1790 Patient List for Williamsburg’s Public Hospital

This list, sent to the Virginia General Assembly on October 29, 1790, gives the names, place of residence, date of admittance and discharge of all patients at the Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds in Williamsburg from the previous four years. John Bracken, the president of the Court of Directors for the hospital, included the list in a request for more funding. Expenses for the hospital, Bracken pointed out, “have considerably exceeded the usual appropriations of the Legislature for that purpose.” The list shows that of the thirty-seven people admitted to the hospital in that time, nine had died, twelve had been discharged either by friends, family, or the hospital’s court of directors, and one man, John McBride, had escaped. The list also notes that only two patients remained at the hospital during the Revolutionary War: Fanny Eads and Mary McHenny.