John Thomas Perceval
Encyclopedia
John Thomas Perceval was a British
army officer who was confined in lunatic asylums for three years and spent the rest of his life campaigning for reform of the lunacy laws and for better treatment of asylum inmates. He was one of the founders of the Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society
and acted as their honorary secretary for about twenty years. Perceval's two books about his experience in asylums were republished by anthropologist Gregory Bateson
in 1962, and in recent years he has been hailed as a pioneer of the mental health advocacy movement.
in 1803. His father Spencer Perceval
, a son of the 2nd Earl of Egmont
, was a lawyer and politician who became prime minister
in 1809. Perceval was the tenth of thirteen children (of whom twelve survived infancy). When Perceval was nine his father was shot dead in the lobby of the House of Commons. The assassin, John Bellingham
was a merchant with a grievance against the government and was widely believed to be insane (although at his trial he pleaded injustice rather than insanity and was executed). Press reports described how one of the Perceval boys had been in Parliament and had seen his father's body moments after the shooting, and a psychoanalyst has suggested that this child was Perceval and that witnessing the scene may have been the cause of his subsequent regressive experience. Perceval himself recognised the loss of his father - along with mercury poisoning and over-study of religion - as a contributory factor in his breakdown.
Perceval attended Harrow School
and spent a year with a private tutor before obtaining an army commission, first in a cavalry regiment and then as a captain in the First Foot or Grenadier Guards
. Much of his army career was spent on tours of duty in Portugal and Ireland; he did not see combat. A sober and religious man, Perceval felt increasingly out of place in the army and, in 1830, sold his commission and enrolled at Magdelen Hall
, Oxford. Although he found university life more to his liking than the army, Perceval didn't return for a second term in the autumn of 1830. Instead he embarked on a spiritual journey to Scotland
, visiting a radical evangelical sect at Row who spoke in tongues and were said to perform miracles. Perceval came to believe he was guided by the holy spirit. He left Scotland to visit friends in Ireland
, where he became disillusioned with religion, had sex with a prostitute, and was treated with mercury for a sexually transmitted infection. At this stage - it was December 1830 and he was 27 years old - his behaviour became so bizarre that his friends had him restrained and his eldest brother Spencer
came to take him back to England and put him in a lunatic asylum.
, followed by two years at Ticehurst House in Sussex
. In Brislington Asylum Perceval experienced, in spite of the expense, a regime of deprivation, brutality and degradation. For eight months, during which time he was completely under the control of his voices, spirits and presences, he was kept under restraint, either in a straitjacket or tied down in bed. Treatment consisted of cold baths and an operation to sever his temporal artery. When his reason began to return he was allowed more freedom and he eventually persuaded his mother to take him away from Brislington House. He was taken to Ticehurst Asylum, where he was treated better. Perceval spent his time in Ticehurst Asylum trying to obtain his release, something he finally achieved in early 1834. One of his first actions on release was to get married, to Anna Lesley Gardner, a cheesemonger's daughter, who was described by his family as "quite out of his station in life". The couple were to have four daughters:
Perceval and his wife then went to Paris, where their two eldest daughters were born. In Paris Perceval started working on a book about his experiences. It was published in 1838 under the title "A narrative of the treatment experienced by a Gentleman during a state of mental derangement designed to explain the causes and nature of insanity, and to expose the injudicious conduct pursued towards many unfortunate sufferers under that calamity." The book begins:
, ending with Fox's parting words "Goodbye Mr ---, I wish I could give you hopes of recovery".
Although the Narrative was published anonymously, there were clues to the author's identity, and it was given away by the Edinburgh Review
. So Perceval decided to publish another volume, this time under his own name, describing how he fought to obtain his freedom while confined in Ticehurst Asylum, and including correspondence with his family and others that his publisher, Effingham Wilson
, had persuaded him to leave out of the first volume. The second volume was published in 1840.
, and asylums in Northampton and Gloucester.
Perceval combined "public agitation" with "private philanthropy to individual patients". Patients he helped included the German academic Edward Peithman who had been locked up in Bethlem for 14 years after annoying Prince Albert. Perceval obtained his provisional release and took him home to Herne Bay
. When Peithman was detained again after another attempt to approach Prince Albert, Perceval once more secured his release and accompanied him to Germany (a condition of his release). Perceval befriended another Bethlem inmate, surgeon Arthur Legent Pearce, and published a volume of his poetry. As well as publishing books and pamphlets on asylums, Perceval published a pamphlet criticising the new Poor Law
and was elected to the Kensington
Board of Guardians
, a position which gave him access to asylums. He also delivered lectures; 1 May 1854 at the Kings Arms Tavern in Kensington High Street he addressed 24 respectable-looking people and an undercover policeman on the need for reform of the lunacy laws.
In 1859, after many years of petitioning the government, the Alleged Lunatic's Friend Society finally achieved one of its main aims, a parliamentary hearing. Perceval gave evidence to the select committee on the care and treatment of lunatics on 11 July 1859. His brother-in-law and cousin, Spencer Horatio Walpole
, was in the chair (one of Perceval's daughters would later marry one of Walpole's sons). Perceval argued for: better protection against wrongful confinement and medical experiments; safeguards on invasive treatment without consent; abolition of private asylums; greater rights for patients; more say for patients in decisions about their treatment; a better class of attendants in asylums; freedom of correspondence for patients; and greater involvement of clergy in asylums. To the disappointment of the Society, the select committee did not result in new legislation, and the Society appears to have lost its impetus in the following years. Writing to The Times
in 1862 about abuses in asylums, Perceval said the Society was lacking support and in disarray. Nothing more is heard of the Society. The cause for lunacy law reform was taken up by Louisa Lowe's Lunacy Law Reform Association, which had similar aims to the Alleged Lunatic's Friend Society. A letter to William Ewart Gladstone
in 1868 about Ireland appears to be Perceval's last publication. He died in Munster House asylum in 1876 aged 73 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
army officer who was confined in lunatic asylums for three years and spent the rest of his life campaigning for reform of the lunacy laws and for better treatment of asylum inmates. He was one of the founders of the Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society
Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society
The Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society was a pressure group started by ex-patients in 19th century Britain that campaigned for the human rights of people alleged to have mental disorders...
and acted as their honorary secretary for about twenty years. Perceval's two books about his experience in asylums were republished by anthropologist Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. He had a natural ability to recognize order and pattern in the universe...
in 1962, and in recent years he has been hailed as a pioneer of the mental health advocacy movement.
Early life
Perceval was born into the ruling elite of the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1803. His father Spencer Perceval
Spencer Perceval
Spencer Perceval, KC was a British statesman and First Lord of the Treasury, making him de facto Prime Minister. He is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated...
, a son of the 2nd Earl of Egmont
John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont
John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont PC, FRS was a British politician, political pamphleteer, and genealogist...
, was a lawyer and politician who became prime minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
in 1809. Perceval was the tenth of thirteen children (of whom twelve survived infancy). When Perceval was nine his father was shot dead in the lobby of the House of Commons. The assassin, John Bellingham
John Bellingham
John Bellingham was the assassin of British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval. This murder was the only successful attempt on the life of a British Prime Minister...
was a merchant with a grievance against the government and was widely believed to be insane (although at his trial he pleaded injustice rather than insanity and was executed). Press reports described how one of the Perceval boys had been in Parliament and had seen his father's body moments after the shooting, and a psychoanalyst has suggested that this child was Perceval and that witnessing the scene may have been the cause of his subsequent regressive experience. Perceval himself recognised the loss of his father - along with mercury poisoning and over-study of religion - as a contributory factor in his breakdown.
Perceval attended Harrow School
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
and spent a year with a private tutor before obtaining an army commission, first in a cavalry regiment and then as a captain in the First Foot or Grenadier Guards
Grenadier Guards
The Grenadier Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division and, as such, is the most senior regiment of infantry. It is not, however, the most senior regiment of the Army, this position being attributed to the Life Guards...
. Much of his army career was spent on tours of duty in Portugal and Ireland; he did not see combat. A sober and religious man, Perceval felt increasingly out of place in the army and, in 1830, sold his commission and enrolled at Magdelen Hall
Hertford College, Oxford
Hertford College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is located in Catte Street, directly opposite the main entrance of the original Bodleian Library. As of 2006, the college had a financial endowment of £52m. There are 612 students , plus various visiting...
, Oxford. Although he found university life more to his liking than the army, Perceval didn't return for a second term in the autumn of 1830. Instead he embarked on a spiritual journey to Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, visiting a radical evangelical sect at Row who spoke in tongues and were said to perform miracles. Perceval came to believe he was guided by the holy spirit. He left Scotland to visit friends in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, where he became disillusioned with religion, had sex with a prostitute, and was treated with mercury for a sexually transmitted infection. At this stage - it was December 1830 and he was 27 years old - his behaviour became so bizarre that his friends had him restrained and his eldest brother Spencer
Spencer Perceval (junior)
Spencer Perceval was a British Member of Parliament, the eldest son of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval and Jane Wilson....
came to take him back to England and put him in a lunatic asylum.
"Narrative of the treatment of a gentleman"
After the murder of Perceval's father, Parliament had voted the family a sum of money of over £50,000. It enabled Perceval's mother, who was his guardian when he became insane, to have him confined in two of England's most expensive private asylums. He spent about a year Brislington House near BristolBristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, followed by two years at Ticehurst House in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
. In Brislington Asylum Perceval experienced, in spite of the expense, a regime of deprivation, brutality and degradation. For eight months, during which time he was completely under the control of his voices, spirits and presences, he was kept under restraint, either in a straitjacket or tied down in bed. Treatment consisted of cold baths and an operation to sever his temporal artery. When his reason began to return he was allowed more freedom and he eventually persuaded his mother to take him away from Brislington House. He was taken to Ticehurst Asylum, where he was treated better. Perceval spent his time in Ticehurst Asylum trying to obtain his release, something he finally achieved in early 1834. One of his first actions on release was to get married, to Anna Lesley Gardner, a cheesemonger's daughter, who was described by his family as "quite out of his station in life". The couple were to have four daughters:
- Jane Beatrice, 1835-1893.
- Alice Frederica, 1836-1941.
- Selina Maria, 1838–1925, married her cousin Sir Horatio George Walpole, assistant under-secretary of state for India.
- Fanny Louisa Charlotta, 1845-1862.
Perceval and his wife then went to Paris, where their two eldest daughters were born. In Paris Perceval started working on a book about his experiences. It was published in 1838 under the title "A narrative of the treatment experienced by a Gentleman during a state of mental derangement designed to explain the causes and nature of insanity, and to expose the injudicious conduct pursued towards many unfortunate sufferers under that calamity." The book begins:
"In the year 1830, I was unfortunately deprived of the use of my reason. This calamity befel me about Christmas. I was then in Dublin. The Almighty allowed my mind to become a ruin under sickness - delusions of a religious nature and treatment contrary to nature. My soul survived that ruin."It goes on to give a brief account of Perceval's early life, and then covers his treatment in Edward Long Fox's asylum at Brislington
Brislington
Brislington is an area in the south east of the city of Bristol, England. It is on the edge of Bristol and from Bath. The Brislington Brook runs through the area in the woodlands of Nightingale Valley...
, ending with Fox's parting words "Goodbye Mr ---, I wish I could give you hopes of recovery".
Although the Narrative was published anonymously, there were clues to the author's identity, and it was given away by the Edinburgh Review
Edinburgh Review
The Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802, was one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. It ceased publication in 1929. The magazine took its Latin motto judex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur from Publilius Syrus.In 1984, the Scottish cultural magazine New Edinburgh Review,...
. So Perceval decided to publish another volume, this time under his own name, describing how he fought to obtain his freedom while confined in Ticehurst Asylum, and including correspondence with his family and others that his publisher, Effingham Wilson
Effingham Wilson
Effingham William Wilson was a 19th-century British publisher and bookseller...
, had persuaded him to leave out of the first volume. The second volume was published in 1840.
Recovery and campaign work
Perceval spent the rest of his life campaigning for the reform of the lunacy laws and for better treatment of asylum inmates, once referring to himself as "the attorney general of Her Majesty's madmen". He joined a small group of ex-inmates, their relatives and supporters to form the Alleged Lunatic's Friend Society in 1845. The following year he became their honorary secretary and remained in this position until the Society ceased to function about twenty years later. The aims of the Society, as set out in their first annual report, were to protect people from wrongful confinement or cruel and improper treatment, and bring about reform of the law. The Society campaigned via Parliament, the courts, local magistrates and public meetings and lectures. They took up the cases of over 70 patients and exposed abuses in a number of asylums, including Bethlem HospitalBethlem Royal Hospital
The Bethlem Royal Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in London, United Kingdom and part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Although no longer based at its original location, it is recognised as the world's first and oldest institution to specialise in mental illnesses....
, and asylums in Northampton and Gloucester.
Perceval combined "public agitation" with "private philanthropy to individual patients". Patients he helped included the German academic Edward Peithman who had been locked up in Bethlem for 14 years after annoying Prince Albert. Perceval obtained his provisional release and took him home to Herne Bay
Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
. When Peithman was detained again after another attempt to approach Prince Albert, Perceval once more secured his release and accompanied him to Germany (a condition of his release). Perceval befriended another Bethlem inmate, surgeon Arthur Legent Pearce, and published a volume of his poetry. As well as publishing books and pamphlets on asylums, Perceval published a pamphlet criticising the new Poor Law
Poor Law
The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws before being codified in 1587–98...
and was elected to the Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
Board of Guardians
Board of Guardians
Boards of guardians were ad hoc authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930.-England and Wales:The boards were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish Overseers of the Poor established under the old poor law, following the recommendations...
, a position which gave him access to asylums. He also delivered lectures; 1 May 1854 at the Kings Arms Tavern in Kensington High Street he addressed 24 respectable-looking people and an undercover policeman on the need for reform of the lunacy laws.
In 1859, after many years of petitioning the government, the Alleged Lunatic's Friend Society finally achieved one of its main aims, a parliamentary hearing. Perceval gave evidence to the select committee on the care and treatment of lunatics on 11 July 1859. His brother-in-law and cousin, Spencer Horatio Walpole
Spencer Horatio Walpole
Spencer Horatio Walpole, QC, LLD was a British Conservative politician who served three times as Home Secretary in the administrations of Lord Derby.-Background and education:...
, was in the chair (one of Perceval's daughters would later marry one of Walpole's sons). Perceval argued for: better protection against wrongful confinement and medical experiments; safeguards on invasive treatment without consent; abolition of private asylums; greater rights for patients; more say for patients in decisions about their treatment; a better class of attendants in asylums; freedom of correspondence for patients; and greater involvement of clergy in asylums. To the disappointment of the Society, the select committee did not result in new legislation, and the Society appears to have lost its impetus in the following years. Writing to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
in 1862 about abuses in asylums, Perceval said the Society was lacking support and in disarray. Nothing more is heard of the Society. The cause for lunacy law reform was taken up by Louisa Lowe's Lunacy Law Reform Association, which had similar aims to the Alleged Lunatic's Friend Society. A letter to William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
in 1868 about Ireland appears to be Perceval's last publication. He died in Munster House asylum in 1876 aged 73 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in Kensal Green, in the west of London, England. It was immortalised in the lines of G. K. Chesterton's poem The Rolling English Road from his book The Flying Inn: "For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen; Before we go to Paradise by way of...
.