A few years ago I managed to visit Devon and found some of the records which Jeff Ellis has put so much work into. But I have a question my 2X great grandfather was admitted April 1878 and died in the Asylum March 1902. I found medical records of the last three years of his life along with his death report. It says that an autopsy was refused by his friends. would these have been friends of the asylum, or would they have been his personal friends does anyone know? Also I didn't know about the record 3769A/ADD4 where this may show friends addresses. I did visit the cemetery,it is private and there are no markers but it does have a lovely old Lynch gate. regards Lesley
I'm pleased that you found my indexes of the Asylum records useful.
The term "friends" in the Asylum records refer to the personal acquaintances of the patient. It was often more likely that the "friends" were in fact relatives.
The cemetery does in fact have 8 headstones,but they are not all easy to find. The Lych Gate is beautiful,but as you no doubt found the cemetery looks neglected.
Thank you so much for your message.do you think these friends are named anywhere? my g.g. grandfather was John Parnell.As you can see he was in the asylum for 24 years, The records do make quite sad reading. When we visited we didn't really have a clue what we were looking for as regards records, so your work would have saved us a lot of time. His wife Martha followed their only child a son and his new wife to London and Martha died before John in 1896. We did notice a few stones, but these seemed to be from the later date. I remember the cemetery being very overgrown you couldn't have walked through it. Maybe will will get to The Devon record office again we are in east Sussex.Many Thanks for your reply.
