Martha AXTEN
I am grateful for the help of family member Susan Smith in researching this story, though neither of us have been able to uncover a great deal about Martha’s origins.
The 1901 Census records her birthplace as Manchester circa 1865/6. She was then living at 25 Dimsdale Road in Fulham with Thomas Axten, a plumber, who was seven years younger, as man and wife. This is the only census in which she appears as Martha Axten. (The 1891 census records Thomas Axten as unmarried at that time, and living with his mother and stepfather.)
When Martha was taken into Fulham infirmary in November 1902, it was claimed that she and Thomas were married, and that the marriage had taken place at St John’s Church in Fulham. However there is no record of their marriage in the GRO index. We have been through the registers of St John’s from 1891 to 1902, as a check in case the marriage was missed from the GRO records, but no such marriage is recorded. Hence we do not know her birth name.
The infirmary records tell us that in November 1902 she was found to be of unsound mind, having had an attack of insanity which had lasted for two weeks, and that she was also suffering from epileptic fits. We also learn that she had a sister who had been in an asylum.
Thomas told the medical team that:
“My wife has been very queer for some little time. She imagines that everything that is given to her is poisoned. She worries without any real reason. She complains of pains in her head. She is very depressed.”
A Dr Parsons noted that:
“She is very depressed and is difficult to engage in conversation. When questioned she will not answer, if pressed she usually answers “I do not know” even to such simple questions as, ‘How long have you been here?’ ‘Where do you come from?’ She takes little interest in her surroundings and frequently cries without any apparent cause. She has to be coaxed to take her food, declaring that she thinks it is poisoned.”
Martha was ordered to be admitted to Manor asylum (Thomas offered to pay 4/6 a week towards her maintenance, out of his weekly wage of 25 shillings).
During her two years in the asylum, Martha was visited weekly by her husband, and occasionally by his sisters Mary Ann Daintry and Elizabeth Blood. After her death from epilepsy on 8 January 1905, all three attended her funeral at Horton on 13 January.