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.
thomas futerill
find out more about thomas futerill
Thomas Futerill was born in around 1833 to parents Henry (born c.1798) and Esther Fut[e]rill (born c.), and was baptised on 17 March 1833, in Kempsey, Worcestershire. Thomas had six siblings: Henry (born c.1824), John (born c.1828), Esther (born c. 1831), Martha (born c.1835), Emma (born c.1838), and William (born c.1841).
In August of 1849, at the age of 15, Thomas was arrested for assault; the Worcestershire Chronicle detailed the charges on 22 August 1849, stating that:
“Thomas Futerill was brought up on a warrant charged with having assaulted George Green at Grimley. He admitted that he had assaulted the boy, but said “that another mon [sic] had over-persuaded him or he should’na a’done it.” On being asked why he did not appear to the summons, he said “somebody persuaded him to run away.” Allowed a week to pay a fine of 5s. and expenses, and in default of payment to be committed to three weeks’ imprisonment.”
In July of 1851, Thomas was arrested again, at the age of 19, this time for theft. It was, again, related in the Worcestershire Chronicle:
“Futerill, Thomas, 19, labourer, surrendered to his recognisances on a charge of stealing 10lbs of flour, the property of his master, Joseph Jones, of Kempsey, on the 4th of May. […] The prisoner took the flour home to his lodgings, and said it had been given to him by a fellow workman named Phillips, who, however, denied all knowledge of it. On being taken into custody he confessed that he had taken the flour. He made no defence, and being found guilty […] was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.”
Thomas served his time, and was released from prison. In the 1851 Census, he was working as an agricultural labourer in Kempsey, and was lodging, alongside two others, with a widowed woman by the name of Margaret Nash. Two years later, Thomas was married on 30 May 1853, at the age of twenty, to Ann Greenway (born c. 1832).
Less than six months later, in October of 1853, Thomas was arrested again, for the third time. His charge this time was housebreaking, and the details were reported in the Berrows Worcester Journal:
“Thomas Futerill was charged with breaking and entering the dwelling-house of his father, Henry Futerill, at Kempsey, on the 26th instant, and stealing there from two shirts, two sheets, one handkerchief, and a pair of shears, his property. The prisoner effected an entrance into the house by breaking the lock of the door, and proceeded with a poker to break open a box, from which a great portion of the above articles were stolen. The whole of the property, with the exception of the shears, were found at Mr Gwynn’s pawn shop, in High Street. The prisoner was committed for trial at the Sessions. Futerill is an old offender, having been twice previously convicted of felony, for which he has suffered different terms of imprisonment.”
The Worcestershire Chronicle shows that Thomas was sentenced to 6 years for breaking and entering, on 26 October 1853. In December, on Christmas Eve, he was removed from the County Gaol to Millbank Prison, in London. He was transferred to Dartmoor on 23 March 1855, and his sentence expired on 15 October 1859.
Two years later, in November of 1861, Thomas was arrested for the fourth time, as detailed in the Worcestershire Chronicle, in what was described as an ‘extraordinary case’:
“Thomas Futrill, alias Clarke, was charged with having, on the 5th instant, by false pretences, obtained from Edward Parker foreman to Mr. Thomas Quarrell, of Bransford Mill, 8 bushels of old beans whole, 5 bushels of fine flour, and 4 bushels of split beans, with intent to cheat and defraud.”
Thomas was accused of forging the orders on behalf of a Mr W. Herbert, land agent to Lord Coventry. The alias ‘Clarke’ is most likely in reference to his mother Esther’s maiden name. He was charged on 9 December 1861, and sentenced to 8 years imprisonment. During this time, he was transferred from the County Gaol to Powick Asylum, on 26 December 1861. His condition was described as ‘epilepsy’, and the notes suggest that he was married with two children, the latest born only 6 months ago. Less than a month later, on 18 January 1862, he was removed to Bethlem Asylum, in London. It is unclear where Thomas resided for the end of his sentence. In October of 1869, which would have been a month before the end of his sentence, had no more time been added, he was arrested again, for escaping whilst being transferred from a lunatic asylum to the prison, and assaulting a police officer. He was sentenced to a month’s hard labour.
In 1878, Thomas was arrested for a sixth time, for ‘cruelty to animals’ as reported in the Worcestershire Chronicle:
“Thomas Futerill, in the employ of Mr. Dixon, contractor, was convicted of illtreating a horse at Claines, on the 29th May. The defendant was seen by a witness named Hill thrashing the horse for a considerable distance, the horse at the time being on the gallop, and when he got to Hawford-Hill P.C. Willis saw him continue to beat the horse while he was galloping up the hill. Fines £1 and 9s. 6d. costs which was paid.”
After this, no record of Thomas can be found. There is no record of a Thomas Futerill, of any variation of spelling, who died in Worcester. Similarly, his wife Ann cannot be found, and the two children listed in the case notes cannot be identified either. It is possible, and perhaps likely, since none of the family can be found, that Thomas moved out of Worcester or changed his name, perhaps to his preferred alias of Clarke!
Research by Maddie Hale, 2026
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