William Biggard RAMSEY
in October 1856, William Biggard Ramsey, a seaman, was just 22 years old when the medical officer at Poplar workhouse found him to be of unsound mind:
“He states that he has been 4½ years in Edinburgh but is unable to give an account of how the greater part of his life has been spent. When pressed to do so makes a very rambling & incoherent statement which is quite unintelligible.
Mr. Collins (workhouse master) states he is in the habit of talking & swearing to himself. When asked who he is talking to says his brother the devil. Is subject to uncontrollable fits of passion & made a ferocious attack upon himself & other inmates.”
He was ordered to be admitted to Colney Hatch asylum where he spent the next 40 years. We are not sure where he was sent from there ( there is a gap in the published records), but in 1898 he was moved to Hanwell, and from there he was transferred to “Horton ” in August 1899. This would have been the Manor House asylum which had just opened as a temporary facility while Horton asylum was under construction.
But what was his background? Where was he born? We have found no other record of his unusual name. The only real clue is the 1861 census (at Colney Hatch) which lists his birthplace as “America”.
William Biggard Ramsey died at Manor on 13 January 1900. Causes of death were phthisis, edema of lungs, and heart failure. He was buried at Horton on 17 January.