Madhouses Act 1774

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Act of Parliament
Commencement
20 November 1774
Other legislation
Amended by
  • Madhouse Continuation Act 1779
  • Madhouse Law Perpetuation Act 1786
Repealed byStatute Law Revision Act 1871
Status: Repealed

The Madhouses Act 1774 (

insane asylums
).

Background

By the mid-eighteenth century, the common methods in the United Kingdom for dealing with the insane were either to keep them in the family home, or to put them in a "madhouse", which was simply a private house whose proprietor was paid to detain their residents, and ran it as a commercial concern with little or no medical involvement. This led to two forms of abuse: the first was the keeping of "legitimately" insane people in atrocious conditions, and the second the detention of those who were falsely claimed to be insane – in effect, private imprisonment.

At this stage, there was no legislation to regulate the incarceration of anyone other than a

pauper; there was only a vaguely defined common law power to "confine a person disordered in mind, who seems disposed to do mischief to himself, or another person".[1]

In a case in the mid-1750s, a woman came to suspect that her son-in-law had committed his wife to a madhouse in Hoxton; with the aid of a justice of the peace, she secured the release of her daughter after obtaining a confession from the husband. A similar case in 1762 saw a man trying to obtain the release of an acquaintance, one Mrs Hawley, who he suspected had been confined in a madhouse. His initial application to Lord Mansfield for a writ of habeas corpus was rejected because he was not a relative and so had no standing, but the judge arranged for a doctor to visit the house and speak to the woman. On his report, a writ was granted; she was brought before the court, and discharged.[2]

A

Select Committee of the House of Commons, chaired by Thomas Townshend, was set up in 1763 to study the problem of unlawful detention in private madhouses and focused on the Hawley case. It found that she had been committed to the house solely on the word of her husband, who paid two guineas (two pounds and two shillings) a month for her board, and that she was unable to leave the house or communicate with anybody outside it. The inmates were treated as insane, but the agent who arranged their entry freely admitted that he had not committed a single insane person to the house in the past six years. No-one who would pay was turned away, no physicians attended the inmates, and no register was kept of their names. This was, the committee stated, a common situation; they noted that a number of similar cases could have been studied, and they recommended that some form of legislative intervention was needed.[3] The Commons ordered the committee to prepare a bill, but it appears this was never brought in.[4]

The issue was next addressed in 1773 when Townshend's son, also named Thomas Townshend, sponsored a bill to regulate private madhouses; within seven miles of London, this would be the responsibility of the Royal College of Physicians; and outside that, magistrates in county towns. The bill passed the Commons but was rejected by the Lords.[5][6]

Legislative history

Thomas Townshend (the younger); a contemporary engraving

In 1774, Thomas Townshend again reintroduced the Madhouses Bill.

first reading on 2 March, and was amended in committee on 23 March.[8] The Lords voted on it on 21 April, and made two amendments (the addition of s.19 and s.31) on 6 May, before the bill returned to the Commons on 10 May.[9] The bill received royal assent on 20 May.[10]

Provisions

The Act required that all

quarter sessions.[11]

The penalty for "concealing or confining" more than one insane person without a license was set at £500, and every keeper of such a house who took in a patient without an order from a doctor was liable to a fine of £100.[11]

Implementation

Madhouse Continuation Act 1779
Act of Parliament
19 Geo. 3
. c. 15
Other legislation
AmendsMadhouses Act 1774
Madhouse Law Perpetuation Act 1786
Act of Parliament
26 Geo. 3. c. 91
Dates
Royal assent4 July 1786
Other legislation
AmendsMadhouses Act 1774

The Act took effect on 20 November 1774, six months after receiving royal assent, and was originally stated to remain in force for five years and then until the end of the next parliamentary session.

26 Geo. 3. c. 91); it remained in force until repealed by the Madhouses Act 1828.[12]

Notes

  1. ^ Unsworth, p. 259
  2. ^ Roberts, s. 2.4
  3. ^ Roberts, s. 2.2
  4. ^ Roberts, s. 7 (1763)
  5. ^ Roberts, s. 2.3.1
  6. ^ The bill was seconded by Herbert Mackworth. Other members involved in preparing the Bill were George Venables-Vernon, Beaumont Hotham, and Constantine Phipps. Roberts, s. 7 (1773)
  7. ^ Other members involved in preparing the Bill were George Venables-Vernon, Beaumont Hotham, and Constantine Phipps, as the previous year, along with John Ward. Roberts, s. 7 (1774)
  8. ^ Roberts, s. 7 (1774). The Annual Register, p. 100, makes note of a "committee of enquiry into abuses committed in gaols by detaining persons for their fees" which sat on 5 March, chaired by Sir Thomas Clavering. This may or may not be the same matter under investigation; if not, it reflects a wide-ranging interest by the Commons in this type of reform at the time.
  9. ^ Roberts, s. 7 (1774)
  10. ^ Annual Register, p. 122; Roberts, s. 7 (1774)
  11. ^ a b c Annual Register, pp. 240-1
  12. ^ Roberts, s. 2

References

  • Annual Register for the year 1774. London: printed for J. Dodsley, 1778. Second edition.
  • Roberts, Andrew. The Lunacy Commission
  • Unsworth, Cliver (1991). "Mental Disorder and the Tutelary Relationship: From Pre- to Post-Carceral Legal Order". Journal of Law and Society. 18 (2): 254–278.
    JSTOR 1410140
    .
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