Devonshire hospital and Buxton Bath charity : instituted for the relief of poor persons from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland suffering from rheumatism, gout, sciatica, and neuralgia ; pains, weakness or contractions of joints or limbs, arising from these diseases, or from sprains, fractures, or other local injuries ; chronic forms of paralysis ; dropped hands, and other poisonous effects of lead, mercury, or other minerals ; spinal affections ; dyspeptic complaints, uterine obstructions, etc. etc. ; supported by annual subscriptions and voluntary contributions : annual report for the year 1886 ; management, history, annual statement, accounts, rules and regulations, list of subscriptions and benefactions &c., Bath charity report for 1785 ; copies of conveyances of hospital and baths from the Duke of Devonshire to the trustees ; and meteorological report for the year 1886.

  • Devonshire Royal Hospital (Buxton, Derbyshire, England)
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Devonshire hospital and Buxton Bath charity : instituted for the relief of poor persons from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland suffering from rheumatism, gout, sciatica, and neuralgia ; pains, weakness or contractions of joints or limbs, arising from these diseases, or from sprains, fractures, or other local injuries ; chronic forms of paralysis ; dropped hands, and other poisonous effects of lead, mercury, or other minerals ; spinal affections ; dyspeptic complaints, uterine obstructions, etc. etc. ; supported by annual subscriptions and voluntary contributions : annual report for the year 1886 ; management, history, annual statement, accounts, rules and regulations, list of subscriptions and benefactions &c., Bath charity report for 1785 ; copies of conveyances of hospital and baths from the Duke of Devonshire to the trustees ; and meteorological report for the year 1886. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    impaired that the weekly money allowance was necessarily reduced to Ss., at which sum it remained until the opening of the Hospital, From the time of reducing the weekly money allowance, the pecuniary prosperity of the Buxton Bath Charity may be dat«d. The funds accumulated year by year, until the time of rebuilding the Buxton Baths, on the part of the Duke of Devonshire, when a capital of nearly £3,000 had been gathered together by the scmpulous management of the Trustees. The names may be mentioned, first and particularly, of the late Bishop Spencer, at one time a trustee, and incumbent of Buxton, and more recently one of the Vice-presidents of the Hospital; of Mr. Heacock, and Mr. Smithers, its successive Treasurers; and of Sir Charles Scudamore, Mr. Page, Mr. Cumming, Dr. Carstairs, and the Rev. R. P. Hull Brown,—as being no longer alive to witness and take part in the present development of the Charity; and also in order of seniority as to connection with the Institution, of Dr. Robertson, and of the Hon. and Rev. P. R. Grey, as still living to rejoice in the well-doing of the Buxton Charity and its Hospital. Of these £3,000, £500 was judiciously expended on the rebuilding of the Charity Natural Baths; the large remaining sum which those Baths cost, and the whole cost of the Hot Baths of the Chai-ity, having been paid by the muaiificence ' of the late Duke of Devonshire. Again, in 1853-4, when the proposal of a hospital to receive the patients of the Institution was brought before the public by Mr. Smithers and the other Trustees, the sum of £1,000 from the accumulated fund was given towards the Hospital; leaving a residue of £1,500 Consols, which sum remains thus invested. (See Estate Account.) The history and doings of the Buxton Bath Charity have thus been summarily brought down to the time of forming the Hospital, the expenses of which were defrayed by the individual and collective liberality of the Trustees; by special subscriptions from the public ; by the proceeds of a bazaar, that was bountifully supplied and supported, &c.—a total sum of £6,000 having been thus got together, and expended on the conversion of this valuable building to hospital purposes. This conversion, with its anxious details and successful results, was mainly due to the untiring exertions of the late Mr. Wilmot, aided by the architectural skill of Mr. H. Currey, and the liberal consideration of the late Duke of Devonshire. ' ■ . ' ' , , .1 -ll ii) -i-II '.lit 'i-n >'''.'.r' - i . ■ It forms an interesting episode in this history, that, in the winter of 1862-3, during what will be long remembered as the Cotton Famine, a special fund was obtained, chiefly by the exertions of the late Mr. Wilmot, and 100 voung women, under 30 years of age. selected by the Relief Committees of their respective towns, as being most likely to be benefited by the change of air and the comforts ot the Hospital, were received, and taken care of, as to food and as to medicines, and restored to their homes in the subsequent sprmsr, witb renovated health and strength, and fuU of gratitude for what they had received. The balance of the subscriptions, amounting, witli interest, to £256, was invested as a separate fund for ever, to enable poor female operatives from factory towns to be received mto the Hospital,