Madman?

 In my recent searches for William I happened upon the following newspaper article:

Birmingham Daily Post, 21st May 1874

In 1874 William was hawking newspapers with his wife Ann, with whom he was living in the Gullet, Stafford Street. Nevertheless he is clearly still haunting his old home turf on Weaman Street as we learn he still frequents the Leopard Inn. Clearly he was aggressive towards the landlord, Mr Lummis, and, for whatever reason, wanted to break his mirror. We learn that Mr Lummis was frightened of William, and that William had made some serious threats to the man while wielding a carving knife.

The word “madman” is used to describe William repeatedly in this article, even by William himself. He even demonstrates this by imitating a cuckoo. This piqued my interest as it reminded me of another of William’s arrests, way back in 1849, when funnily enough, he assaulted the landlord of the Old Still on Weaman Street, threatening to kill him and also damaging his property. There was a particular detail in the report of the Birmingham Journal on 16th June that year that seemed relevant:

The complainant stated, that from the singular manner in which the prisoner had been behaving for some time, his friends suspected that he was somewhat deranged. This, however, the prisoner vehemently denied.

There seems to be a recurring pattern to William’s criminal behaviour. There is usually threats of violence, or violence, and usually destruction of property. Pubs are also a bit of a recurring theme, but then pub culture was very central to life back then. They weren’t just places for drinking, gaming and socialising. They were also meeting places for associations and clubs. Birmingham’s working classes didn’t have many other options when it came to where to spend their leisure time, so a pub is quite a predictable place to find someone beyond their home or workplace. I won’t therefore assume that alcohol was the root of his bad behaviour, though it probably didn’t help. 

There might be another clue to his behaviour from the final years of William’s life. William was admitted to the City Asylum on Lodge Road on 21st March 1889. He was a pauper lunatic, admitted for Mania, cause unknown, and his condition was “tremulous”. 

Source: Birmingham, England, All Saints Hospital Records, 1845-1931; Register of Admissions of Pauper Lunatics, 1884-1890

According to Michelle Higgs in Tracing Your Ancestors in Lunatic Asylums: A Guide for Family Historians, mania was:

…subdivided into acute mania or raving madness; ordinary mania or chronic madness of a less acute form; and periodical or remittance mania with comparatively lucid intervals. Acute mania was the first stage of the disease, in which there was a great deal of excitement, restlessness, a confusion of ideas and ‘vehemence of feeling and expression’.

Higgs explains that the next stage of the disease was chronic mania, with milder symptoms, though these could include delusions and hallucinations. Sufferers were a risk to themselves and the public however, particularly in a period of great excitement or violence.

While the admission records state the cause of William’s mania was unknown, annual reports from lunatic asylums list possible causes as: hereditary predisposition, intemperance, death of friends, over-anxiety and disappointment in love. There was also some recognition that poverty was a contributor to poor mental health. 

There are some fascinating case studies in Higgs’s book, and on reading some of those concerning patients with mania; aggression, violence, and destruction of furniture are common features.

In 1849, the Birmingham Journal reported that William had “conceived an enmity” to the landlord of the Old Still because of some “fancied injury”. I initially assumed that there was more to this story and that perhaps the two men had history and cause to dislike one another. But, is it possible that William was suffering a delusion, and merely believed he had a settle to score with the unfortunate gentleman? Could it be that he was living with an undiagnosed mental health problem for decades?

As for the cause of his diagnosed mania, I’ll probably never know, but William lived in poverty and had his fair share of tragedy. Who knows how he took the arrest and transportation of his little brother, John, in 1839? His first marriage seems to have been childless, maybe the marriage fell apart? His subsequent relationships were short lived and, certainly his relationship with Ann was an unhappy one. His family was full of tragedy with many of his nephews and nieces dying in infancy. Nine of his grandchildren died in infancy, that is assuming he had any contact with his grandchildren. Most records seem to suggest he was estranged from his only son. As for intemperance, he clearly liked a drink, so the medical professionals could have pointed to any of the above as a potential cause. With that much on his plate it would be hard to imagine how his mental health wouldn’t be affected. 

“I’m a dangerous madman” he said in the news clipping above. That sounds to me like he was parroting back something that had been said to his face time and time again by the people who knew him. Maybe he eventually came to believe it. Unfortunately, this belief left William isolated and utterly alone. He says repeatedly that nobody will be bound for him. Much of his life was spent either lodging, in a prison cell, or in the workhouse. In 1887 he is without a home and seeking out his nephew’s assistance, not his son’s. He died surrounded by strangers in a lunatic asylum. He must have been a desperately lonely man. This might explain why it took until he was 71 years old to get a diagnosis. Another of my ancestors was admitted to Powick Lunatic Asylum with acute mania in 1884. I have seen his patient notes and as you would expect he was incoherent, prone to delusion, and violent to the night attendants. However, the doctor treating him states that before his admission he had been attending him for “cerebral affection” for some years. Without family around him, William lacked a support network to seek medical attention.

I will never know for sure why William behaved the way he did, but if he was struggling with mania all those years it really does make the hardships he faced in his life even more difficult and tragic. It certainly doesn’t excuse his appalling treatment of people, but it might help at least explain it.