http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Rugby/Rugby.shtmlThe above link gives you some details about Rugby Workhouse and it shows you where the infirmary was in relation to the workhouse. Workhouses were the predecessors of the NHS and a lot of old workhouses are now clinics or hospitals.
Hatton was also known as Hatton on the Hill and later as Central Hospital and the locals feared being sent "Up the hill" to the local asylum. I worked there in the late 70's as a nurse and there were a lot of people there that should not have been there. Such as a elderly man that had been there since he was 14 for stealing a sixpence, polish soldiers who did not go home after the war etc.
Even if you were a bit on the rebellious side you could be committed as a child and never leave the Asylum again!
Hatton was a large imposing victorian built building with long corridors and wards, there were no siderooms. The only side rooms were the equivelant of padded cells where you could be placed in a strait jacket and left in there till you had calmed down. This practice only stopped in the mid 70's as a new generation of drugs were taking over to be used as medical coshes in effect.
It was not unusual for families to be split up and if his wife was self supporting she may not have needed to enter the workhouse. There is also the possibility that the couple may have become enstranged, there would have been no pressure on the wife to support her husband as there would have been on him to support her! Addmittance to the workhouse on indoor relief is not something that anyone really wanted as it carried a stigma, so I assume that the couple were seperated hence the Derby address for his wife.
The Guardians were made up mainly upper class people who did their bit for "charity" and they would detail how the workhouses were run, oversaw staff appointments etc. The asylum would need to know about his death so as not to expect his return and they would more than likely still have been responsible for him and so would have had to be responsible for notiyfying the wife. Any one that was in reciept of relief were the responsiblity of the parish they were born in, so Rugby may well have been contributing towards his upkeep at Hatton, which comes under Warwick.
Check out Warwick Archives and see if they have the Board of Guardians minutes for that period, he may be mentioned in there.
This gives some details about Hatton, it is a housing estate now.
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Rugby/Rugby.shtml
