Leicestershire and Rutland Lunatic Asylum - Building Contract Books

The Quarter Sessions records for the Lunatic Asylum are not numerous. Some of the Visitors' Reports to Quarter Sessions from 1854 to 1883 will be found in the Sessions Bundles (see QS4/ ) but this series is incomplete, and copies from 1874 to 1889 are in the Order Books (see QS6/2/7-8). Two Building Contract Books for the Extensions in 1854 and later have survived (see below) but those for 1834-37 and 1848 (which should also be with the County Records) have long been missing, the former by 1850 and the latter by 1871 according to Inventories of County Records compiled in those years.

<p>For other records relating to the Asylum, see QS107/.</p>

In 1808 County Justices were empowered by Statute (48 George III, cap 96) to provide for pauper lunatics, either independently or jointly with other counties, a Lunatic Asylum under the management of a body of Visiting Justices. In 1828 this Act (with several amending Acts) was replaced by the Act of 9 George IV cap 40 which not only permitted neighbouring counties to combine for this purpose but also allowed them to act jointly with any body of Subscribers maintaining a private lunatic asylum. In such cases both the Justices and the Subscribers had to appoint Committees which together were to form a united Committee of Visitors to supervise all the business of the Asylum and to appoint a Clerk (and a Surveyor). The Clerk was required to enter all Building Contracts for the erection of the Asylum in a special book, which on the completion of the building was to be deposited with the County Records (or, where more than one county was involved, with the county paying the largest proportion of the expenses).

In 1845 by the Act of 8 & 9 Victoria cap 126 the permissive powers of the 1828 Act were replaced by a statutory obligation, which required the Justices of every county and also of every borough either to provide a lunatic asylum of their own or to combine with other authorities or private subscribers in building a new asylum or in enlarging an existing one; in 1853 the Act of 16 & 17 Victoria, cap 97, which superseded the Act of 1845, imposed upon the Committee of Visitors an obligation of placing before the Justices of every county or borough concerned an annual report on the state of the asylum. The Local Government Act of 1888 transferred the aforementioned powers and duties of the Justices to the newly-established County Councils and County Boroughs.

There was no separate Public Lunatic Asylum in Leicestershire before 1837. There were a number of private asylums, and for poorer patients a separate wing in the Leicester Infirmary butpauper lunatics had either to be accommodated in the workhouses or kept in their own houses. The Clerk of the Peace reported in 1833 that there were 164 pauper lunatics in the county and only 22 available beds in existing asylums, and in the following year it was decided to implement the 1828 Act and build a separate Lunatic Asylum in co-operation with a Body of private Subscribers which had been organised in the same year. On 17th September 1834 an Agreement was signed between the Leicestershire Justices and the Subscribers to pay in equal proportions the expenses of building and maintaining it, the Clerk to the Visitors being Thomas Freer, the Clerk of the Peace; land was bought from Leicester Corporation and the building was opened in 1837 - it is now part of the buildings of Leicester University.

An increase in the number of pauper lunatics quickly led to an adjustment of the agreement and further changes came after the passing of the 1845 Act which resulted in the County of Rutland sharing in the joint Asylum, which was now called the Leicestershire and Rutland Lunatic Asylum. A new agreement was made on 24th June 1848 and the Private Subscribers, who now bore only two tenths of the costs (Leicestershire seven tenths and Rutland one tenth) came to be known as "The Charity." By virtue of a local Act of 1848, which confirmed an Agreement with the Borough of Leicester, the Visitors were obliged to take in forty pauper lunatics from the Borough and as many over and above that number as could be accommodated in the pauper wards; to meet its needs the Borough could also request extensions to be made at its own cost.

To accommodate the increasing number of pauper lunatics chargeable to the Borough the Visiting Committee recommended additional building but in order that they should retain control over all the buildings they considered that the Borough should not be called upon to bear any of the costs of the extensions. These recommendations were approved by the Leicestershire Justices at Midsummer Sessions 1854.

The Borough of Leicester opened its own Lunatic Asylum in 1869, but the number of pauper lunatics from the two counties continued to rise and a new Agreement with the Subscribers was made in 1870, whereby the Wards of the Charity (i.e. private) patients were to be housed and run quite separately from the Pauper Wards and were to be limited to 50 beds. The Subscribers continued to pay a proportion of the costs for the upkeep of the furniture and the repair of the buildings but were not required to contribute towards the expenses of any new buildings or enlargement of the Asylum.

Separate Minutes and Accounts for the Charity were now kept (see QS107/2 ). In 1889 the Justices' share of control of the Asylum passed to the Leicester and Rutland County Councils respectively and in 1907 the Asylum was moved from Leicester to Narborough.