A history of the provision of treatment for mental health in nineteenth-century Surrey

The thesis presents a study of the provision of resources for the care and treatment of the insane in nineteenth-century Surrey. It covers the period between the mid 1770s until 1900 but focuses particular attention on the period 1830 - 1890. It examines the establishment of private asylums, county lunatic asylums and other institutions providing accommodation for the mentally ill, and, so far as possible, the care of single patients in their homes or other residences designated for that purpose. It traces the growth of legislation aimed at regulating the operation and conduct of asylums including their licensing, inspection and maintenance of records. It examines the impact of such legislation in the county with particular regard to the duties and responsibilities which fell upon those concerned with its implementation and administration at the local level. This examination includes the monitoring of private asylums and the processes by which the need for public asylums was established, their building and commissioning, staffing and subsequent asylum management. It examines the relationship between the requirements of the poor law and lunacy legislation for the care of pauper lunatics, and, therefore, includes within its purview the accommodation of the mentally ill in poor law institutions. It also examines, therefore, the roles of the local justices and poor law officials in the provisions made for the care and treatment of the insane poor. The study draws to a conclusion in the late 1880s coincidental with the reform of local government boundaries which resulted in a change of administrative responsibilities in Surrey and the newly created London local authorities