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Wellcome Library

Paternoster Versus Finch and Eight Others


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0120 MSS.5274-5275

Held at: Wellcome Library

Title: Paternoster Versus Finch and Eight Others

Date(s): 1840

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 2 volumes

Name of creator(s): Court of Common Pleas

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

The case concerned Richard Paternoster's claim for damages after he was seized and certified as a lunatic in 1838. Witnesses included Edward James Seymour, Commissioner in Lunacy, Benjamin Hawes, MP, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Richard Paternoster went on to publish, in 1841, The madhouse system, a pamphlet attacking 'the absurdities of the Lunacy Act'.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Proceedings in the case of Richard Paternoster versus William and Charles Finch, proprietors of a lunatic asylum at Kensington, John Paternoster, surgeon, and others, in the Court of Common Pleas, 1840.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Described in: S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Purchased from P M Pollak, 1984.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Copied from the Wellcome Library catalogue by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions: In compliance with ISAD (G): General International Standard Archival Description - 2nd Edition (1999); UNESCO Thesaurus, December 2001; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Jan 2009


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Asylums | Medical institutions | Health services
Legal procedure | Administration of justice
Mental diseases | Psychopathology | Psychiatry
Mentally ill persons | Disabled persons | Disadvantaged groups
Psychiatric hospitals | Hospitals | Health services

Personal names

Corporate names

Places