| Description Of Item | From the collection of Richard Poole. In first folder: excerpt from minutes on appointment of a committee to investigate the general condition of lunatics in Edinburgh; minutes of presbytery of Edinburgh; list of committee members; and memoranda on the proceedings of the committee by Poole with list of contents.
In second folder letters concerning the committee from: William Pulteney Alison; Lewis Balfour concerning the establishment of a hospital for pauper lunatics; Alexander Boswell; Richard Thompson of the Canongate Charity Workhouse in answer to Poole's queries; Andrew Combe; draft from Poole to Dr Davidson quoting a letter from Dr Malcolm on provincial lunatic asylums; from J H Forbes (Lord Medwyn) to Dr Davidson on same; Archibald Duff; John Sinclair with a report of the Town Council committee supporting a new establishment for pauper lunatics; Adam Black of the Town Council's Treasurer's Committee asking for more details on a possible asylum with Poole's draft reply; secretary of the Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum agreeing to meet with the College; John Gairdner; note on lunatics boarded in the parish of Dunfermline provided by Gairdner; Mr Grant who intends to put Poole's letter on a new asylum to his Kirk Session; Lord Haddington describing the failing of his bill on county asylums; Robert Haldane on the expenses to the parish of St Andrews of pauper lunatics; J D Lauder; letter from Dr Levins supporting Poole's efforts agreeing to a meeting on lunatics with the Sheriff, Mr Duff and enclosing Poole's letter with notes added on expenditure on lunatics by South Leith parish; Thomas Lothian on a payment to the managers of the Lunatic Asylum in 1808; William Malcolm enclosing a report on the asylum in Perth; James Malcolm to John Robertson enclosing an extract from the Cordiner's minute book concerning a grant made to the lunatic asylum; John Robertson describing his report on pauper lunatics; William Brown of the College of Surgeons on a committee to support that of the College of Physicians'; James Thomson on a meeting of the managers of the Charity Workhouse; Thomas Weir on a committee of the Leith Kirk Session on the proposed asylum; William M Little, West Kirk Charity Workhouse on expenses on pauper lunatics; and Adam White on the role of the magistrates of Leith in caring for lunatics. |