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.

the purser family

find out more about the purser family

On the 8th of April 1826 James Purser married Mary Cole in Throckmorton, Worcestershire. The couple had one son and ten daughters. James was admitted to Powick Hospital in 1872, a place that three of his children would also be admitted to at various points in their lives. This article tells the story of the Purser family and how their lives intertwined with the asylum.

James Purser

James Purser was born in about 1806 making him twenty years old when he decided to marry Mary in Worcestershire. James worked as an agricultural labourer in the early part of his adult life. The couple’s first child was John, and he would be their only son. They had ten daughters after this, and their last daughter, Louisa, was born in 1846. The young family grew up in Fladbury throughout the 1830s-1850s. By the 1861 census, Mary and James had moved to Hill and Moor in Worcestershire. James had changed occupation to become a coal dealer, and only one of his daughters, Louisa, still lived with her parents. Once Louisa had moved out by 1871, James was working as a butcher, still living with Mary in Hill and Moor.

James was admitted to Powick Hospital on the 6th of April 1872 at aged 67. He was diagnosed with melancholia and stayed at the home for just under twenty years. Unfortunately, there are no records available about his time at the institution. He passed away at Powick in March 1891, at aged 86.

Whilst James was in Powick, his wife Mary moved in with their youngest daughter Louisa. Louisa, now Louisa Spencer, and her husband Frederick Spencer had three children by 1881, and lived on 81 Sidbury Street, in Worcestershire. It is estimated that Mary passed away in the summer of 1885.

Ann Purser

Ann Purser was the eighth child born to James and Mary. Ann was baptised on the 3rd of January 1841 in Fladbury. The first time she appeared in the census she was just six months old. She continued to live with the Purser family throughout her childhood.

By 1861 at the age of twenty, Ann had moved out of the home and in with a couple. Ann lived at 38 White Cottage with 33-year-old Reverand George L. Hodges who was the ‘Curate of Fladbury.’ A curate is a man of the clergy who works as an assistant priest. His wife Louisa was just 18, and the couple had a two-month-old daughter, named Mary. Ann worked as a servant for the family along side her younger sister Ellen who worked as the families nurse maid.

The Hodges family were originally from Kent, and it is perhaps this link that secured Ann Purser her next job, living in Kent. In the 1871 census, Ann Purser lived with Sophia Wroughton and her family. Sophia Wroughton was a 73-year-old widow of a lieutenant who had worked for the East India company. Sophia lived with her two daughters and three granddaughters. Isabella Fulton was a 44-year-old widow of a captain who also worked for the East India Company, and she had a nine-year-old daughter Estel. Sophia’s other daughter Fanny Menzies also lived there with her two daughters, Eva, aged two, and Eliza, aged 5 months. Fanny’s husband was an East India Company Captain. The family employed a couple of house staff. Ann Purser herself was aged 30 and working as their domestic nurse. Jane Humphries and Harriet Smith were the families servants, as was Ellen Purser, Ann’s sister.

At some point in the next three years, Ann moved back to Worcestershire, which eventually led to her admission to Powick Hospital. On the 24th of February 1874, Ann was admitted with mania chronic. Her case notes stated that it was “her first attack of six months duration, the supposed cause being a hereditary disposition (her father is a patient in this asylum).” Her main symptoms were “that she talks incoherently, sings hymns and shouts as loud as she can.”

Six months after her admission Ann’s character altered slightly, “shortly after last entry she became quieter and more tractable occupying herself with needlework.” Her needlework was consistently mentioned throughout her case notes. Staff did not record much of note apart from her being “confused and wandering,” in a “deluded state” and speaking “irrational nonsense.” In the December of 1880, staff noted that Ann had “queer delusions, says that she slept with the doctor last night or at least she says that if it was not him it was his portrait.” A couple of years later it was said “she imagines she is married to several of the men about the asylum.”

Ann’s most consistent delusion first appeared in her notes on March the 5th 1891. Staff stated that she “thinks there are boys outside the ward, collects and carries upstairs broken food, puts her head out the window and calls to the boys to come and receive it.” This remained consistent throughout the rest of the notes we have available to Ann, and it appears to have developed so that she believed the children she was feeding were her sons. Ann Purser’s hospital notes are available up until August the 12th 1912, but Ann actually stayed at the asylum until the 13th of September 1920 when she passed away after 46 years at the hospital.

John Purser

John Purser, Mary and James’ eldest child and only son, was baptised on the 29th of November 1829. John grew up with his parents and became an agricultural labourer like his father. On the 29th of December 1853 at the age of 24 he married Ann Waters in Fladbury, Worcestershire. John and Ann had their first child two years after marriage in 1855, and they named her Sofia. John changed jobs to become a railway labourer by 1861. The couple had two sons, George born in 1857 and James, whom they named after his father, in 1860.

By the 1871 census John and Mary’s eldest daughter had moved out with her husband whom she married at just 18 years old. John and Mary’s two sons still lived with them, along with two more sons, and a daughter aged 5 months. Just three years later, John Purser was admitted to Powick Hospital with Melancholia. This was just three months after the admission of Ann. His case notes state his condition had “been gradually coming on for nine months.” The staff at Powick believed that his condition was hereditary “his father being a patient here also his sister Ann purser.” 

John’s primary symptom was suicidal thoughts as his case notes explain he had attempted to walk into a canal. The staff explained that he was “depressed and apathetic, says he has been very wicked, that he can never get better and wishes to finish himself.” He had several boils on him at admission and refused to eat, but it only took a couple of weeks until he began to improve. In general, he was very quiet at Powick and by September the next year he was allowed out on trial. He was discharged after 18 months at Powick. 

Six years after his discharge from Powick Hospital, John lost his job, as the 1881 census stated he was ‘out of employment as a labourer.’ John still had five children to provide for at this time, including Esther who was four years old. This pressure likely contributed to his re-admission to Powick Hospital. On the 1st of September 1885, John purser was admitted for a second time at aged 57 with mania acute.

John’s case notes explain that his condition was a result of “heredity, intemperance, and religion.” John still had suicidal symptoms, but he was also recovering from a recent stroke that paralysed his right side. He was described as “excited and noisy, violent and dangerous.” Throughout his time at the institution, John was placed in the seclusion room and padded room. He also suffered a serious injury on January the 27th when “he was pushed against a table by another patient named C. Clements” which resulted in “three ribs broken on his right side.” John seemed to struggle with his health after this. He was constantly on pain medication of opium and chloral and experienced a high temperature.  

Very sadly, he did see his father James during his stay but “his father refused to recognise him as a son when they met in the airing court the son gets excited.” He was in Powick Hospital for seven years before he died on the 19th of April 1893.  

During his absence from the family home, John’s wife Ann Purser moved in with Henry Bradley, a widow. Their children lived alone on 5, Four-Foot row in Worcestershire. The elder siblings supported the household. The eldest two sons, Henry aged 27, and George aged 32, worked as general labourers. James aged 25 worked as a shop keeper, and Esther just ten years old, worked as a sweet wrapper. Edith, aged 20, was a housekeeper being the oldest female in the home.

Rachel Bradstock

Rachel Purser was the seventh child born to James and Mary Purser. Rachel was born in the spring of 1839 and grew up in Fladbury with the rest of the family. At the age of twenty, Rachel Purser married baker Robert Bradstock on the 16th of October 1859. The couple lived in the Holy Cross Pershore area in 1871. They had two daughters at this time, Laura, aged 9, and Minnie aged 2. The family also had two lodgers living with them, Frederick Spencer and Louisa Victoria Spencer. From records, we can discover that Louisa was Rachel’s youngest sister by six years.

On the 2nd of January 1875, Rachel Bradstock was admitted to Powick Hospital. Her case notes clearly stated that staff believed she had a “hereditary disposition” as “her father James, brother John and sister Ann Purser being at present time patients in this asylum.” Rachel’s condition came on after the birth of her son, and fourth child, William Bradstock. Her condition took the form of suicidal thoughts as she had “asked for a gun to shoot herself.” Staff also reported that she was “restless and uneasy, constantly talking about being possessed by the devil.” Rachel improved overtime at Powick and was discharged ten months later on November the 1st, 1875.  

William was the final child of Rachel Bradstock, and it could be due to her admission to Powick Hospital after his birth. Rachel, Robert and their children Laura, Minnie, Walter and William continued to live together in Holy Cross Pershore throughout the 1870s and 1880s. By 1891, Minnie was working as a dressmaker, and the two men were assistant bakers.

Rachel unfortunately passed away on the 18th of July 1899 at the age of sixty. Her will stated that her belongings of value £578 9s 2d should be left to a woman named Mary Beard. From marriage records, we know that Mary had married a Samuel Beard in 1850, but that her maiden name was Purser, making her Ann’s sister. Rachels husband Robert continued to work as a baker until at least 1912.

Purser Family

James Purser first entered Powick Hospital in the year 1872; his daughter Ann joined him in 1874 and three months later, so did his son John. In 1875 Rachel Bradstock was admitted, meaning this was the year four of the Purser family being at the asylum. The story of the Purser family shows just how integral these 19th century hospitals were to communities and families whose lives intertwined with these places. It also raises interesting questions about the influences of nature and nurture on mental health.

Research by Alice Fairclough, 2025.

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