OUTSIDE THE ASYLUM

Can you help George Marshall Medical Museum with a spot of family history research to find out about some people who were admitted to the Worcester City and County Lunatic Asylum in the 19th century?

Our aim is to share more patients’ stories, and to find out about their lives before admission and (where possible) after discharge.

Hemming and wyatt families

find out more about the hemming and wyatt families

Nicola’s research into George Jenkin Wyatt led to further research into his wife Kate (nee Wyatt), and her troubled family tree including her grandfather and great uncle.

George Jenkins Hemming

 On 8th March 1904 George Jenkins Hemming entered the asylum aged 36. His admission record shows that he was from Selly Oak, was married with two children and could read and write. His condition has been of two weeks duration, but he is not epileptic or dangerous, but he is suicidal. His appearance is described as fresh complexion, light brown hair, blue eyes 5 foot 11 ½ inches tall. He has a small scar on his left leg and a tattoo on his forearm.

His case notes describe his nervous restless condition, inability to remember things and meandering conversations. It also details the reason for his admission – attempted suicide. He was found close to death hanging from a rope in bedroom closet. There is also a suggestion that this is not the first time he has had suicidal thoughts or attempted to take his life. For this reason, he is deemed to be a suicide risk and a red card is issued. The person who provides this information to the doctor issuing the medical certificate for the admission is Nurse Lavinia Meadows. This is his wife’s sister.

The doctor’s patient notes for March 9th show that he (George) is worried about his work, he believes someone is following him to harm him making it impossible for him to do his job. He has no memory of trying to hang himself. He also has the additional worry of having to look after his children, his wife is not at home, which explains the lack of information from her in his admission record. She is also a patient at the same asylum.

George was the third of six children born to Joseph Hemming, a miller, and his wife Susan. He was baptised December 8th, 1867, at the parish church of Forthampton in Gloucestershire. The 1871 and 1881 census show him growing up with his family at Longdon Mill, in Longdon Worcestershire assisting his father in the mill.

By 1891, George has left the family home and is working as a Police Constable in Malvern. On Oct 19th of the same year George married Kate Meadows Wyatt at Holy Trinity Church in Malvern. The certificate shows that there is no father given for Kate, this suggests that she was illegitimate. One of the two witnesses to the wedding was Lavinia Meadows, Kate’s sister. The nurse who gives details of George’s health for his admission certificate.

KATE MEADOWS WYATT

The baptism record for Kate Meadows Wyatt can be found in the parish records for Blockley. She is baptised on 30 October 1870, but there is a note stating that she was born on 17 Nov 1867. The entry also shows that she is indeed illegitimate, her mother Sarah is a single woman. 

The 1871 census shows Sarah still living in Blockley but with three children the youngest of them is Kate. A search of the Blockley baptism register shows that Sarah has had two previous children Mary Ann (1863) and James (1865) in both cases Sarah is described as a single woman.

In the next census, 1881, Sarah and her children are found in Stanway, Gloucestershire. She is now married and has four more children with her new husband Martin Meadows. In the census Martin is a farmer of 357 acres employing 6 men and two boys. Sarah and Martin were married on August 29, 1872, he is 48 and she is 26. 

Interestingly both Kate and James have the middle name Meadows on their baptism records, could Martin Meadows be their biological father?

On Mary Ann’s marriage certificate Martin is listed as her father and also signs the certificate as a witness to the marriage. She marries Richard Bate on 30 December 1885. On the 1891 census Kate is staying with her sister Mary Ann and brother-in-law Richard, a school master, and their 3 children including their week-old infant son. They are living in Romford, Essex.

A few months later Kate herself gets married, but she does not give a father’s name on her marriage certificate. 

A search of records shows that their brother James who also has the middle name Meadows, does not marry, but revealed a burial record in 1896 against which is written coroners certificate. A search of newspapers revealed more details on his death and also a court case. The Gloucestershire Echo on Saturday May 30 1896 reports that James has been taken to court by his father for physical assault. He was ordered to leave family home and pay his father’s expenses. 

However, less than 6 months later the Wilts & Gloucestershire Standard on Saturday November 14 1896 reports that James has been killed in a hunting accident. In both cases he is referred to as Martin’s son and not stepson. 

George and Kate have two children. Violet May, their daughter was born on Oct 11th, 1892 and baptised at St John in Bedwardine parish church the following April.

In 1895, their son Dudley George was baptised at Astley parish church.

School admission papers show that on 31 August 1897 Violet is enrolled at Cropthorne School in Worcestershire. She is 4 years and 10 months old, and the family are living in Cropthorne and she has previously been registered at Astley school. She is withdrawn from the school on Dec 7th of the same year. However, a few lines below she is re-enrolled and stays at the school until November 1899. Dudley is enrolled on 5 June 1890, aged 4½ and is withdrawn in November at the same time as his sister when the family leave Cropthorne. The 1901 census shows the family has moved again; they are now living in King’s Norton where George is still a police constable. 

In November 1903, Kate is admitted to Powick Asylum from Selly Oak with a diagnosis of melancholia. Her admission notes state that she is married with two children, can read and write and is 5 ft 2 inches tall. It also gives a brief physical description of her; poorly nourished, anaemic looking with brown hair and grey eyes. She is described as having an excitable and nervous manner with a ‘wild look’. In conversation with the doctor, she says she cannot stop in the house with the children as she is afraid that something will happen, she wants to be put away as she is convinced that she is out of her mind. She also says that she hides from her children, so they won’t see that she has lost her mind.

It also states how she does not sleep at night and is continually in and out of bed, up and down the stairs convinced something is happening in the house. She also has suicidal thoughts including cutting the veins on her wrists and the other day was seen swinging a saucepan over her head. Her husband, George, reports that she has always been neurotic and hysterical and throughout their married life has troubled him with her ill temper, suspicion and deficient self-control. Four months prior to this admission her father died and after attending the funeral her condition worsened resulting in this admission.

Throughout her stay at the asylum Kate complains of “rushing and ticking sensations in the left side of her head” that prevent her from staying still. She also worries that her children will not be taken care of, that her husband will neglect them and worries about “home affairs”. During her stay Kate works in the laundry, a job she does “fairly well”. She is given nutritional supplements and new milk to improve her physical condition.

Over the next few months, she gradually improves but still is prone to periods of depression. By May 2, she has improved enough to be allowed out on trial. This continues throughout May and June and into July.

It is during this admission that her husband George, is admitted to Powick Asylum, four months after Kate’s admission he has attempted to kill himself. Interestingly, George is also allowed out on a 5-week trial on May 2 1904. This is successful and he is discharged recovered and that it is no longer necessary to detain him in the asylum on June 6. The final entry for Kate, dated July 4 states that the usual medical certificate has been received indicating that she has continued well and so she has been discharged recovered by the committee of visitors but sadly she is readmitted three years later in 1907.

Sometime between being released from the asylum and Kate being readmitted the family move to Croome, and live at the Lodge, where George gets a job as an estate worker. The estate at Croome is owned by the Earl of Coventry. A lot of the land around Powick was also owned by the Earl of Coventry including some used by the asylum who paid rent for it to him. Other Coventry family members are also involved in the asylum.

Could it be that the Earl found a job and accommodation for George and his family on their release?

Kate is readmitted to Powick Asylum on June 13 1907, from Croome where she is living with her husband and children. A statement from her husband George, says that he gets no sleep. The previous day she walked into the mill pond and keeps saying she wishes she had died last Christmas. Kate says she has lost all feeling and has no control over herself and does not know where she was going when she walked into the pond. Her admission record again describes her as anaemic and pale with a wild expression. Throughout her stay her condition deteriorates and she is described by the doctor as being in “most miserable condition mentally and physically”. Sadly, she also has to be regularly put into a padded room to prevent her hurting herself.

In March 1908 she develops pulmonary congestion, lapses into a coma and dies 10 days later on 21 March. A postmortem gives her cause of death a lobular pneumonia.

Six months after Kate’s death George married again. His new wife was Annie Cook Salter, from Torquay in Devon.

The 1911 census shows George and his second wife still living at Croome where he is still an estate worker. His and Kate’s children are no longer at home both are now working in London. Dudley is a footman, and Violet is listed as being an inmate at Church Army St Ann’s Home, 64 St Ann’s Hill Wandsworth and her occupation is given as a domestic servant. This Church Army home was opened in 1903 and was the 13th of its kind in London. It provided accommodation for 18 young women who would be trained as servants. Could the Coventry family have helped secure both their positions?

Ten years later the 1921 census shows that George and Annie are now living in Yew Tree Cottage in Earls Croome, and that George is now employed as a gardener to a Miss Copeland. The couple continue to live there at Yew tree Cottage, for the rest of their lives. Annie dies in 1947, and George dies on 6 December 1954. His probate shows that he had effects valued at £854 17s 9d. They are both buried in the churchyard at Earl’s Croome.

john and william wyatt

There is a twist to the story though, Kate’s diagnosis was not just melancholia it is also described as hereditary. The admission notes show that other family members have had admission to the asylum. In the 1903 notes it says, a brother (Wyatt) died here, mother and two sisters were insane, and her father died of a stroke in old age and in 1907 they state that a maternal Uncle and a sister had been in the asylum, and another sister was weak minded.

A search of birth, marriage and death records allowed a family tree to be made of Kate’s maternal ancestry to try and identify who these individuals could be. The family tree was then cross referenced with lunatic registers, including those for Powick. Two names immediately jumped out; John and William Wyatt, brothers who both spent time at Powick Asylum. John was baptised on July 22nd 1810, and William on 12th November 1815, at Stretton on the Fosse, Warwickshire. The parish records show that their parents were William Wyatt and Mary Dyer, and that William was a Blacksmith. The records also show that William and Mary were married in 1809 and had two other children Mary Ann born in 1812, and Joseph in 1819, before William dies in 1820, leaving Mary to bring up four children alone. John and William follow in their fathers’ footsteps and become blacksmiths.

The 1841 census shows the brothers living with their mother Mary and their aunt, Mary’s sister Sarah Dyer, in Stretton under Fosse. Their mother is listed as being of independent means and John and William as being blacksmiths.

By the next census only John is still living with his mother and aunt. But he is married and has three children, John aged 8, Mary Ann aged 5 and Sarah (Kate’s mother) aged 7. The census also now reveals that the aunt, Sarah Dyer is deaf and dumb. Both his aunt and mother die in the following couple of years. By 1861 he is now a blacksmith in Shipston under Stour living with his wife and two youngest daughters Ann aged 10 and Amelia aged 4. 

William is also married by the 1851 census and he can be found living along with his wife and daughter with his widowed mother-in-law Sarah Radway, in Blockley. He is still there in the 1861 census.

William is admitted to Powick asylum on Jan 5th 1869 after “a determined attempt to commit suicide by cutting his throat on Dec 7th 1868”. His admission notes detail an incised wound about an inch long over his thyroid cartilage which has partially healed, but he is not a danger to others. He describes himself as a lost soul with no hope of salvation. The cause of this attack is given as religious enthusiasm and hereditary predisposition and while it is his second attack of mental illness it his first admission to the asylum. He is discharged as recovered May 3rd 1869.

The 1871 census sees him back in Blockley with his wife and continuing as a blacksmith

He is next admitted to the asylum, aged 60 on 9th February 1876 and is married with one child. William married Ann Radway and they had a daughter Amelia born in 1850. The admission record states that he is strange in his habits and talking all sorts of nonsense. He believes himself guilty of “great crimes for which there is no forgiveness”. They find him employment in the smithy with the blacksmith. His mood is variable but by April 9th he is recovered enough to be discharged recovered.

On Jan 6th 1881 he is again admitted to the asylum for melancholia of a hereditary predisposition and is suicidal. It is 5 years since his previous suicide attempt but he thinks he may try again because he is under the influence of the devil, nothing can save him and his soul is lost forever. Although he is in good bodily health, his mental health fluctuates such that he cannot attend to his business or even hold a coherent conversation. Despite this and not being able to sleep without medical help, “he gives little trouble to his attendants and is clean and tidy in his dress”.

In March they send him to work in the Smith’s shop which seems to help, but then he has to be confined to the ward as his melancholia returns and he is very apprehensive of something about to happen to him. By July he has improved and is back working at the Smith’s shop. William dies at the asylum on 9th March 1898, and is buried at Powick on the 12th March.

Throughout William’s stays at the asylum his brother John has also been a patient. John is admitted on August 12 1863. His admission record show that he too is married and worked as a blacksmith, although as a result of being kicked in the knee by a horse several years ago had to have his leg amputated. He is described as insane and suffering from monomania of suspicion. He believes several of his neighbours owe him large sums of money and has threatened them with violence. He has also exposed himself many times to females passing through the yard where he works, and thrashed his wife with his crutch.

John is also employed in the Smith’s shop. During the early part of his stay, he contracts a foot infection which leads to the removal of several bits of toes. Unlike his brother at no point does John recover enough to be considered for day release or discharge. The final entry for John dated June 20 1884 reads “today the old man who has been gradually getting, weaker and weaker and more demented than before died at 2.35 from lunatic softening”. He too is buried at Powick.

John married Sarah Ingram in 1842 and together they had 8 children including Sarah, Kate’s mother. This means that John was Kate’s Grandfather and William was her Great Uncle.

In a final twist both William and John’s patient records state that their father William Wyatt senior committed suicide by drowning himself.

Research by Nicola Hewitt, 2025.

Go back to find out about more people who were patients at the asylum.