Mental Health
The Sick Child by Edvard Munch [1907]
Image ©The Tate Gallery
Creative Commons Licence CC-BY-NV-ND 3.0 [Unported]
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These stories are of women whose lives were affected by struggles with their mental health. See also the stories of women who either took their own lives, or whose lives were impacted by suicide. You can access the stories by clicking on the women's names below.
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Here are some resources that might help with this topic.
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Arnold, Catharine Bedlam: London and its mad Simon & Schuster (2009)
Burtinshaw, Kathryn and Burt, Dr John Lunatics, Imbeciles and Idiots: a history of insanity in nineteenth century Britain and Ireland (2017)
Chambers, Paul Bedlam: London’s Hospital for the Mad (Ian Allen Publishing 2009)
Chater, Kathy My Ancestor was a Lunatic: a guide to sources for family historians Society of Genealogists (2014)
Davis, Mark Voices from the Asylum: West Riding pauper lunatic asylum Amberley Publishing (2013)
Finnane, Mark Insanity and the Insane in Post-famine Ireland Rowman and Littlefield (1981)
Houston, R A Madness and Society in Eighteenth Century Scotland OUP (2000)
Ingram, Allan (ed.) Patterns of Madness in the Eighteenth Century: a reader Liverpool University Press (1998)
Jones, Kathleen Law and Conscience, 1744-1845: the social history of the care of the insane Routledge & Kegan Paul (1955)
Lockley, Diane The House of Cure: life within the Leicestershire lunatic asylum Anchorprint (2011)
Parry-Jones, William Llywelyn The Trade in Lunacy: a study of private madhouses in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth century Routledge (1972)
Scull, Andrew T Museums of Madness: the social organisation of insanity in nineteenth century England Viking (1979)
Stevens, Mark Broadmoor Revisited: Victorian crime and the lunatic asylum Pen & Sword (2013)
Stevens, Mark Life in the Victorian Asylum: the world of nineteenth century mental health care Pen & Sword (2014)
Wise, Sarah Inconvenient People: lunacy, liberty and the mad doctors in Victorian England Vintage (2013)
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The National Archives’ Research Guide Asylums, Psychiatric Hospitals and Mental Health
Ancestry UK Lunacy Patients Admission Registers 1846-1912
Ancestry England & Wales Criminal Lunacy Warrant and Entry Books 1882-1898
FindmyPast Bethlem Hospital Casebooks 1683-1932
History Co-operative Mental Illness
Change Minds an archive for North Norfolk
Index of English and Welsh Lunatic Asylums and Mental Hospitals. Based on a comprehensive survey of 1844 and extended to other asylums
Rachel Bates 1868-1918, from Mullaghbrack, Co. Armagh - Emigration, Illegitimacy, Mental Health, Women at Work, Linen Industry. 8 minute read.
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Annie Foley, later Annie Norris aka Ellen Norris 1852-1907, from Somers Town, Middlesex – Abandonment, Alcoholism, Lawbreaking, Mental Health, Poverty, St. Joseph’s Inebriate Reformatory. 3 minute read.
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Jessie Franklin aka Jessie Gray aka Jessie Richardson aka Jessie Graham aka Lilian Newlands c.1870-?, from Bermondsey, Surrey - Alcoholism, Lawbreaking, Mental Health, Prostitution, Sickness, Farmfield Reformatory for Inebriate Women. 8 minute read.
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Isabella Fry, later Isabella Braund 1868-1908, from Darlington, Co. Durham - Mental Health, Suicide. 7 minute read.
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Mary Ann Guppy, later Mary Ann Pidgeon c.1818-1888, from Netherbury, Dorset – Lawbreaking, Mental Health, Dorchester Prison. 17 minute read.
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Elizabeth Instrell c.1794-1848, from Popham, Hampshire - Mental Health, Poverty. 4 minute read.
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Elizabeth Jones, later Elizabeth Wannell 1863-1930, from Southwark, Surrey – Alcoholism, Child Mortality, Lawbreaking, Mental Health, Poverty, Farmfield Reformatory for Inebriate Women. 14 minute read.
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Betty Kershaw 1832-1877, from Leeds, Yorkshire - Disability, Domestic Abuse, Lawbreaking, Mental Health, Murder, Sickness. Warning, this story includes an account of domestic abuse. 12 minute read.
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The Leighton Sisters Ada Florence 1870-1863, Frances Mary 1871-1970, Caroline Jessie 1874-1965, Lottie Matilda 1877-1964 and Gertrude Fanny 1880-1931, from Herne Hill, Lambeth, Surrey - Mental Health, No Descendants, Women at Work. 15 minute read.
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Louisa Mason 1868-1925, from Barkingside, Essex - Alcoholism, Illegitimacy, Lawbreaking, Mental Health, Prostitution, Farmfield Reformatory for Inebriate Women. 4 minute read.
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Ellen O’Donoghue, later Ellen Heather 1863-1913, from London, Middlesex - Alcoholism, Disability, Lawbreaking, Mental Health, Poverty, St. Joseph’s Inebriate Reformatory. 3 minute read.
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Ann Palmer c.1780-1824, from Dagenham, Essex - Infanticide, Lawbreaking, Mental Health, Suicide. 5 minute read. Warning, this story involves child murder.
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Emmeline Pemberton, later Emmeline Mann 1858-1898, from Birmingham, Warwickshire – Illegitimacy, Mental Health, Refuges for Fallen Women (Edgbaston). 2 minute read.
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Alice Reeves, later Alice Jarvis 1874-1953, from Lichfield, Staffordshire – Lawbreaking, Mental Health, Refuges for Fallen Women (Staffordshire). 12 minute read.
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Sarah Ann Sadler, later Sarah Ann Spibey 1842-1884, from Whitchurch, Shropshire - Mental Health, Poverty, Sickness. 7 minute read.
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Maria Vuller 1861-1934, from Aldershot, Hampshire – Mental Health, No Descendants, Suicide, Refuges for Fallen Women (Basingstoke). 6 minute read. Please note that this story includes an account of attempted suicide.
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Mary Ann Whitbread 1880-1963, from Meridan, Warwickshire – Mental Health, Women at Work, Refuges for Fallen Women (Edgbaston). 8 minute read.​
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Georgina Wyche 1875-1901, from Highbury, London - Mental Health, No Descendants, Suicide, Women at Work. Warning, this story includes an account of suicide. 5 minute read.