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.
jane AYRES
find out more about jane AYRES
Jane Glover was born in 1848, the daughter of Thomas and Ann. She was baptised on 30 April 1848 in St Andrew’s Church in Bordesley. The 1851 and 1861 census returns show the family living at 68 Palmer Street, Deritend, with Ann Glover, a coach lace weaver, listed as the head of the household.
On 28 December 1868 Jane married George Ayer in Christ Church, Sparkbrook. In the 1871 census George and Jane are listed as living, with their one-year-old daughter Jane, at 55 Hatchet St, Birmingham. George is noted as a Gun Maker and Jane as ‘formerly Box Maker’.
George died in Birmingham early in 1881, and the census that year shows Jane, a widow, living at Hope St, Birmingham, with her children Jane (11), William (7), Rose (3) and Arthur (1). She had gone back to her former profession of Paper Box Maker. In this census her surname is spelled Ayer, but in the following census, when she was a patient at Powick, her name is listed as Ayres.
On 7 January 1885, Jane was transferred to Powick from the Kings Norton Workhouse. One can only assume that after her husband’s death, she found it difficult to manage to support herself and four children. Unfortunately the workhouse records are not available.
Jane’s admission notes state that ‘Mentally she is suffering from Mania of a sub-acute degree. Holds a fixed delusion that her name is Mrs White, and she was married to Mr White at a tea-meeting by the Holy Spirit. She is rather restless & fancies she hears Mr White whom she persists in declaring is here.’
Within a year Jane’s notes are more concerned with her moral depravity, exhibitionism and bad language. ‘Her moral insanity continues. She addresses people in the most filthy language, especially men and often pulls up her clothes and exposes her person if she can elude her nurses. She masturbates frequently. There is no sign whatever of any improvement.’
Unfortunately Jane’s case notes are incomplete, but the Powick Register of Removals, Discharges and Deaths shows that she died on 8 October 1901, of ‘Phthisis of over 2 years duration & Fatty Heart’. Phthisis is any disease that causes wasting of the body, especially pulmonary tuberculosis. The Powick register notes that a post-mortem was performed, but the asylum records available at Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service do not include post-mortem records until 1920.
Research by Cathy Broad, 2024.
To view Jane’s patient records, click here.
Go back to find out about more people who were patients at the asylum.