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After Anne’s petition for her husband’s release in September 1854 various new people appear in the story, trying to help William, though some seem almost comical in their delay’s and disorganisation.
A letter is sent by a Mr Millson who identifies himself as a former inmate with William at Bethlem Hospital but who was now free and doing well as a partner in a civil engineering and surveying company in London (having been described as an architect and civil engineer before his conviction). He states his belief in William’s innocence and that he had given a Mr White £150 to work for his release (or possibly, at the very least, removal to a better asylum). He also promises a job as a clerk at his company would be available when he is freed with an annual salary of £150.
It is possible that Millson was involved in doing Anne’s petition in September or possibly produced his own petition around the same time. Wilmshurst wrote to Millson sometime around that time and it is possible that Millson encouraged Anne to do the petition as he wrote to Wilmshurst in December “you may thank me for getting your Wife to assist you”.
Wilmshurst and Millson probably only overlapped by a month or two but they either stayed in contact or had resumed contact. Like Wilmshurst, Millson had been convicted of obtaining money by false pretences, though only £7, considerably less than Wilmshurst, and he had been sentenced to 7 years transportation leaving a wife, three children and very elderly parents. His relations had petitioned for a reduction of the sentence or early release partly by comparing the severity of his sentence with “a gang of swindlers practicing an extensive and aggravated system all over the Kingdom” tried at the same time who were only given 18 months, at most. After a year in solitary confinement and 3 months doing hard labour he had been admitted to Bethlem “because his intellects had become so impaired”.
Much of his story was similar to Wilmshurst, Millbank Prison solitary, not transported, hard labour and then to Bethlem. But unlike Wilmshurst, he did admit his crime, and, most significantly, he had since been freed and had returned to his former profession.
At this time Wilmshurst also made his first contact with ALFS (The Alleged Lunatics Friend’s Society) and so it is possible that Millson told him about their campaigning for those in asylums. There are many letters to and from John Perceval, one of the founders of ALFS, and the first one mentions Gilbert Bolden which is the first link between Bolden and the Wilmshursts.
On 20th September Wilmshurst started the correspondence with two letters to John Perceval. The first introduced his case, putting his usual reasons why he wasn’t guilty, and says a little on the brutality at Fisherton House, asking for ALFS to help. He suggests Perceval contact his wife or Millson who had all the details of his case. The second letter was dictated by another inmate of Fisherton House, again telling a story of unjust incarceration but also making a number of serious complaints about the mistreatment of patients of the asylum. The story had some similarities to William’s in that he said that his relatives had arranged for someone to falsely accuse him, as a result of which he was sent to Australia and when he returned he found that his relatives had taken his possessions. (The similarity of William’s story to other people’s stories in a number of cases makes me wonder if he copied the stories in the hope of helping his possibility of being released - obviously there’s no way of proving this). Quoting from this letter on the mistreatment -
“To add to my sufferings I have been put under tortures degrading to human nature, and I
have been an eye witness to acts which, if publically known would bring eternal shame and
punishment on the perpetrators. … There are not only continued acts of cruelty of this kind but it
is a regular organised system connived at if not endorsed by the Doctor.
Since I have been here I have been treated with the most inhuman neglect having been
deprived of proper nourishment under a disease of the liver and internal parts which threatens
every hour to deprive me of life. Such is the callous inhumanity of the Doctor, that he sees me
day after day pining away without allowing me those things which are necessary to preserve my
life, although he takes good care to charge the government for wines, food, medicines etc., that
we never good (sic), without caring what becomes of us, as long as he can put money in his own
pocket and conceal his own villainy.
Two brothers who are interested in making merchandise of us are the Proprietors of the
Asylum and they admit of no appeal from their decisions. They will allow no one to question or
interfere with what they do, and if a poor patient venture to speak he is instantly made to feel their
vengeance - there is no enquiry when they die however suspicious their deaths may be. After
patients have been brutally treated and nearly murdered, they have been known to die very shortly
after and no enquiry has been made. Patients are intimidated from speaking through a fear of
being murdered. The whole evil is a result of a want of proper investigation and as long as the
Doctors can prevail to intimidate the patients and shut the eyes of the Magistrate and
Commissioners by making false statements and preventing examination I can see no hope of a
stop being put to the disgraceful atrocities that are continually taking place.
Trusting that you will take steps to obtain redress for us,
I remain Sir,
Yours respectfully
B Lomas
P.S Sir, You will observe that I am obliged to get Mr Wilmshurst to write for me. I am so
watched and unless these cruelties here done are published I shall be obliged to redress myself so
as to be brought before the court.”
Fisherton House vetted all mail - this may have been a condition of his incarceration there as the prisons also did this - so Wilmshurst developed a way of smuggling letters in and out by someone who couldn’t read who was given a small “fee” for the risk he took.
Unfortunately, there was then a delay as John Perceval was in Germany so he didn’t get the letters until his return in November but he immediately wrote a number of letters when he received them. One to Wilmshurst, asking for more information, sent via the secret route into Fisherton House, but he doesn’t seem to have got an answer to this. Another to Millson but apart from doing a petition for Wilmshurst (possibly the one done by Anne in September) he didn’t think Millson knew much about the case. (This is odd as Wilmshurst had said Millson did know about the case but it is possible that Perceval was interested in conditions in Fisherton House, while Millson only knew about the legal case). He also wrote to Mrs Wilmshurst, and asked a friend to visit her, and she referred them to Mr White. Between them they provided Perceval with the details of the case that he wanted.
It was in the next month, December, that Millson wrote his reply to Wilmshurst containing the offer of a job, referred to earlier. In the letter he makes various comments about William’s family. The letter opens with “I have enclosed your letter as desired to your Sister, you may thank me for getting your Wife to assist you.” Then later “Your father-in-law is a deceitful man and your brother-in-law I never wish to see, it is useless for any of them to try and keep you at Fisherton House. I have from them no money credentials for even to combat with” (I am uncertain about the writing in the last sentence but this is what it looks like).
This was the first mention of William’s brother-in-law, Mr Beaman, but it becomes clear, later, that there were long standing disputes between them (at least in William’s eyes). The comments about his wife and father-in-law are more surprising as they seemed to have been working for William’s release and Anne’s most recent attempt was only 3 months earlier so I’m not sure if Millson can be trusted. One document says that he had been a convict who was transported to Australia but was later pardoned and returned to this country. However, I think he was sentenced to be transported but this never happened and he was in prison for a while, then in Bethlem Asylum with William, and later released early
The letter finishes by saying that a clergyman and a doctor would visit him soon - I don’t know if this was for his care or to help with obtaining his release.
The letters of Millson and Perceval seem to present different pictures of how involved Millson is and who is the contact with Mr White - perhaps Millson, White and Mrs Wilmshurst were working closely so Millson hadn’t duplicated what the other’s had said, giving Perceval the wrong impression, or perhaps someone is exaggerating their involvement but these are only guesses.
One thing where Perceval does seem to agree on with Millson is the involvement of Mrs Wilmshurst. A little while later Perceval wrote about his first contact with Anne -
“I also wrote to Mrs Wilmshurst and requested a Friend in the neighbourhood of her residence
to call on her - from whom, and from a Mr White, a Surveyor’s Clerk to whom she referred me I
(and Mr Bolden the Solicitor of the Alleged Lunatics Friend’s Society) gathered this information,
that in consequence of her want of success in behalf of her husband, Mrs Wilmshurst, for the sake
of her only child, a daughter [incorrect, she had a son], had been advised to cease all further
interference in his behalf and to try and conceal his story and his existence, and that she had been
persuaded to follow these counsels.”
It would be interesting to know who had advised her and what their motive was. It might have been friends and family, concerned for her wellbeing, but if there is any truth in William’s claim that there is a conspiracy against him then we are left to wonder if this is in some was a result of that conspiracy.
In January Wilmshurst wrote to Perceval with more information about the treatment of inmates at Fisherton House. The letter was smuggled out and sent to Mr White, probably in response to a request by him. This letter describes conditions in a similar way to Lomas’ letter.
“Worse cruelties than those which took place at Bethlehem, Birmingham (Prison) etc are daily
perpetrated here. Many a poor Patient has fallen sacrifice to the murderous system for the
prevention of which your noble Society was formed. The poor creature are constantly irritated,
beaten with broomsticks, knocked down, jumped upon, and ill-treated in such a way, that many
frequently die within a few days after, and those who witness these atrocities are so intimidated that
they dare not speak for fear of being served in the same manner. I know of five instances in which
the poor creatures have died within a few days after being so used, but the Doctors take every
precaution to prevent an exposure, and did they know what I have written no doubt my life would
be taken.”
Perceval seems to have been slow in acting on the information. In February he wrote a letter about Wilmshurst and Lomas and the information he had found out, including a transcription of their three letters but I don’t know who it is to or what its purpose was - it seems like the first page, or a covering letter, is missing. I can only guess that he was writing for advice or help. He later refers to Mr Drummond MP helping to put the case to the Home Office so it possible that this letter was to him.
It wasn't until the end of the next month that Perceval wrote to the Home Office, sending a covering letter for the letters of Wilmshurst and Lomas and asking the Home Secretary to investigate Fisherton House and the accusations being made. Given that the accusations included claims of violence to those who spoke out about their treatment, it seems very strange that he thought this was a good approach to the problem and perhaps indicates the level of trust there was in Doctor’s at the time, perhaps making him think it was impossible for harm to come to Wilmshurst or Lomas at the hands of the Doctor. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, he failed to include the letters of complaint and twelve days passed before he received a reply informing him of this. Another 12 days pass and he sends back a long letter convinced that he did include the letters and giving lots of details of why he thinks this. Three days later he writes again with the letters enclosed and an explanation of how they became separated when he handed them in for posting at his club, the Parthenon. So the Home Office was finally in possession of the complaints for investigation in the middle of April 1855.
There was then another long delay before the Home Office acted on these letters. Perceval wrote to them on 1st July to enquire what action had been taken and they replied on 17th July apologising that the letter containing copies of the complaints of Wilmshurst & Lomas had been “accidentally overlooked” but the Home Secretary “has now caused a communication to be addressed to Dr Finch upon the subject & he will be prepared to adopt any further measures which circumstances may appear to require”. The letter also adds that “Lomas & Wilmshurst having recovered from their insanity were removed from Fisherton to Millbank Prison in May”
So the Home Office made the surprising move of writing to Dr Finch, enclosing copies of the letters of Wilmshurst and Lomas, and asking him to investigate the allegations that had been made about mistreatment of patients at his asylum. Not surprisingly, Dr Finch wrote back saying he could find no basis for the accusations and the Home Office passed on this response to John Perceval at the end of August, 1855. It is amazing that the Home Office thought that this was a satisfactory way of investigating complaints. It once again seems to indicate how trustworthy Doctors were, in the view of society, and probably how poor the care for lunatics in asylums was.
Perceval wrote back to Home Office on 3rd September complaining that criticisms of Fisherton House had not been properly investigated and that further enquiries should be made. The Home Office wrote back on the 27th that having consulted with the Commissioner for Lunacy they were satisfied that the “complaints were not well founded”.
As the letter indicated, things had moved on for William. He had been in asylums for 3 years but in May he was identified as recovered and fit for removal back to prison and so he was moved back to Millbank Prison for 2 weeks, then to Portsmouth Prison for 2 months and then, finally in August to Dartmoor Prison, another one of the newly opened prisons, similar to Portland Prison, where it was noted that he wasn’t fit to be put in solitary confinement.
So, as it turned out, the fact that William’s letter of complaint were sent to Dr Finch didn’t matter as he had left Fisherton House by then. It has crossed my mind that Wilmshurst’s removal from Fisherton House might have been because of his complaints, and that sorting this out was the reason for the delay in starting the investigation but most organisations seem to have logged all their correspondence and I haven’t seen anything to support this suspicion.
John Perceval’s main interest was in campaigning for individuals wrongly held in asylums and improving the quality of treatment in the asylums. He continued his very slow campaign with the Home Office about treatment at Fisherton House, writing to Wilmshurst in Dartmoor Prison in December 1856 to get more information about his experiences of Fisherton House. He then wrote to the Home Office again with this additional information in January 1857 and requesting further investigation of Fisherton House.
The last letter received a reply in Feb 1857 saying that the Home Office wouldn’t consider further information from Wilmshurst because the case had “already been inquired into and closed”! Not a satisfactory result. Perceval wrote a letter to Wilmshurst at Dartmoor reporting this rejection and this is the last that I have found.
While it is not a large number of letters written by Perceval relating to William’s case, this was just one of many that he was campaigning for and shows a significant level of commitment by someone in the upper classes on behalf of people of lower ranks in society.
After all this activity everything dies down again, perhaps because Perceval was doing most of the work and freeing Wilmshurst from prison wasn’t the concern of ALFS. There was a brief report in April 1856 saying that William had been suffering from “Palpitations and general debility” but was now improved and then there doesn’t seem to be anything that happens until 1858.
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