Coton Hill Institution Lunatic Asylum

[KathMc]

I'm wondering if anyone would know where to get any records of employment (honest, he just worked there ) for the Coton Hill Institution Lunatic Asylum. My gr gr grandfather worked there during the 1881 census and if I can find length of employment I might get some idea of when he left England. That's him in my pictures.

Kath

[hepburn]

http://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=6262
  A little bit of it's  history..

[hepburn]

Hi Kath,
    Have you tried Ellis Island

[colinjohn]

Here's a link to the hospitals database:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=495&hospital=&town=stafford&searchdatabase.x=0&searchdatabase.y=0 - I assume that it's the right one.

Records can be found at: 
 
   Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service: Staffordshire Record Office
http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/archives/  

Record type Date range
 
Administrative  1812 - 1937
 
 General  1812 - 1854
 
 Finance  1819 - 1874
 
 Estates  1848 - 1851
 
 Admission & Discharge 1873 - 1937
 
 Clinical & Patients  1818 - 1919

 
 Colin

[KathMc]

Colin and Oonagh,

Thanks so much. This is great.

Oonagh, I have tried Ellis Island without success. The issue becomes, he is in the 1881 census and in NJ, married, with child by 1884. We did get his marriage record from the church and he married in NJ to a girl from Staffordshire. She is our big mystery. I think I have found her but can't be conclusive. Illegitmate I believe and I think I have her in the 1871 and 1881 census and she died in 1888 in NJ from complications from childbirth at 24. If she is the one I think, a very very sad life ending tragically and James never remarried (and he lived until 1943). I want to piece it all together.

Sorry to be so long winded and thanks all. I will follow up.

Kath

[stoneman333]

Hi Kath,

I've just stumbled across your post about Coton Hill from way back in 2007!

There are similarities between your query and parts of my current research - although we are clearly talking about different people - but it looks as though my Gt Grandfather may well have been working at the Coton Hill Asylum at the same time as your Gt Gt Grandfather.

Because of this I'm keen to know whether you managed to track down employment records for the Coton Hill Asylum? 

My Gt Grandfather was Samuel Davis and he was working as an "Attendant at Asylum" - residence "Cotton Hill" (sic)when he married a Mary Jane Bott in August 1879.

Like your relative, I think that Mary Jane died a few years later in about 1885, aged 27 - possibly in childbirth.

I don't know how long Samuel worked at the Asylum - he isn't there in the 1881 Census.  I think I've found him in 1881 - although the Census form seems to have him called James - but that's a different story!

As another possible connection, I couldn't help noticing that Davis is one of the names you are researching.......and some of Samuel's children from what I think was an earlier marriage appear to have gone "missing" - I wonder if they emigrated?  Samuel originally came from Upton Snodsbury in Worcestershire, and clearly appears to have lived in Staffordshire as well.

Anyway, I'll finish for now, but it would be good if you spot this response to your rather old post - and are able to get back to me.

Regards,
David

[KathMc]

David, I haven't found the records or any more answers on this. As far as my Davis family goes, That is my biggest mystery, but I do not believe they will be connected to yours. As far as I know, they were in the US probably pre-Civil War. My g-g-grandfather Davis is officially and definitely in NJ in 1874 with church records, but before that I search and search and he just doesn't want to be found, and after his wife dies in 1909, he disappears again. I think I have him in some early census records near Princeton, NJ, but I can't find any records to corroborate that is him, and with a name like Davis, that's definitely needed. The rumor is he was Welsh, but I can't confirm that either.

good luck with your research.

[stoneman333]

Thanks for your reply Kath - at least I can eliminate your Davis line from my research!

I'm in the UK, and though not close to the Stafford Records Office, I may well make the trip there later this year to see what they have on Coton Hill Asylum.  If you'd like to give me your relative's name I'd be happy to look for those details at the same time.

Regards,
David

[linell]

David, I would phone Stafford Archives before you plan any visit, although they have hundreds of documents on Coton Hill, I was told that there were no lists of Patients or Employees kept.

Linell.