QGR3/3

General Annual Report of the Justices of the Peace to the General Quarter Sessions, including the reports of the Keeper of the Gaol & House of Correction; the Surgeon of the prisons and the Chaplain of the prisons. Includes the following:

19 Oct 1841

From: 1840 To: 1841

The Gaoler reported at Midsummer Sessions that the conduct of 5 male prisoners all boys, had been very bad and they had been punished 2 or 3 times. James Brain a lunatic prisoner who was remanded to prison from the last Assizes during Her Majesty's Pleasure was much improved in health but suffered much from fits and it was with much difficulty that four men could hold him. The Surgeon reported at Epiphany Sessions that fever of the typhoid type had prevailed in the Gaol through nearly the whole quarter. Varying in degree of virulence from its mildest to its most malignant.The disease was ushered in by violent diarrehea which continued 2 or 3 days previous to the marked attack of fever and in some instances it continued through the entire progress. This in some case induced great prostration of the vital powers and in three instances the termination had been fatal. One of these was a healthy boy the other two of wekly constitutions and one of them afflicted with scrofula in its worst form, of very weak intellect and he had been subject to the greatest privation previous to commitment. In the House of Correction the whole quarter had been marked by an unusual number of cases. 13 cases of petehial disease. In the female ward there had been very little illness. At Easter Sessions the Surgeon reported only 4 cases of fever in the Gaol. In the House of Correction there had been the average amount of illness but none of the cases were of a serious nature except that of a boy named [Jabez] Holland whose illness he feared would terminate fatally. A female [Ann Neale] under sentence of two years imprisonment for concealment of childbirth had been repeatedly attacked with erysipelas which though temporarily alleviated by the ordinary treatment returned with all its former violence. He thought it a case in which commutation of punishment would be very desirable. At Midsummer he reported that fever had disappeared. The lunatic James Brain had several epileptic fits of a violent description for a few days requireing the constant attendance of several prisoners. They had subsided but his removal would relieve the Governor and himself from a constant source of anxiety. In the House of Correction one death had occured - the boy Holland mentioned in his last report had gradually sunk. The female prisoner Ann Neal had been removed to Bedford Infirmary and had derived considerable benefit. The Visiting Justices stated that they could not conclude their report without expressing their regret that the Classification of the Prisoners in the Gaol was very unsatisfactory and more calculated to degrade than to improve the habits and character of the prisoners.

item

Brain, James,
Holland, Jabez,
Neale, Ann,
Tregenza, John,
Banfield, James,
Short, C,
Maclear, George

BEDFORD, Bedford Prison, County Gaol, House of Correction, magistrate, general justices of the peace, chaplain, surgeon, imprisonment, crime, punishment, health, illness, disease, epilepsy, typhoid, scrofula, erysipelas, Bedford Infirmary