PROPER PEOPLE

[hope]

I was in the library the other day and saw advertised a talk by David Scimgeor about his book "Proper People" in
Wakefield library, It sounded interesting but I didn't go, it played on my mind so I ordered the book from my local
library ... I read the first pages and gripped by the counting & deciphering done by a patient John Field, here is
part of his story..



Excerpt from:
Proper People by David Scimgeour
PROPER PEOPLE
EARLY ASYLUM LIFE IN THE WORDS
OF
THOSE WHO WERE THERE


Many excellent books have already been published about the county asylums of the nineteenth century, but
little has been revealed of the pauper lunatics "themselves" , tens of thousands of people receiving poor
relief and suffering from mental illness who passed through the asylum doors.
While there is a lot of general information available , social historians are relatively speaking, starved of
material providing a deeper insight into the lives of the patients, material that might allow them to answer
key questions , such as :Why were they in an asylum? What was life really like for them while they were in there,
What happened to them in the long term,What was the impact on their families, Proper People is my contribution
towards gaining a better understanding by looking at the lives of just a few of those patients, all admissions
to the West Ridings Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Yorkshire ,England, in the early part of the 1800s.

Why is the title Proper People? In 1819 a magistrate committing someone to an asylum would sign a warrant
declaring that the person was a 'proper object' to be admitted
Fifty years later , the expression used had become 'Proper Person'
Proper People has been written about some of those early asylum patients and their stories, the reader is very
much reminded that they were, as all patients today, real people, proper people, not objects, suffering from
a period of mental illness.
We take the reader back in time to the early nineteenth century to meet some of the mentally ill patients who
passed through Yorkshire's West Riding Pauper Lunitic Asylum in Wakefield during the first 50 years of its existence.
Using transcripts from the celebrated collection of the original asylum records held by the West Yorkshire
Archive Service-case books, reception orders,annual reports, journals together with contemporary newspaper
articles, the patients stories are told using the actual words of those who were there tante time, their physicians,
poor law officers,reporters and sometimes even the patients themselves...
I chose Stanley Royd Hospital in Wakefield originally known as the West Ridings Paupers.
[attachment=0]image.jpeg[/attachment]
Patients admitted 1818-1829
Thirty five year old butcher John Field from Rotherwell had been committed
to the House of Corrections,Wakefield for assaulting a man before being removed
to the asylum on the 18th January 1819, by Heorge Wadsworth Overseer of the Poor,
Described as being tall and thin with an irritable temper Jihn was said to have been
insane for many years, his early case notes suggest a man who was always troubled
by something.

2nd June , 1819 Pulse near 100,complains of debility.

4th December 1819"complains of pain at his stomach which he thinks
will be cured by tincture of rhubarb.

22nd March 1820, Appetite impaired -bowels regular.

14th April 1820, Pulse 90, Urine high coloured-complains of pain in
his back,heat natural.

17th April, 1820, Pulse 80-looks better and less pain in his back.

Later that year John Field, presumably by then was free from any
problems with his stomach and back, decided to take a short break from the Asylum.

10th November 1820, Escaped over the airing court wall last night about "six o'clock"
he returned of his own accord about 5 o'clock this morning.

16th Nobember,1820, Has not been well since his return-complains of sickness-
tongue white.

It hadn't taken John long to find something els to complain about,Jihn's case notes
from that time onwards record nothing particularly unusual until 25 years after his
admission when a doctor added the following extraordinary description of how John
used to spend some of his time in the Asylum.

#####
June, 1844, For years his frequent occupation has been to sit down on the flags and ####
take a piece of tobacco pipe and commence figuring, he uses(pg 18) the Arabic numerals
in order for the letters of the Alphabet A represents the figure 1, B by 2,C by 3 etc
thus his rows of figures are in the place of letters and his occupation is writing by
cyphers, for example ,the name John Field stands thus..10 15 8 14 6 9 5 12 4.
Having obtained these numbers ,or others furnished by any other words, he
multiples,adds,divides or subtracts them in numerous ways, hence it will be easily
perceived that the combination being unlimited, an infinite variety of results may
be obtained.
These resulting figures are, in their turn, considered as letters, which are formed into
words, sometimes rational but generally most anomalous and unheard of sounds,
they have usally some personal signification -the name of an estate to which he is entitled,
the person who left it to him, the act of Parliament according to which he ought to be
set at liberty, the time of his liberation, the money owing him,the name of his secret
enemy, etc,etc,etc.
It is unknown how he got this system of cyphers, the probability is that he has learnt
it from someone, he appears to regard it as a means of arriving at secret knowledge,
and practices it as an astrologer in former times,consult the stars.
The following is an instance -he said "N o n e spells 'none' or 'no ne' and it is in the
last clause of the act and signifies that they have no right to keep me here"
He then writes it down, 14 15 14 5 these figures he divides with great facility of manner
by 12 (the number of pence in a shilling) and by 20 (the number of shillings in a pound)
12) 14 15 14 5
20) 117928-9
5896-8-9
Then he reads 'Five thousand eight hundred and ninety-six stops,this is what they have to
pay me an hour , these marks are against "them" but the irrational,incoherent explanations
are to intricate, to extensive and moreover too mystical to be followed any length.
All the concerns of life undergo this perplexing process and to a listener he will
discourse in this way for a very long time, yet in many matters of everyday life he is
shrewd and intelligent.
His moral feelings are undoubtedly benevolent and highly conscientious, indeed instances
of genuine compassion, and of a rigid equity occur frequently, the disease is mental, he
is said to be a Deist, but his religious opinions have never fairly manifested themselves,
he seems to think seldom of such things-he sometimes speaks of the Justice and the Benevolence
of God, he says 'God is said to be merciful, I hope he is, for he if he punishes those who keep me
here with strict justice, the punishment will be terrible, I hope he is merciful. #######

Johns case notes show that was to be little change in his health or behaviour during the next eleven
years and that it also reflected in the Chaplain's Journal.
The Asylum chaplain, Reverend Thomas Bayley Clarkson, had been appointed by the Committee
of Visitors in 1843, when aged 48, he kept a journal during the 26 years of his tenure and over the
time it had spread to multiple volumes but only one leather bound volume has survived, covering
1853-1854.
It is written very nearly and every patient mentioned appears in an under at the front, the Reverend's
journal was intended to be inspected by the visiting magistrates so in it he recorded all the services
which had been conducted, statistics of attendees,names of patients and staff who had taken
communion and of great value in better understanding the 'proper people' his insightful reflections
on the patients with whom he had come into contact.
John Field features in the Chaplains Journal in an entry made on '17th March 1854.3 ;
It is as long as the month of January,in the last year V. VII P. 455 since allusion has been made to
John Field now in the 36th year of his captivity, so much has in earlier volumes been said about
him and so little change has taken place, physically or mentally, during the eleven summers and
winters which the Writer has passed in close neighbourhood with him that a few sentences would
comprise all that needs be added in order to bring down his uneventful history to the present date.
Chaplains Journal 1854
The little change which has occurred in John's outward man is rather for the better, for contrary to
the usual course of nature, his wrinkled face is looking fresher and his person stouter than was years
ago and this notwithstanding considerable peevish irregularity in the eating of his meals, his age
is about 75 and he seems to promise fair for an extreme old age.
He has a good deal of personal strength remaining and tones of his voice are in good force, though not
always well employed.
As for his delusions they are as extravagant and multitudinous as ever,embracing every subject in
creation and consequently admitting of no increases to argue with him in any supposable topic would
be as hopeless as the attempt to cut down an aged oak with a pen knife.
Occasionally he puts in a demand form which is difficult to evade, "My excellent John" the Chaplain said
to him the other day 'I assure you I have no more power to let you out, than Ihave to jump over the moon"
'Oh you haven't' was his reply, "well then say that it not a key that you have in your hand and I will believe
you" - "I can't spare my key John" he replied "Why bless you I give it back again as soon as ever I came back from the
bank"
This appeal being insufficient he turned abruptly away in dudgeon and mal content.

Despite the Chaplains prediction for John looking as if he would reach an extreme old age, that was not to be
as in Junuary the following year Jihn's health began to decline.
He started to refuse medicine,his language became incoherent and he expressed ever more notion,
John Field, cypher, writer passed away on 9th May, 1855 at the age of 71 years having spent over half of
his life in the Asylum.
He was buried at Holy Trinity Church in nearby Rothwell, four days later.......