'The Penitentiary', Exeter c 1880

[sunflower]

Many years ago I found an entry on Ancestry relating to a relative which I can no longer find, although there is an entry on the 1881 census. Does anyone know where I can find out what the exact crime was that sent her to this establishment for 'correction' (I would imagine). I have a feeling she had given birth to an illegitimate child. I havc tried googling The Penitentiary but all I get is HMPrisons which is not what it was. I can't understand why it is no longer on Ancestry, do they take down certain records from time to time? I have checked the newspapers on FMP but nothing. She came from Gloucestershire and was born in 1859.
Can anyone help please.

 

[peter]

Are you sure you found it in Ancestry's record collection, and not in a family tree (or on another website)? What precisely was the information you found?

Have you checked Discovery at the TNA site?

 

[At home in NZ]

I have found the 1881 census in Ancestry and this establishment looks to me like a home for unmarried girls. The head of the house is a matron, All the girls have domestic type occupations.
This is page 1

There is some history of the street on this page here, it mentions fallen girls.

 

[sunflower]

Thank you both for your replies. I think it was on Ancestry as that was the only one I subscribed to in the early days. I do not know whether I downloaded the information on to my old computer which I can no longer access. At home in NZ is correct that it was a home for unmarried mothers as that is why she was there working as a laundry maid (was it a Catholic run establishment I wonder) but it was called 'The Penitentiary' which is a bit misleading.

I have not checked Discovery at TNA as I did not think of that so will check and I will now have a look at the site mentioned above.

The reason I have dug this up from my memory is that I have just found a grandchild that I cannot place with any parents so wondered if this was the child that was born in Exeter, although it states Gloucestershire on the 1891 census which may or may not be true. She died when she was 17 so very little to go on.

Thanks for your help and suggestions, I now have something to go at.

 

[peter]

This discussion on another forum might help jog your memory, and this sermon refers to the penitentiary.

 

[Stuart]

Thank you both for your replies. I think it was on Ancestry as that was the only one I subscribed to in the early days. I do not know whether I downloaded the information on to my old computer which I can no longer access. At home in NZ is correct that it was a home for unmarried mothers as that is why she was there working as a laundry maid (was it a Catholic run establishment I wonder) but it was called 'The Penitentiary' which is a bit misleading.

Back to my dictionaries! My current one (Chambers) has, for penitentiary as a noun, "a prison (N Am)", so I don't think it was ever a standard word for prison in Britain. Further definitions are "an asylum for prostitutes (archaic); a reformatory prison or house of correction". That last meaning suggests the intention is to reform, not punish, and I think it would be used for places dealing with wayward children, as well as young women labelled as prostitutes. And I think that label probably could be acquired just by having an illegitimate baby, especially if the parents either didn't show support or were not near enough to be involved.

 

[peter]

A penitent is someone who repents.

 

[Bob Spiers]

I shouldn't worry too much about the word Penitentiary being used for a home for (so called) 'wayward mothers' or the origins of the word Penitentiary (and ignore totally any connection with the American use of the word Penitentiary for Prison). After all anyone suffering with any form of mental illness ended up in a Lunatic Asylum!

One female married ancestor of mine disappeared off the track quite soon giving birth to her baby in 1909. (The child survived and the father gave her to his sister to bring up). I could not find her in the 1911 Census or a death to support her absence. Her husband was living in a nearby town with another woman and I found no marriage. I spent hours trying to find out what had happened to his wife. Eventually I discovered she had been admitted in 1909 as an inmate of a Lunatic Asylum, and died there in 1933. The father married the lady he lived with in 1911 the year after she died.

She likely suffered post-natal mental depression and the answer at the time was admission to a Lunatic Asylum. I learned the same Lunatic Asylum became a quite famous Mental Hospital and I think (and hope) in the later years of her admission she was treated for a mental disorder.

 

[peter]

After all anyone suffering with any form of mental illness ended up in a Lunatic Asylum!

What's so strange about that? A lunatic is someone who is mentally ill, and an asylum is a place of refuge (hence 'claiming asylum'). My grandmother was in Essex Lunatic Asylum with post-natal depression at the time of the 1911 Census.

Unfortunately in those days doctors didn't know how to treat mental illnesses, and even today they are still struggling.

 

[At home in NZ]

My grandmother was in Essex Lunatic Asylum

My ex husband's grandmother was admitted to a Mental Asylum in 1917 at the age of 38. She remained there until her death in 1975 at the age of 95 and by then the name of the institution had been changed to hospital.

I can remember visiting her and being locked into the building. It was around 1969 and I did not get the impression of mental illness, she was just a little white haired older looking lady, capable of lucid conversation. I suspect she did have post natal depression but her admission record doesn't give any clue.
Her husband served in WW1 and I have a sneaking suspicion he had something to do with keeping her 'locked up'. He died in 1930.

 

[peter]

by then the name of the institution had been changed to hospital

The change in names didn't stop mental hospitals from being referred to as 'loony-bins' by youngsters, and also by some adults who should have known better.

 

[Bob Spiers]

What's so strange about that? A lunatic is someone who is mentally ill, and an asylum is a place of refuge (hence 'claiming asylum')

Rather a trite statement Peter and insensitive and not one I thought you would use. My thoughts on the matter were reflected by someone recalling the hey day of 'M' a Mental Hospital in Birmingham. Not the one referred to in my posting, but local to me as a lad and to which we children, referred to as a 'loony-bin (I will get to that in a minute). Before telling of its early history the author prefaced their comment with..."please excuse my use of the terminology that was used at different times in history for the sake of accuracy, as I realise such language is insulting and offensive". That sums up my own feelings as 'the powers that be' of the time were bent on removing society misfits making no distinction between lunatics, idiots, imbeciles or even the 'feeble-minded'. And if that didn't fit the bill, there was always the Workhouse.

The change in names didn't stop mental hospitals from being referred to as 'loony-bins' by youngsters, and also by some adults who should have known better.

Yes I hold up my hands as a young boy out on a cycle ride and passing a certain institution which we always referred to as a loony-bin'. Not surprising as my mother referred to it often when I misbehaved, telling me that if I carried on like that I would end up in 'M' loony bin'. Certainly she should have known better as should her mother, and various aunts, so what chance had we children of knowing it was a nasty disparaging remark. Well I do now and thankfully the term is no longer in use until uncovered within research or watching a TV programme about Victorian Britain.

Edit': I learn that 'M' has now been converted into private flats. It was always a 'walled' institution kept separate from the local community and surprisingly only closed in 1998. I bet a pound to a penny locals still refer to it as the old loony-bin. Sad, very sad.

 

[peter]

I learn that 'M' has now been converted into private flats

So has Warley Hospital, where my paternal grandmother spent 8 months in 1910-11, as well as Claybury Hospital in Woodford close to where my father moved after he retired. There was a slight variation at Goodmayes Hospital, just over the road from where I grew up - after the mental hospital was demolished it became the site for the new King George Hospital - and it was the original KGH site that got turned into flats.

Mental hospitals were largely replaced by 'Care in the Community', which was a good idea on paper, but hasn't worked out quite so well in practice.

 

[At home in NZ]

The place I referred to in thread #10 has a well documented history.
There is a magnificent photo of it here , it is just as I remember it.

After it was closed it was the subject of urban exploration which is also well documented.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Mental hospitals were largely replaced by 'Care in the Community', which was a good idea on paper, but hasn't worked out quite so well in practice

I have second hand experience of how 'Care in the Community' never properly took off as intended in the aftermath of closing a good many Mental Health' Hospitals. The story concerns a dear friend from childhood, and when he died in 2010 we had been friends for over 60 years. I have harped on the story before in the Forum, but long ago.

His experience concerned a large Birmingham Mental Hospital known as Rubery Hill (or mainly just Rubery) and previously, of course as Rubery Lunatic Asylum . The sprawling edifice was familiar to everyone in Birmingham and after it closed in 1993 -with the ground space worth a fortune to Birmingham Corporation - its buildings were demolished and large scale commercial development took over. Today only its former hospital chapel remains as a Grade II listed building.

My friend (in early retirement) worked part time in Rubery Hospital canteen. As he did not drive and caught a bus to work, when visiting Brum I often picked him up. To reach the canteen I had to stroll down enormously wide corridors with highly polished floors and met many of the inmates in the canteen environment. This was an experience in itself, but always, always, delightful and I loved the way my friend knew each and everyone of them and gave them respect. He was not a mental nurse but I spoke to a good many of those who were required to be in attendance, and saw the easy rapport in the way they handled and spoke to patients in their charge. It is an experience that has stayed long in my memory.

But I take up now at the point when it was announced the hospital would close (1993) and under the cloak of 'Care in the Community' the inmates went into social care and(by and large) learn to fend for themselves. My friend -who remained in touch with many of the former inmates - was so upset at how things went wrong, learning how their former needs (and medications) were not being met, he joined the Birmingham branch of MIND to try to help overturn the closure decision. But nothing changed and you can read here why Community Care was perceived as a failure. My friend was never in doubt that it would be.