In family history, ‘the workhouse’ often creates an image of hunger and destitution, but sometimes illness was the principle cause for admittance.
This narrative shares the story of my 3x great grandfather Jeremiah Lee, a husband and father who entered a Manchester Workhouse in the later half of the 19th century and didn’t return home again.
Ancoats
“The world’s first industrial suburb“
Jeremiah began his working life in England as a labourer at a gas works in Manchester. Leaving Ireland in around 1868, Jeremiah set up home on Tame Street in the All-Souls area with his wife Ellen and two daughters. Tame Street is in the neighbourhood of Great Ancoats Street and runs parallel with Every Street. Housing here during the 19th century was two, or three-story terraces, some with cellars, some without. Houses were small and tightly packed.
The Lee family lived at number 67 with their Irish friend John King and another lodger. Also in the house was Robert Boardman, his wife and their baby. It was common for multiple families to occupy these houses, one family to a room.
Jeremiah found work at the Manchester Gas Works at a time when the company was expanding. Disputes and strike action that took place in the 1860’s between masters and the working men was over and pay was considered ‘good’ compared with other low skilled occupations.
Before the soot of the Manchester Gas Works filled his lungs, Jeremiah’s world was the “Garden of Ireland”. He was born in the Blatinglass area of County Wicklow – a place of “pleasant hills, smiling valleys, and magnificent mountains.”
In the years before the famine, Baltinglass was a site of great political conviction, where thousands gathered to declare their hopes for the future. It was this spirit of noble determination that likely carried Jeremiah and his wife, Ellen, across the Irish Sea.
They were married on the 9th August 1863 at St. Catherines Church in Dublin. With two young daughters, Mary Ann and Elizabeth, they left Ireland seeking the promise of steady work in England’s industrial heart.
A very small gas station was open on Every Street until 1867, perhaps this is where Jeremiah first found work when he arrived in Manchester.
The Gas Works
Jeremiah began in the gas works as a labourer. There were several labouring jobs at the works, including – wheelers, who moved coal to the furnaces by wheelbarrow, pipe cleaners, who kept the pipes clear and stokers, who added coals to the furnaces.
At this time in history, gas was produced by burning coal in a furnace. The gas given off by the coal was collected in cylinders and moved to condensing vessels to create the useable gas. ‘Coke’ was a by-product and was sold to households for heating.
“Gas operatives have very hard and trying work, and there is no class which more stands in need of weekly rest or better deserves it.” – Sunday labour at gas works, Dundee 1884
It was extremely hot inside the gas works. Foul smells from the gases filled the air and the workers lungs. Jeremiah would have spent ten hours a day wrapped in a thick, sulphurous fog, his skin stained with coal dust. There is no doubt that Jeremiah’s job was extremely laborious, dangerous and very unhealthy.
Jeremiah worked for the Manchester Gas Corporation for over 10 years. In the later years of his employment evidence puts him outside the gas works and in the city itself.
Gas Man
In 1877 Jeremiah was sent to Phillips Park Road to investigate a gas leak that was suspected to have caused the death of an elderly woman. On arrival at the property, he confirmed the presence of gas which led his investigation outside. There he found a fractured gas main close to the house. The fracture was thought to have been caused by frost.
Jeremiah investigating this incident is the suggestion that he was working outside the gas works itself by this time; perhaps reading meters, lamp lighting, or employed to transport and deliver coal with the Manchester Corporations horse and carts.
Whilst Jeremiah’s income appears to have been stable, his health wasn’t. The 1881 census suggests that he was suffering with a psychiatric condition evidenced by the word ‘insane‘ noted in the disability’s column. This discovery was the initial indication that there was more to my ancestor’s story than just an Irish immigrant who came to Manchester and worked in the gas works. Whilst one would hope that his symptoms were the result of a more ‘innocent’ medical condition, in this case further evidence concluded that his mental state was most likely caused by the venereal disease ‘Syphilis’.
“A shameful disease”
The symptoms of untreated syphilis often presented as depression, delusions and melancholy. As the condition worsened psychotic symptoms increased and problems with speech, as well as changes in mood and personality were common.
Prior to the mid-19th century society believed that the inflicted were morally corrupt, deviant and unclean and as a result infected persons were often shunned. Whilst at Jeremiah’s time perceptions had changed as a result of increased medical study, there was still an absence of sympathy towards the inflicted.
Late-stage symptoms of the disease can develop 10 to 20 years after infection, so it is impossible to confirm whether Jeremiah contracted the disease before he emigrated, or whilst in Manchester. Jeremiah and his wife had only two known children, both born in Ireland before emigrating; perhaps this is a clue. By the time that his neurological demise was evident, his daughters were aged 15 and 16. I can’t imagine how they must have felt as witnesses to their father’s deterioration.
Jeremiah’s occupation as ‘gas man’ on the 1881 census suggests that he was still in employment despite his affliction and the family were still living in the same house on Tame Street at this time.
Inmate
The census taken on Tame Street was not the only census that Jeremiah was listed on in 1881, however. On the night of April 3rd, 1881, Jeremiah existed in two places at once. On Tame Street, and across town at Crumpsall, where he was already being processed as a ‘lunatic’. It was the moment his two lives – the family man and the pauper patient – collided.
Jeremiah Lee, labourer in gas works – Lunatic
Jeremiah was my 3x great grandfather. My father was the go-to-source of my ‘LEE’ family history, but the story of Jeremiah was unsurprisingly not passed down the family as he knew nothing of it. Curious about his lunacy and seemingly early death, I ordered his death certificate and then researched into the medical term found on it – General Paralysis.
The more I read, the sorrier for him I felt. Untreated Syphilis eventually attacked the brain and left victims utterly helpless. The onset was often sudden and dramatic which would explain Jeremiah continuing in his employment until his admission into the workhouse infirmary.
Pre 1910 medicine mixtures featuring mercury was the number one treatment for Syphilis. This came in the form of potions, pills and other concoctions; but it was no cure, caused awful side effects and many died from taking the mercury medicines. It is no surprise then that there was widespread admissions of unwell ‘lunatics’ into the workhouses and asylums. The true extent of this devastating disease was realised by the number of working-class males listed on the census at Crumpsall in 1881, who were of similar age to Jeremiah and like him were labelled as ‘lunatics’.
There were many pills and potions claiming to be cures
Lunatics in the Crumpsall Workhouse
Jeremiah entered the workhouse as an insane ‘pauper’ inmate. Crumpsall was more than just the typical ‘workhouse’ one would imagine, it was built in 1876 as an infirmary for the new Manchester workhouse. The Guardians offices remained on New Bridge Street – the site of the previous workhouse hospital – and the destitute continued to apply there for relief. On application the needy would be examined and if considered able-bodied they were sent to the new Manchester Workhouse. Those that were sick were sent to the workhouse infirmary.* Workhouses like the one in Manchester had sick wards, or separate infirmaries that provided medical care to the poor.
The following extract paints a vivid picture of patients like Jeremiah who were admitted into the workhouse, or asylum suffering with ‘General Paralysis of the Insane’ caused by Syphilis. The extract was written by the medical Superintendent of a London workhouse in 1859.
“A person who is insane, shows slight tremors of the lips, and feeble, straddling, or devious [gait]. He is full of all manner of schemes, and talks of the wealth he fancies his projects have brought him… the whirl of the spirits increases.
Arrived at this pitch, everything becomes invested with immensity, grandeur, or beauty. Common pebbles are transformed into gems.
Thereafter, incessantly talking and restless, violent and destructive, tearing everything tearable to shreds … he lies on his bed … or on the padded floor of his room in a dream of happiness and splendour, which contrasts horribly with his hollow features and emaciated, squalid body. Happily death is at hand – exhaustion or paralytic coma soon closes the scene.“
Jeremiah died in the workhouse just one month after the taking of the 1881 census aged forty-four. The informant was the matron of the workhouse, Irish born Mary McKeale. In 1880 a report stated that “Crumpsall Infirmary must rank the very first for management, order and nursing”. The superintendent of nurses at Crumpsall during Jeremiah’s stay was Elizabeth Hannan. Elizabeth was trained by one of Florence Nightingale’s nurses.*
It was a comfort to read positive reports about Crumpsall Workhouse and of the care given to people like my great grandfather Jeremiah whilst in the asylums, or workhouse infirmaries. Had this been an ancestor one generation further back, I imagine the story would be quite different.
Jeremiah’s sad ending is one of many at this time, although General Paralysis of the insane is not a widely shared topic in family history, as I found out during my own research. The examples I did come across I have shared at the bottom of this article under sources and further reading. Whether discoveries in records like this one are shared or not, it is important not to brush records less favourable under the carpet. Jeremiah’s life in Manchester really came alive whilst learning about into his occupation, his illness and ultimately, his struggles.
Final Thoughts
Records of Jeremiah whilst in Manchester paint the picture of a poor hard-working man, who we can assume was reliable and hard working enough to have kept his employment with the Manchester Corporation for the years he did. As well as his long-term employment, the roots the family put down in Tame Street suggest he was a man of stability. Where Jeremiah was buried is unknown, but it was most likely to have been an unmarked pauper burial in a public grave.
Jeremiah’s wife Ellen, moved on from Tame Street in 1882, eventually finding a second chance at happiness. Ellen outlived her second husband and at the time of her death was grandmother to twenty children.
Are we related?
Sources and Further Reading
- Ancestry
- Find my past
- Manchester Record Office
- Manchester Rate Books 1706-1900
- The National Archives
- Wikipedia
- British Newspaper Archive
- BPS.org.uk
- The History of the General Paralysis of the Insane in Britain 1830-1950
- Crumpsall Hospital – By Susan Hall and D.L Perry *
- Thesocialhistorian.com – General Paresis of the Insane
- Staffordshireassylumrecords.wordpress.com