Dorinda Dyer
Born: 1831
Died: 25 August 1873
Buried: 28 August 1873
Author: Tony McGarry
DORINDA’S RELATIVES
Obadiah (Dorinda’s grandfather)
Dorinda’s grandfather Obadiah Dier, sometimes spelt Dyer, was baptised on 26 May 1765 in Angmering Sussex. He married Hannah Knight in Angmering on 27 July 1787. Angmering is 17 miles east of Brighton. The population in 1787 would have been about 450.
Obadiah and Hannah had nine children, including Dorinda’s aunt (her namesake) and Dorinda’s father William.
Dorinda (Dorinda’s Aunt)
Dorinda’s aunt – also named Dorinda – was baptised on 19 February 1790 in Angmering.
Dorinda had an illegitimate son in 1806. She named him Richard and he was baptised in St. Nicholas Church in Brighton on 29 October 1806. Richard was recorded as “Base Born” i.e. illegitimate. Unfortunately, Richard died a few weeks later and was buried on 16 November.
However, Dorinda’s story may have had a happy ending, as she later married Richard Harman on 26 November 1806 in St. Nicholas Church.
William (Dorinda’s Father)
William was baptised on 21 October 1801 in Angmering. He married Jane Martin on 23 April 1821 in St. Margaret ‘s Church in Rottingdean, Sussex. St Margaret’s is a Grade 2 listed building and is still in use today.
Jane could write her name but William could not. At that time, Rottingdean was a village near Brighton with a population of 948, whilst Brighton had a population of 24,000. Today Rottingdean forms part of the City of Brighton and Hove.
William and Jane’s first child George was baptised in Brighton on 14 September 1823.
DORINDA’S STORY
Dorinda, named after her aunt, was William and Jane’s second child. She was baptised as Dorinda Knight Dyer on 4 September 1831 in St. Nicholas Church, Brighton. The church was built in the 14th Century and is still being used today.
Hard Times
The next record for Dorinda is ten years later. In the 1841 Census, Dorinda was alone, aged 10, and living in the Brighton Workhouse on Church Hill. Ironically, this was adjacent to St. Nicholas Church, where she had been baptised.
The workhouse was built in 1821. A report from 1837 stated that the paupers struggled to do hard physical work, and that the Guardians of the Workhouse misappropriated funds provided by the town’s rate payers.
In 1839 two girl inmates absconded from this workhouse and were charged with the theft of clothing, namely their uniforms. They were found guilty and transported to Australia.
Admission to Asylum.
The next record of Dorinda comes seven years later, when she would have been about 17.
The Lunacy Patients Registry for 20 October 1848 records that Dorinda was admitted to “Bethnal House” asylum in East London.
Bethnal House operated as a lunatic asylum from 1727 to 1920 under various names. The asylum was notorious for harsh conditions and overcrowding, but it had improved by the time Dorinda arrived.
By the mid 1800s, Bethnal House had become one of the largest and best run asylums in the country. It was described by the Commissioners in Lunacy as a model of mental healthcare.
Background to Dorinda’s Admission
The Sussex Lunatic Asylum was opened on 25 July 1859. Before this, people deemed as pauper lunatics in Sussex were generally kept in local workhouses or sent to private asylums. However, some parishes (including Brighton) preferred to send them to private asylums in London, which competed to have the lowest rates for admissions.
In 1848, Sussex had 123 pauper lunatics in Bethnal House. Sussex was the last county in the country to make provision for its own pauper lunatics.
Discharge and Readmission.
Dorinda was discharged from Bethnal House on 11 August 1859, where she had been held for eleven years. The Lunacy Patients Registry states that Dorinda was discharged as “relieved”. This term was used when someone’s severe symptoms had subsided but were not yet completely cured.
On the same day Dorinda was discharged from Bethnal House she was admitted to the Sussex Asylum. Her patient admission number was 123. She was 28, single, and had no occupation. Her medical certificate was dated 20 October 1848 and her upkeep was chargeable to Brighton.
Dorinda’s physical condition was described as tolerable and her medical condition was recorded as dementia with epilepsy. At the time, dementia was generally defined as decay or obliteration of the intellectual faculties, which indicated a passive deteriorated mental state. Also, doctors did not know what caused epilepsy or how to treat it, and so it was common practice to confine patients with epilepsy to a lunatic asylum. In 1874, Sussex Asylum had 78 epileptic patients.
After spending 14 years in the Sussex Asylum, Dorinda died there on 25 August 1873, aged 42. Her death was registered in the September quarter of 1873 in the Lewes Registration District, which covered Haywards Heath.
She was buried on 28 August.
Information on Sussex pauper lunatics came from Sweet Bells Jangled Out of Time, A History of the Sussex Lunatic Asylum by James Gardner.
AUTHOR’S THOUGHTS
Dorinda is an unusual name, though Dyer or Dier is a fairly common surname in Sussex. I have not been able to trace Dorinda’s parents (William and Jane) in any Censuses.
I could only find Dorinda in the 1841 Census, and the story we find in other records is very sad. It seems likely that Dorinda was born with epilepsy. At just ten years old she was living in the Brighton Workhouse, which had a bad reputation. After seven years there she was fortunate to be moved to Bethnal House, one of the best asylums in the country. She was then transferred to Sussex Asylum, soon after it opened. Dorinda spent about 32 years of her life in institutions, and she also died in one, aged 42.
— Tony McGarry
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