The Public Hospital

Candles illuminate the windows of the recreated Williamsburg Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds in this 2012 photograph. In 1766 Lieutenant Governor Francis Fauquier called for the construction of a hospital for “people who are deprived of their Senses.” The hospital, opened in 1773, was the first facility in the North American British colonies specifically constructed for people with mental illness. John de Sequeyra served as head physician of the hospital from its construction to his death in 1795.