The first annual report on madhouses, made in the year 1816 : ordered by the House of Commons to be printed April 26 1816 ... / Made by the noblemen and gentlemen, who were appointed by the House of Commons, as a Select Committee, to enquire and consider of provision being made for the better regulation of public and private madhouses in England ... Consisting of important minutes of evidence ... including two letters.

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee on Mad-Houses in England.

Date:: 1816

Credit: The first annual report on madhouses, made in the year 1816 : ordered by the House of Commons to be printed April 26 1816 ... / Made by the noblemen and gentlemen, who were appointed by the House of Commons, as a Select Committee, to enquire and consider of provision being made for the better regulation of public and private madhouses in England ... Consisting of important minutes of evidence ... including two letters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Do you know any thing of what becomes of the clothes of the patients when they are brought into the house ; and can you state to the Committee what proportion of those clothes are in use, and what proportion are put by in the store-room ?—I cannot say what quantity is put by; the clothes are first taken up into the linen-room, and properly booked and put by ; after that there is a certain quantity given out for the use of a patient, and the rest Mrs. Talbot has, if it is possible; sometimes the friends of a patient know what they have given, and insist on seeing it. Do you mean by that to state, that the patients wear their linen longer fhan is intended by their friends, so (hat when their friends visit them they are informed how much that patient destroys his or her clothes; that he or she must have a fresh supply, which are accordingly provided; and the things thus accumulated are sold by the Mistress to the Master, for the purpose of clothing those patients whom he provides with clothes?—They are kept back, and sold to the master of the house for the purpose of clothing the private patients. Explain to the Committee what knowledge you have of that . transaction.—I have known Mr. Holmes’s linen to be kept back, and Captain Harvey’s; Mr. Cockerton’s likewise, and a number of others, whose names I cannot recollect. What do you mean by being kept back?—The patients had not them to wear. Of this linen of which you have spoken, can you take upon your- self to say that Mrs. Talbot sold it to Mr. Talbot, or any body else?—To Mr. Talbot. That you can state positively of your own knowledge ?—1 es: Mrs. Talbot has employed Mr. Talbot’s niece for days together to pick out the marks of different people’s things. You have seen that with your own eyes ?—Yes, I have; and hare helped to pick them out myself. Do you know any thing concerning the clothing of the parish patients ?—Yes; when the parish patients’ clothing is brought in, it. is taken up into the linen room and put up. Can you state to the Committee any particular parish of which the clothing belonging to their paupers has been kept back for the emolument of Mrs. Talbot?—From the parish of St. Pancras the flannel petticoats and aprons are chiefly used towards clothing the country patients which Mr. Talbot has to provide with clothes, likewise St. Andrew’s; the St. Mary-le-bone white petticoats have been frequently cut up and made into blankets for the use of the house; I have myself cut up fifteen at a time. By whose order ?—Mrs. Talbot’s. Explain the nature of that bill, [handing a paper to the ■witness.'] In the first place, is it your hand-writing ?—Yes, it is; it is the bill of those things which had accumulated from the different pa- tients, which Mrs. Talbot desired me to set down. Was that bill made out by you of the linen and clothes that vrere 'in the store-room that belonged to patients, either private patients

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