mary ann dalley/dally

find out more about mary ann dalley/dally

On 17 July 1906 Mary Ann Dalley enters the Powick Lunatic asylum, aged 70 and dies there on December 3 of the same year. Her admission record shows that she is from Welland, married, to James Dalley, and has had four or five children, but that she is neither epileptic, suicidal or dangerous to others. It also states that she is 5ft 1 ¼ in, weighs 10st, has a dark complexion, grey dirty hair, blue eyes, is in poor health and fat. She talks rapidly and incoherently whilst constantly moving her hands and fingers and that her neighbours say that she is noisy at night.

Her case notes describe her as demented with a lost vacant expression, lost and confused having no idea where she is or how long she has been there. At night she is restless and noisy and wanders aimlessly. In November she is kept in bed with diarrhoea and she gradually becomes weaker. She dies at 7.45 am on Dec 3 1906. The cause of death is listed as senile decay.

Her admission record also reveals something else. This is not her first stay at Powick, she had previously been admitted 40 years earlier. A search of the Powick records reveals that she had been admitted not once, but three times previously in 1866, 1867 and 1871. The 1871 census shows that during that stay she gave birth to a child.

Mary Ann was born Mary Ann Barnes, daughter of John and Ann Barnes of Castlemorton in Worcestershire, and was baptised on March 11 1838. The 1851 census shows that John and Ann’s family has grown with two more daughters and a son listed and they are living at Druggersend in Castlemorton. John is an agricultural labourer and Mary Ann and her two sisters are attending school. 

In 1860, Mary Ann marries James Dalley, a labourer, at Welland parish church.

Over the next few years Mary Ann and James’ family grows, Charles is born in 1861, Eliza in 1863, and George in 1865. On 30 March 1866, Mary Ann is admitted to Powick, her case notes reveal that she is emaciated and in delicate health with an anxious, wistful, and distressed expression. She has also tried to commit suicide by cutting her throat. The cause of her insanity is given as previous mental illness and parturition. She has been of unsound mind since the birth of her last child twelve months ago and she is five months pregnant.

It also states that she had been an inmate of the asylum eight years previously. This would have been before her marriage and so she would have been listed under her maiden name which is why the previous search did not reveal another admittance. A new search revealed Mary Ann Barnes (as she was then) was admitted 26 June 1858 and released 14 March 1859 with acute mania.

During the 1866 admittance she is pregnant with her third son Thomas, he is born 23 July 1866. His birth is registered by the master of the lunatic asylum, and not by either of the parents, and there is no first name.

Thomas is baptised at Wellend parish church in September, and then buried there on December 21 1866. His cause of death is given as atrophy.

Mary remains in the asylum for 18 months until August 5 1867. But, by November she is pregnant again and readmitted to the asylum. She gives birth to another son James who is baptised at Powick Church.

Another son is born to the couple, Thomas in 1869, but there is no record of Mary Ann entering the asylum during this pregnancy. In February 1871, Mary Ann is again pregnant and is again admitted to Powick, this time the diagnosis is Mania Peurperal. She gives birth to another son, Alfred.

The birth is again registered by the master of the lunatic asylum and no first name is recorded. Alfred is baptised at Wellend Parish Church, and is buried there in 1877 aged 6 years. His cause of death is given as pneumonia.

There do not appear to be any other children born to the couple and they remain living in Wellend appearing on the censuses together in 1881, 1891, and 1901. Then in 1906, Mary Ann returns to the asylum for the final time. Mary Ann is buried at Wellend on December 7, 1906.

After Mary’s death James, her husband can be found in the 1911 census boarding with a couple in Upton upon Severn. At some point he enters the Upton Union Workhouse where he dies in 1915. He is buried with Mary Ann at Wellend.

Their children: -

Charles their eldest son can be found living in Malvern with his aunt and uncle, Thomas and Charlotte Morgan (Charlotte is his father’s sister) in the 1871 census. This is during his mother’s stay in the asylum. The last time he appears in a record is the 1881 census, still living in Malvern as a general house servant for the Hill family of Goodrest House, Graham Road.

George James, second son of Mary Ann and James, appears in the 1871 census aged 6 living with his maternal Grandparents at Castlemorton. The 1881 census finds him in Dymock as a farm labourer. By 1891 he is living with his parents in Welland but has no occupation. In 1895 he dies of general tuberculosis, hip joint pain and exhaustion.

His death is registered by his aunt Esther Harvey, his mother’s older sister.

Of the three children born at the asylum James is the only one to survive to adulthood He and his younger brother Thomas who was born in 1869, are the only children who appear with their father James on the 1871 and James and Mary Ann on the 1881 census. Although the daughter Eliza is with them in 1871.

A newspaper report from the Worcestershire Chronicle dated 8 December 1888 records a case involving the two brothers.

In 1896, James marries Frances Ellen Hill whose parents he has been boarding with. They have 5 children together Joseph, James, Mary, John and Lucy. James dies in 1920.

The 1891 census shows Thomas in Blaenavon, Wales working as a Lye Mill Labourer. On September 16 1899 Thomas marries Francis (Fanny) Budman. They set up home at 5, Rock Court, Clifton, Bristol and they have 4 children, Annie, Elsie, Dorothy and Albert who dies aged 2 years. Thomas and Fanny are still living at 5, Rock Court in the 1939 register. Thomas dies on July 26 1943 and was buried at Westbury-on-Trym, Fanny died in 1960 and was buried with her husband.

After the 1871 census Mary Ann and James’s only daughter Eliza, or Lizzie as she is also known, can next be found in the 1881 census as a domestic servant to the Candish family living in Lambeth, London. In 1889, their daughter Eliza or Lizzie marries George Hubble, a coachman. They have a son called George born at the end 1889, and a daughter Florence Kate born in 1891.

Records show that on May 6 1892, Lizzie was admitted to Banstead asylum in Surrey, she remained there until her death in September 1921.

A newspaper search for James and Mary Dalley turned up the following, which maybe related to this family: