| Description | In the first bundle there are the following enclosures:
With H/D/8/2 - affidavit concerning the patient, with the Hospital physician's certificate.
With H/D/8/5 - affidavit concerning the patient, James Ray, a goldsmith. The signatories to the bond and affidavit include the celebrated Huguenot goldsmith Paul de Lamerie, and two other goldsmiths.
With H/D/8/22 - certificate signed by five of the patient's neighbours in Phoenix Street, Christ Church, Spitalfields, concerning his condition.
H/D/8/6, concerning Abigail Verdon, 1739, is a bond to Bethlehem Hospital ('Bedlam'), to pay for her apparel and bedding and funeral expenses, and to receive her if discharged. Enclosed are: (a) settlement certificate from the parish officers of St Dunstan's, Stepney; (b) undertaking by a friend of the patient and by Peter Cabibel, Governor of the French Hospital, to indemnify the hamlet of Mile End New Town, with Cabibel's receipt for a later payment of expenses; (c) receipt for payment for a rug and blanket, from William Byrch, the Steward of Bethlehem Hospital; and (d) receipt for exxpenses incurred on the patient's behalf, including her funeral, February 1739/40.
H/D/8/26 (apparently regarded as the equivalent of a bond) is an order of 1744 by two Middlesex justices of the peace to the parish officers of Christ Church, Spitalfields, to remove Marie l'Heureux, who is 'furiously mad' and 'dangerous' to the Hospital of the French Refugees, and (if need be) cause her to be chained. Enclosed are: (a) a letter to the Hospital Directors, from two persons, petitioning for her admission; (b) an undertaking (on printed form) from the parish officers to Guy's Hospital, 10 July 1745.
The wrapper of bundle H/D/8/1-31 is on the back of a petition for an admission to the Hospital, 22 February 1749/50 (see entry for Jacques Soblet in Marmoy's extracts).
Bundle H/D/8/54-137 is labelled 'Obligations d'Indemnisatoins dont les objets sont morts'. From 1740 to 1758 the bonds are on a printed form, for £500, and the undertaking is given to the Hospital Treasurer. |
| AdminHistory | The Hospital's earliest patients included those with severe mental health problems and disabilites, and it became clear to the Directors that they needed legal protection against (a) a possible suit brought against them for wrongful detention of such inmates, and (b) damage caused by inmates to Hospital property, or to property of third parties who might hold the Director's responsible.
Before such cases were admitted, it became customary to require a guarantor or guarantors to enter into a bond for payment of such damages and costs. Some of the early bonds also guaranteed the payment of a weekly pension towards the maintenance of the inmate in question. |