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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: itsrobert on Saturday 18 November 17 15:55 GMT (UK)
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Hello,
I've been looking at the admissions/religious creed registers for the Liverpool Workhouse which used to be located on Brownlow Hill and have come across some interesting entries for my 3rd great grandfather in the year before he died.
To cut a long story short, he was an Irish immigrant although he came with his family much later than the famine - I've pinpointed their arrival to about 1876. He was a boot maker and lived in the Mount Pleasant/Copperas Hill area.
The reason I'm posting this is because he was admitted to the workhouse a total of 8 times between December 1907 and when he finally died there in September 1908. His death certificate states that he died from "morbus cordis" which seems to have generally meant heart failure or death by natural causes if the doctor wasn't certain of the exact cause of death.
The interesting part is that I know his wife and son (married) were living at various houses on Blake Street (which seem to vary slightly month-to-month!) and on some occasions he was admitted from Blake Street. However, on about 3 of the occasions he was admitted to the workhouse that year, he was admitted from 129 Islington, or "Hignett's L.H.". After some research using the 1911 census, it seems that this was a lodging house on Islington.
Does anyone have any idea why he might have been living in a lodging house when I know his wife/son were on Blake Street (even when he is recorded as having been admitted from the lodging house, his wife is listed as being on Blake Street)? And why do you think he was admitted so many times in such a short amount of time? On one of the admissions, it says he was "found on Gill Street". Do you think this might suggest drunkenness? Or could it really have been his heart that caused him so much trouble? If it's any help, his stays in the workhouse were always fairly short (usually a few days) and in one case, he was admitted and discharged twice in a week!
Hoping that someone more educated in such things might be able to give me some suggestions to help explain this.
Many thanks,
Rob
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Was he an elderly chap? Possibly he was in poor health and needed care, or as you say he could have been on the drink and wife had kicked him out temporarily!
Are the admissions from the lodging house chronological ie did those admissions happen all together at the end or are they interspersed with the admissions from Blake Street?
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Thanks Milliepede.
Yes he was fairly elderly for the time - he was in his 60s.
Interestingly, the admissions from the lodging house are interspersed with the ones from Blake Street, as follows:
1. Admitted 3 Dec 1907 from 43 Blake Street, discharged 9 Dec 1907 (6 days). Wife at same address
2. Admitted 17 Feb 1908 from 129 Islington (the lodging house), discharged 20 Feb 1908 (3 days). Son at 23 Blake Street
3. Admitted 25 Mar 1908 from 129 Islington (the lodging house), discharged 30 Mar 1908 (5 days). Wife at 29 Blake Street
4. Admitted 9 Jul 1908 from 43 Blake Street, discharged 13 Jul 1908 (4 days). Wife at 16 Blake Street
5. Admitted 23 Jul 1908 from 43 Blake Street, discharged 28 Jul 1908 (5 days). Wife at same address
6. Admitted 15 Aug 1908 from 43 Blake Street, discharged 18 Aug 1908 (3 days). Wife at same address
7. Admitted 22 Aug 1908, found in Gill Street, discharged 26 Aug 1908 (4 days). Wife at 43 Blake Street
8. Admitted 12 Sept 1908 from Hignetts L.H. (the lodging house at 129 Islington), died 29 Sept 1908 (17 days). Wife at 29 Blake Street
So as you can see he was obviously at the lodging house in February and March 1908 and again in September 1908. But in between he was admitted from home on Blake Street. The one that really interests me is the admission in August where he was found on Gill Street. It's that one that suggests to me something untoward. He mustn't have had all his faculties if he was found on a street. I guess that could have been either drink or frailty of some sort? What do you think?
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What was his name? I'd like to view these records to see if I can deduce more information. For anyone wondering here is a link to the Creed Registers for Liverpool Workhouse below. As you can see you need the name to look up a specific dated entry for these registers:-
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/507318?availability=Family%20History%20Library
Blue
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If drink was a problem for your relative, i think the first port of call for him would be the local Bridewell. There were a few in that area of Liverpool including Prescot Street and Copperas Hill. However it would only be an enforced one night stay unless it was a Friday night. The area was thick with Pubs and i believe a number of Common Lodging Houses. These premises were paid for on a nightly basis. The inmates having to vacate the premises early morning and re-applying in the evening. If that was the case, it would not have been a place of choice for a sick person. The Workhouse although free, demanded that an inmate did some form of work. This again would not be the ideal for your relative with a heart condition.
I suggest that the problem may have been marital, a means of escape!
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Many thanks for your insight there, purlin. That sounds like an interesting theory - I guess I'll probably never know for certain but it's certainly an amusing thought! There's no other evidence I have to suggest drink (unlike other parts of my family at the time, one or two of whom actually died from excessive drinking) and I guess if he had a heart condition he may well have collapsed on the street on the occasion he was found and admitted to the Workhouse. He may even have had something like angina. I know his great-grandson (my granddad) had angina in his later years.
Blue70, if you want to look him up his name was Terence Callaghan.
Many thanks for your help.
Rob
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Just been searching another volume of admissions to the Workhouse and found a few more entries for Terence:
1. Admitted 23 Oct 1906 from 129 Islington. Discharged 27 Oct 1906. Wife at 2 Hawke Street
2. Admitted 3 Nov 1906 from 129 Islington. Discharged 7 Nov 1906. Wife at 2 Blake Street
3. Admitted 30 Aug 1907 from 43 Blake Street. Discharged 2 Sept 1907. Wife at same address
So once again Terence was admitted from the common lodging house and then from his home. Really strange this one! It does sound like something was going on - maybe poor marital relations is the explanation as to why he is constantly living between home and the lodging house.
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Looking at the first few it just gives ward numbers for his location within the workhouse. If we could work out what each numbered ward was used for it might help to establish what problems he had.
Blue
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The Terence Callaghan saga has taken another twist. In addition to the ones stated above, I have also found these admissions:
1. 30th Jan 1902 from 4 Pomona Street, wife at same address
2. 8th Dec 1902 from 4 Pomona Street, wife at same address
3. 14th July 1903 from 10 Chapel Lane, wife at same address
4. 17th Mar 1904 from the "streets", wife at 2 Hawke Street
5. 15th Apr 1904 from 22 Mulberry Street, wife at same address
6. 4th May 1905 from 2 Jones Street, son at same address, wife at 2 Hawke Street
7. 15th July 1905 from 3 Jones Street, wife at same address
Perhaps the most interesting, though, is the earliest one I have found so far (and I've gone back to 1893 so far):
Admitted 4th June 1897 from 4 Pomona Street, wife at same address. However, next to the discharge date of 18th June 1897, in the "remarks" column it says he was transferred to Rainhill. This was a very large lunatic asylum near Liverpool. I've cross referenced with the admissions register for the workhouse and it says that on entry there he was admitted to a medical ward and it states that he had a "temporary disability".
This is a most interesting lead! I have contacted the Liverpool Record Office to see if they can help me with tracking down any papers relating to Terence's admission to the asylum.
I will be sure to post anything I found out - I'm hoping this may help to explain his large number of admissions to the workhouse between 1902 and his death in 1908 and his erratic living arrangements! Interestingly, it seems that only the 1897 admission resulted in him being transferred to Rainhill asylum. All the other entries just have a discharge date without any remarks.
Will keep you posted!
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Interesting developments. Two books you may be aware of already:- "The Liverpool Underworld: Crime in the City, 1750-1900" by Dr Michael Macilwee and "Irish, Catholic and Scouse: The History of the Liverpool-Irish 1800-1939" by John Belchem. The Irish in Liverpool were notable for both poor health and crime/disorder both I blame on the brutalising poverty of their background. They struggled more than other migrants to fit in and get on.
Blue
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This all makes painful reading but perhaps it does in part explain the reality of your relatives demise. The link below relates to Rainhill.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4410825/
The type of Irish patients admitted—physically decrepit, extremely poor, isolated from family and friends and suffering from chronic illness—meant that they required more nursing and care. While Irish patients often suffered from chronic disorders, they were noted in admission certificates and case records to be excessively disturbed, unruly and volatile, an association encouraged by traditional stereotypes of the Irish as excitable, bellicose and wilful and further fuelled by reports of unruly behaviour, fighting and high crime rates in the local press. This reputation was reflected in the diagnoses assigned to Irish patients. Mania was the most common form of mental disorder among all asylum patients, and in Rainhill Asylum it was diagnosed in 20 per cent of non-Irish patients. In contrast, over half of all male and female Irish patients were diagnosed with mania, an extraordinary difference.110 Mania was associated with incredible energy and strength manifested in violent, oftentimes unmanageable, outbursts, even among patients who were described as being weak and in poor bodily health. Time and again violence, dangerousness to others and frightening physicality was reported in the admissions certificates and case books amongst Irish patients: ‘wild and furious’, ‘strikes anyone in his way’, ‘raging violently’, ‘threatens each person in charge of him’.
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hi my mother was born at brownlow hill in 1924 as her mother was unmarried subsequently 'asked to leave' the family home!!!! my grandmother went on to become a baker/confectioner in a shop on sugnell street liverpool,,,,,,coincidentally now underneath the former workhouse,, present university!!!!!!
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hi my mother was born at brownlow hill in 1924 as her mother was unmarried subsequently 'asked to leave' the family home!!!! my grandmother went on to become a baker/confectioner in a shop on sugnell street liverpool,,,,,,coincidentally now underneath the former workhouse,, present university!!!!!!
Did you ever find out the father's name? Affiliation Registers are available to view at Liverpool Record Office for 1924-1964 [Ref: 347 MAG 3]. They show basic details, including the names of putative fathers, in cases where the mother went to court to ensure the father paid maintenance for the child:-
http://archive.liverpool.gov.uk/calmview/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=347+MAG&pos=21
Blue
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Many thanks everyone for the replies. Liverpool Record Office have been in touch with me today to say that Terence was at Rainhill Hospital for about 10 months before being discharged. Apparently, there should be admission papers and two casebooks (one from the main hospital and one from the annexe where he was relocated to for longer term care). I have asked for these to be digitised for me and I'm excited but also trepidatious about what they might contain! Apparently sometimes casebooks contain photographs of patients from admission and discharge, which might be a bit surreal if they exist for Terence! I'm also a bit unnerved by what I might find out in the papers. But, curiosity will always get the better of me so I've asked for them regardless. Terence was my great-great-great-grandfather, so quite distant to me really. It's still come as a bit of a shock that a direct ancestor was actually in a "lunatic asylum" as they were known then, even if it was only for 10 months!
Will keep you all posted in case you're interested in how this unfolds.
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Hi Rob,
I've had a look in the newspapers for Terence, in case he had any brushes with the law maybe relating to drunkenness or marital disputes, but unfortunately nothing is coming up.
Please keep us posted with any developments.
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Many thanks, Jool. I suspect that his strange comings and goings before 1908 might be partly explained by what I find out from the asylum records. I've gone through more Workhouse admission records back to the late 1880s and 1897 seems to be the first time he was ever in the Workhouse (as far as I can tell at the moment, anyway). It seems that his 1897 admission and subsequent spell in Rainhill may have kicked off a turbulent time in his life from about 1902 until his death in 1908. Will keep you posted.
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hi my mother was born at brownlow hill in 1924 as her mother was unmarried subsequently 'asked to leave' the family home!!!! my grandmother went on to become a baker/confectioner in a shop on sugnell street liverpool,,,,,,coincidentally now underneath the former workhouse,, present university!!!!!!
Did you ever find out the father's name? Affiliation Registers are available to view at Liverpool Record Office for 1924-1964 [Ref: 347 MAG 3]. They show basic details, including the names of putative fathers, in cases where the mother went to court to ensure the father paid maintenance for the child:-
http://archive.liverpool.gov.uk/calmview/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=347+MAG&pos=21
Blue
hi blue ,, i do have a printout from the library archives,, makes for very interesting reading!!!! i believe my grandmother did only stay for a short time after mom was born,,the father was already married to a catholic lady who wouldnt divorce him,, but i also believe he tried to support grandma and mom,,
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An update re: Terence Callaghan
I've now been provided with the papers relating to Terence Callaghan's time in the County Lunatic Asylum in Rainhill. I have to say I'm delighted with what I've received - detailed case notes and medical/personal history and even two photos of him on admission and discharge!! To actually see what my g-g-g-grandfather looked like boggles the mind!
Anyway, as hoped, it has given me some clues as to his erratic behaviour towards the end of his life. Basically, it appears from the case notes that he was the secretary/treasurer to a shoemakers' club/society in Liverpool (he was a shoemaker by trade) and that there was some sort of mix-up with the money (he claims to have been misled) and it clearly caused him some anxiety (the notes say that it is playing on his mind). This incident seems to have led him to turn to drink and he has ended up drinking excessively all day long (it even says beer was his particular preference!). This, in turn, seems to have exacerbated the problem (doesn't it always?) and he obviously ended up in the Workhouse suffering in some way. By the time he ended up at the asylum, he is initially diagnosed with acute mania - and then when he is moved to the annexe (where long term patients were located) his diagnosis is revised to dementia. He seems to have difficulty remembering things like dates and events and appears to be generally confused/disorientated. I'm pleased to say that his time at the asylum seems to have gone well - for a while there was little to no improvement in his condition, then after the turn of 1898, things seem to improve quickly and he was discharged recovered. One good thing is that there is a testimony from his former employer saying that he was a "splendid boot hand" for 22 years before he was ultimately sacked for his unreliable behaviour after repeated warnings. Terence worked as a shoemaker in the asylum and regained his ability to carry out his trade.
So, on balance - with a modern perspective - it seems to me that he suffered an unfortunate financial incident which caused him worry and anxiety, sufficient for him to turn to drink. This seems to have led him off the rails and ultimately being declared a "lunatic" (that bit was quite difficult to read, I have to admit). Whether he truly recovered, I would have to question. He seems to have been OK between his discharge in 1898 and 1902 when he goes back into the Workhouse. After that time, he went back at least 15 or more times before his death in 1908, often found on the streets or from a common lodging house, as you may recall. I wonder whether he actually struggled with drink on and off for the rest of his life. And I wonder whether his to-ing and fro-ing from home to the lodging house wasn't a result of his wife kicking him out due to drink?
All in all, it's a bit of a sorry story, but absolutely fascinating nonetheless. In the 18 months I've been into genealogy, this has been by far the most exciting discovery. Not only the photos of Terence - but also the detailed account of his life and character.
Sorry to ramble on - hope that was interesting. Many thanks once again for all your help and guidance while I've been researching this particular avenue.
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Very interesting. I remember another researcher on another site accessing similar information including photos. I think today we might call what he had a breakdown or a nervous breakdown.
Blue
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Very interesting, thank you Robert for the update. The photos are indeed a bonus, the power of the image is still as strong as ever. Heres to more interesting and complex discoveries!
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Hi Rob, thanks for updating us with your new findings. An interesting and sad story which must have been a little upsetting to read, but you now have a much clearer picture of the final years of his life, and photos of him too - brilliant!