A description of the crimes and horrors in the interior of Warburton's private mad-house at Hoxton : commonly called Whitmore House.

  • Mitford, John, 1782-1831.
Date:
[1825?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A description of the crimes and horrors in the interior of Warburton's private mad-house at Hoxton : commonly called Whitmore House. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    said Chawner, is a proof of madness, then let me have the com- pany of the Prince (now the King,) for he also is jealous of his wife. Mr. Chawner managed, by stratagem, to escape from the house, and commenced an action for false imprisonment against Warburton, but from an error in the indictment, Warburton es- caped, and Chawner did not renew the suit, though the judge advised him to do so. The servants in this house are men of the vilest description : if they are stout able-bodied men, no question is asked where they lived, or how they lived—and the women are hired on the same terms. One keeper, Kelly, was a deserter from the army ; another had served fourteen years at Botany Bay; another was a known thief at the police offices; and seven of the keeperesses were ac- knowledged common strumpets, and slept with the keepers or sane patients every night, and this was sanctioned by the house- keeper, old Mother Bruning. YOUNG SIDMOUTH, Clerk of the Pells for Ireland, Was kept by Warburton in a separate house, and had an esta- blishment—such as it was. The chariot was only a hired one, though Lord Sidmouth paid for a new one, and actually thought his son had a handsome equipage, when he was trudging on foot, attended by a single keeper, or rolling in a hackney coach. The lady who officiated as housekeeper to this gentleman was a. cast-off mistress of Warburton'?, by whom he had several chil- dren. The servants, who were dressed up when Lord Sidmouth came to see his son, were only three of the lower keepers sent from Whitmore House, to appear as if they constantly attended. The chambermaid was a strumpet, she was sent from Whitmore House for having had two bastards in the place ; but it is dan- gerous to dismiss any one initiated in the mjsteries of a mad- house; so Mr. Warburton provided for her as he had done for his mistress, at Lord Sidmouth's expence, or rather at the ex- pence of the nation, for his son was mad when he got the ap- pointment of CJerk of the Pells, at 30001. a year, and will continue so till his dying day. Lord Sidmouth is a conscientious man, yet he scruples not to rob the public, in order to pay a mad-house keeper for taking care of his son. C