An inquiry into the state of mind of W. F. Windham, Esq., of Fellbrigg Hall, Norfolk, before Samuel Warren, Esq., Q.C., and a special jury : upon the petition of General Windham, C. B., etc., the uncle of the alleged lunatic, and other members of the family, at Her Majesty's Court of Exchequer, Westminster, commencing December 16, 1861.

Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the state of mind of W. F. Windham, Esq., of Fellbrigg Hall, Norfolk, before Samuel Warren, Esq., Q.C., and a special jury : upon the petition of General Windham, C. B., etc., the uncle of the alleged lunatic, and other members of the family, at Her Majesty's Court of Exchequer, Westminster, commencing December 16, 1861. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    in Uio present year. ITis father died on the 24th of November, 1854. having- appointed by will Genera] Windham, his brother, and Lady Sophia, his widow, as his executors and the testamentary guardians of his son. At the age of twenty-one the son would become entitled to Fellbrigg-hall, with the park and timber, and a rental therefrom of about £3,100 per annum. That sum, however, would be reduced by certain deductions. In the first place, it would be subject to a deduction of £1,500 a year, the amount of his mother’s jointure; and, secondly, according to calculations, about £350 would be required to be laid out upon the property itself, so that, in point of fact, the young man would have an income of between £1,200 and £1,300. But there were certain other estates which were not to come into his possession until the year 1869. The object of so delaying his possession was that certain incumbrances upon the property might gradually be paid off; but it ■ appeared that, although he would come into a nominal income of about £9,000 per annum in 1869, there would still remain so large an incumbrance not paid off that the real income would not exceed £4,000 or £5,000. That income, according to the settlements, was to be an income for his own life. From earliest infancy he -was not like other children; he had not the usual intellectual powers ; in fact,, his case was one of mental deficiency—not of absolute raving mania, or anything of that kind, but of simple imbecility. It was matter of common knowledge that the deficiency of mental power in persons who were next to idiots was not unfrequently accompanied by a sort cf cleverness which, if the mind were sound, would unquestionably be an exceedingly valuable intellectual possession, but which was acknowledged to be not at all inconsistent with such a state of mind as rendered the party utterly incompetent to take care of himself or his own affairs. The father of the alleged lunatic early in his life noticed the weakness of his intellect, and he was so concerned and anxious about it that he consulted Mr. Nichols, a surgeon in Norwich, whose skill and knowledge as a medical man were known far and wide. Mr. Nichols would tell them how William Frederick Windham was brought to him by his father when he was not more than four or five years of age, how he examined him carefully, and how he predicted that, instead of the defect being removed, and the mind coming to a healthy state by the progress of time, the malady would increase as time went on. In fact, Mr. Nichols gave the father so hopeless an opinion that the latter did not again revert to the mental condition of his son, although he remained on intimate and friendly terms with the surgeon. While quite a boy the alleged lunatic, owring no doubt to his want of mental power, wag- exceedingly fond of low company and low pursuits. He went among the servants and did acts inconsistent with his position as a young gentleman. He wished to wait at table, and even to wash the dishes. At one period of his life his father, indulging him as he would indulge a person of admittedly unsound mind, actually purchased for him the livery of a footman that he might act as the menial he desired to be. The first school he went to was that of Dr. Badbam, at Blackheath. He was then about nine years of age. His manners at Blackheath wrere described as having been peculiarly childish. He was very feeble in his mental powers, and then were exhibited to the observation of the wh*le school, what afterwards increased with the progress of time—peculiarly dirty and nasty habits with respect to his person, and a strong propensity to express himself in filthy language. In 1854 he was removed to Eton, where it was hoped that the discipline of a public school, and the opportunity of mixing with others of his own condition and age, would effect an improvement both in his mental capacity and in his manners and habits. At first, and for a very short time, he was in the house of Mr. Balston, one of the masters; but his conduct there was so extraordinary, and so inconsistent with the power of taking reasonable care of himself, that it was deemed desirable to put him into the hands of a private tutor. He was, accordingly, placed under the care of Mr. Cheales, a man of great experience in the educa- \ tion and management of boys. Mr. Cheales soon found that he had undertaken a most difficult and disagreeable duty. He tried in a variety of ways to deal with the unfortunate youth who had been intrusted to his care. Mr, Windham was now a* ■ # young man about sixteen years of age, but Mr. Cheales discovered that very little could be done with him in the way of education. He could introduce only a very small amount of knowledge into his head. Ho adopted successively various inodes of dealing with him. First he tried kindness, then he tried reasoning, and then he tried punishment. The result was that the only means of operating upon him, and then only for a short time, was found to be actual personal chastisement—the-