potential relevance include the overseers' and constables' annual accounts, records of vestry meetings and churchwardens' accounts, quarter session records (as used by Fessler, 1956) and statements from settlement examinations, whether based on the testimony of the examinees themselves or from someone else, as happened in the case of John Needham. Primary sources of potential relevance include the overseers' and constables' annual accounts, records of vestry meetings and churchwardens' accounts, quarter session records (as used by Fessler, 1956) and statements from settlement examinations, whether based on the testimony of the examinees themselves or from someone else, as happened in the case of John Needham.…”

Section: Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It seems unlikely that in over 300 cases not one of the examinees was mentally disturbed and that there was only one spouse afflicted in this way. Nevertheless, some settlement examinations, such as those of Lancashire as used by Fessler (1956) and those of Lindsey, the northern part of Lincolnshire (see LFHS, 2008), as used in the preparation of this paper, do provide some indication that the occasional person examined had some sort of psychological disturbance.…”

Section: Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Papers with concerns that partially overlap the present study are those of Fessler (1956) and Rushton (1988). Fessler deals with cases of lunacy from the records of quarter sessions in the seventeenth century, mainly those of Lancashire.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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English pauper lunatics in the era of the old poor law

Miller

2012

Hist Psychiatry

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Many of those considered to be insane in the past were regarded as paupers and so came within the ambit of the poor law. Little work has yet been published on the ways in which the poor law dealt with the psychologically disturbed during the era of the old poor law (c.1601-1834). The present paper outlines the old poor law which said very little about madness as a specific problem, with the general implication that they were to be dealt with in the same way as others considered to be in need of relief. It appears that this was generally the case with the exception that the insane were sometimes sent to asylums. They were also liable to be treated as vagrants. Some limitations and problems with primary sources are also noted.

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Section: Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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English pauper lunatics in the era of the old poor law

Miller

2012

Hist Psychiatry

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“…Scholars have explored lunacy history through the Poor Law (see Andrews, 1996; Fessler, 1956; Pelling, 1985; Rushton, 1988; Suzuki, 1991, 1992; Thomas, 1980), but Bartlett’s (1999) more concerted shift of approach to care for the insane – beyond psychiatric specialists and institutions towards the history of poverty relief – provide the chief historiographical foundation for the present paper. Bartlett argues that, properly to comprehend lunacy after 1834 in England, one must examine what he terms the ‘Poor Law of Lunacy’.…”

Section: Introduction: Parochial Asylums and A ‘Scottish Poor Law Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

A ‘Scottish Poor Law of Lunacy’? Poor Law, Lunacy Law and Scotland’s parochial asylums

Farquharson

2016

Hist Psychiatry

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Scotland's parochial asylums are unfamiliar institutional spaces. Representing the concrete manifestation of the collision between two spheres of legislation, the Poor Law and the Lunacy Law, six such asylums were constructed in the latter half of the nineteenth century. These sites expressed the enduring mandate of the Scottish Poor Law 1845 over the domain of 'madness'. They were institutions whose very existence was fashioned at the directive of the local arm of the Poor Law, the parochial board, and they constituted a continuing 'Scottish Poor Law of Lunacy'. Their origins and operation significantly subverted the intentions and objectives of the Lunacy Act 1857, the aim of which had been to institute a public district asylum network with nationwide coverage.

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“…Most of the time families were held liable to provide for their own, if necessary with the aid of temporary assistance or a more permanent subsidy from the community. Lunatics were generally treated no differently from other deviants: only a few of the most violent or troublesome cases might find themselves confined-in a specially constructed cell or as part of the heterogeneous population of the local gaol (Fessler 1956).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Madness and Segregative Control: The Rise of the Insane Asylum

Scull

1977

Social Problems

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This paper forms part of an effort to develop an historically informed macro-sociological perspective on the inter-relationships between deviance, control structures, and the wider social systems of which they are a part. Focusing on the treatment of the mad, it seeks to provide a structural explanation of the adoption of the asylum as the primary response to the problems posed by lunatics. Both David Rothman's provocative recent work on the American "discovery of the asylum," and standard sociological and historical accounts which picture the asylum as a response necessitated by increasing urbanization and industrialization are shown to be empirically inadequate. Instead, stress is placed on the intimate ties between the emergence of segregative control mechanisms and the growth of an ever more highly rationalized capitalist social order.In recent years sociologists have rightly come to see deviance and control as essentially symbiotic rather than antagonistic phenomena. Unfortunately much of the work done pursuant to this basic insight has been marred by its narrow, ahistorical and non-structural focus. While the immediate interaction between deviants and control agencies and the etiological significance of deviance-processing have received considerable attention, the historical and structural contexts within which this processing occurs have been largely ignored. We have thus been forced to make do with "an analysis which lacks a sense of history, a sensitivity to institutional patterns, and a range which is wider than a narrow focus upon encounters between deviants and officials" (Rock 1974: 145). Adequate theoretical work in this area clearly demands that we develop an historically informed, macro-sociological perspective on the inter-relationships between deviance, control structures, and the wider social systems of which they are a part. More specifically, we need to clarify the developing relationships between the nature of deviance and its control, and the increasing rationalization of the social order which has been the dominant feature of Western social development since the Middle Ages. IThree key features distinguish deviance and its control in modern society from the shapes such phenomena assume elsewhere: (1) the substantial involvement of the state, and the emergence of a highly rationalized, centrally administered and directed social control apparatus; (2) the treatment of many types of deviance in institutions providing a large measure of segregation from the surrounding community; and (3) the careful differentiation of different sorts of deviance, and the subsequent consignment of each variety to the ministrations of experts-which last development entails, as an important corollary, the emergence of professional and semi-professional "helping occupations." Throughout much of Europe, England, and the United States, all these features of the modern social control apparatus are a comparatively recent development.•Revised version of a paper presented at the 70th Annual Meeting of the American Socio...

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The Management of Lunacy in Seventeenth Century England. An Investigation of Quarter-Sessions Records

Cited by 13 publications

References 1 publication

English pauper lunatics in the era of the old poor law

English pauper lunatics in the era of the old poor law

A ‘Scottish Poor Law of Lunacy’? Poor Law, Lunacy Law and Scotland’s parochial asylums

Madness and Segregative Control: The Rise of the Insane Asylum

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