Lunatic Asylum and bigamous marriage. Help please!

[erica236]

Hi,
I am researching the very complicated Cran/n family (I am one of them!) and have found a possible bigamous marriage. All the facts I have found point to this but I would like other opinions as to wether it is possible.
I have Joseph Cran - shoemaker - married to Hannah Taylor in 1828 - Leeds.
On the 1841 census she seems to be in the Lunatic Asylum - no records found for Joseph.
In1845 Joseph married Hannah Thompson (widow) in Manchester. Joseph had the same occupation and the same father, William, who was a cloth spinner which seems to prove this is the same person.
However, in 1851 Joseph is back with Hannah Taylor in Pudsey. Hannah Thompson is back in Manchester living with her mother and classed as "widow". It complicates matters that they are both Hannahs but helps that one is from Yorkshire and one from Manchester.
So... did Joseph enter into a bigamous marriage while his living wife was in an asylum then get "found out"
Is it possible that she could have been discharged from the asylum?
After Joseph's death she went on to marry Richard Robinson so whatever her problem was, it must have been solved.
I can't find any further records for Hannah Thompson but she droped the Cran name and reverted to her first married name.
Complicated! Any thoughts?
Erica

[jim1]

It all sounds very likely.
It was a criminal offense so he may have  done time for it.
Hannah (2) calling herself a widow is face saver.
It may be he believed Hannah (1) was never coming out.
When she did he would have had the responsibility for her upkeep.
Going back to her was the common sense thing to do as he could
have been pursued by the Parish for maintenance payments, that's
if he did go back to her.

[erica236]

Thanks for replying. Yes, I think it is likely. I wasn't sure if people ever got out of these asylums! Maybe it depended on why they went in in the first place?

[Daisypetal]

Hi,

You might be able to get Hannah's asylum records from here,

https://www.catalogue.wyjs.org.uk/CalmView/Overview.aspx

You could give them a call to see if they can help.

Regards,
Daisy

[Rena]

Thanks for replying. Yes, I think it is likely. I wasn't sure if people ever got out of these asylums! Maybe it depended on why they went in in the first place?

One of my mother's female cousins was put in an asylum by her husband.

She was born very early in the 20th century and after the birth of a baby her husband had two doctors sign that she should be put into the local asylum (children know it as the 2loony bin").

Her sisters thought that she was suffering from and should have been treated as having,  "baby blues".

Her family asked the husband to sign her out but he refused and remarried.  As the husband had had her admitted he was the only one who could request her release.   Eventually she'd been in there so long that her family thought she'd been "institutionalised" and did not think she could think for herself and live outside the institution.

[erica236]

That's interesting, how terrible, poor lady. It seems a similar situation to my ancester. Hannah did not have any children but perhaps she lost one which would understandably have affected her state of mind! At least she was eventually released but I feel so sorry for the second "wife" who was then just disgarded!

[maddys52]

It seems there are patient records available.
https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/176e7efc-c576-3cab-a7e5-9e8f665556ad
https://www.southwestyorkshire.nhs.uk/mental-health-museum/discover/patient-records/
 I think you will need to contact them, as Daisy says, the West Yorkshire Archive Service holds the records.

Reading a bit about the Hospital, it seems that Hannah's being discharged is quite likely. There are a few case studies mentioned here where patients were discharged.
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/history/murder-delusion-escape-despair-life-21291684

Curious that Joseph is hard to find in 1841. 

[zetlander]

re Hospital Records  --  slightly o/t

My father was held in a Mental Hospital in the 1960's.  Accessed his records a few years ago.  There was no record of him having had ECT - these records 'removed.'  He definitely had sessions of ECTs my mother recalls having to sign for him to have ECT on a number of occasions. Also recalls visiting him when shortly after he had had ECT.
Still a lot of controversy about ECT - I guess that's why records removed.

So when applying for records try to ensure you get the whole lot.

[Galium]

If you use Ancestry, they have a document showing that Hannah Crann, wife of Joseph Crann was living in Hunslet in 1847:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01sjc/

She was called upon to swear an oath relating to her brother Joseph Taylor's rights of settlement.  Presumably she was considered to be of sound mind on 6 August 1847.