In this series, I will investigate some strange, and some not so strange, curiosities in the history of Calne and the surrounding area.
TW: Please be aware that the following article mentions: Slavery, Mental Illness, Attempted Suicide. Please do not continue if this will offend or upset. Please seek appropriate help, if necessary.
Northfield House on Curzon Street, now St. Cecilia's under the ownership of St. Mary's school, was once home to a lunatic asylum.
When the original owner sold the house, and business, on to brother-in-law, Dr James Pownall, there followed a series of unfortunate events.
First an 'accidental' death at Northfield House, followed five years later when Pownall viciously attacked his mother-in-law. Then finally, the murder of a servant by Pownall just a few months later.
What are the details of this tragic tale of this doctor and one-time Mayor of Calne? Was he a man on a murderous mission, or a person afflicted by a poorly understood medical condition?
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Dr Shadforth Ogilvie set up the asylum for insane patients c. 1833, as Calne's first attempt at mental health services. So successful were his methods, known as uniformly one of kindness and conciliation, that he expanded in 1839.
Eventually, around 1845, Ogilvie sold the business to his brother-in-law, Dr James Pownall.
Pownall was born and baptised in Jamaica during 1807. He had nine siblings, consisting of seven sisters and two brothers. His parents were James Corne Pownall, a Lieutenant Colonel and an elected House of Assembly Member for Jamaica, and Sarah Watt his housekeeper of mixed white and black ancestry. Needless to say, they were unmarried. It is likely that James Pownall grew up on the Silver Hill plantation in Jamaica, at which his father 'owned' 150 slaves.
At some point Pownall made his way to Wroughton, before moving to Calne. Pownall qualified as a surgeon and apothecary in 1828, the same year he married local girl Ann Lucretia Bishop.
He worked with Ogilvie at Northfields, perhaps living in the asylum, which doubled as Ogilvie's home.
Pownall was admitted as a patient at Fishponds in 1839 and Northwoods in 1840, both in Bristol, before returning to Calne. Nothing seem to be known of his treatment or illness at this time.
His partnership with Ogilvie dissolved in 1842, however Pownall used the £1000 inheritance from his father, who has passed in 1824, to acquire the house and asylum. He built on the success of Dr Ogilvie, caring for "Mentally Afflicted and Nervous Patients" by 1850.
The events that would lead to the murder of the servant would begin in 1854, half way into Pownall's term as Mayor of the Borough of Calne.
Accidental Death at Northfields House
The first of four incidents involving Pownall, occurred just a month earlier, when Pownall had broken a poker on the head of a patient that he had suspected of poisoning his food. This led to a short stay at Munster House private asylum, before returning to Northfields House where he fatally shot a patient.
It was the morning of 22 June 1854, a Thursday seemingly like any other. Pownall and one of his inmates at Northfield house were walking in the garden. Their purpose was for Pownall to shoot his double-barrelled gun, which only had a single barrel loaded at the time, at some blackbirds that had been destroying his currants.
It is said that the gun suddenly, and unexpectedly, discharged with the shot destroying the leg left of the inmate, Mr Samuel Arden. Arden was attended to immediately with three surgeons being sent for from Bath. One of the surgeons, carried out an operation to amputate the left leg, but it was of little use; Arden was dead by 5am the following morning.
The verdict from the jury was that the gun had discharged accidentally and that Pownall had rendered every possible attention to Arden by his calling upon several ‘eminent surgeons to attend him’. Pownall wasn't prosecuted for either event. Could this has been due to his position as a mayor and respected surgeon?
Pownall Attacks Mother-in-Law
The second incident, during 1859 saw Pownall himself suffer a mental affliction while living with his wife, sister and his 80-year-old mother-in-law. He beat his mother-in-law, who miraculously survived.
He was found by Dr. Morris, who discovered that Pownall had swallowed chloroform with the intention of killing himself. All Pownall could say on the matter is that the woman 'annoyed him'. This was not the first attempt to take his own life, he has tried the same method previously when fearing that his food had been poisoned.
He was sectioned at Northwoods asylum near Bristol and had apparently recovered
after four months, as there was no legal power, at the time, for Pownall to remain an inpatient. He was discharged to Mr. Leete, a surgeon and colleague in
Lydney, Gloucestershire.
Pownall Murders Servant while in Gloucestershire
Unfortunately, on 30 August 1859, 15 year old Louisa Cook wasn’t as fortunate as Pownall's mother-in-law.
Pownall murdered this servant of a house he was staying in by using a razor to her throat. His words to a policeman named Pope were, ‘I can tell you I unfortunately did it. I can hardly assign any motive. I felt I was bound to do something, and I could not resist it.’.
Regardless of Pownall’s confession, he was found with a bloody razor on his dressing table, sitting on his bed in a shirt spotted in blood. There was no doubt he had committed this murderous act.
The very last words of Louisa Cook when she rushed into the room of Mr. Charles Lydiat Leete, who’s house Pownall was residing in at the time, were ‘Master, he has murdered me. I must die!’.
The verdict of the jury was Wilful Murder, leaving Pownall committed for trial at the next assizes.
Eventually declared insane, Pownall was admitted to Bethlem Asylum in 1860.
During 1865, Pownall was transferred to the newly-built Broadmoor Hospital where he remained an inmate until his death on 11 December 1882, as nobody would risk his release even though he never showed signs of mental health issues again.
It would seem that Pownall was a victim himself, of paranoid delusions and violent bouts of temporary insanity. The Victorian Age is often seen as an age of miraculous advances, however in this case, the best treatment available seems to have been to keep the man locked up
Sources:
Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slavery (ucl.ac.uk)
1827 Jamaica Almanac - St Andrew and St David slave-owners (jamaicanfamilysearch.com)
news-and-notes-spring-2021-final-version.pdf (rcpsych.ac.uk)