Queen Mary and Westfield College London University PhD Thesis ...

edding permitted' at I3ethlem is illustrative of the hazards of relying disproportionately on
literary evidence for historical assessments 15. Once again, however, it was economy, rather
than patients' comfort, which dictated hospital policy. Despite the more than doubling of the
hospital's capacity by the move to Moorfields, initially only 21 extra beds were bought and
ordered to be made for the new building. Combined with those salvaged from the old building,
these could barely have catered for half of the incoming patient population' 6 . It was generally
only a minority of special cases; occasionally, those committed to Bethlem by royal, governmental
or mayoral authority; or, standardly, those apprehended as vagrants without friends or other
means of support; who were provided with beddi g, clothing and other forms of relief, at the
sole charge of the hospital' 7. Besides the new beds provided for patients in 1676, twelve of
these charity patients were also bought a 'rug' (i.e. coverlet) each' 8 . Likewise, Thomas Dunn,
a mariner sent to I3ethlem by the Privy Council in 1667, was maintained gratis and provided
with 'twoe blanketts and a Coverlett. ..for his lodging' on his admission, although it was another
seven years before even Dunn received a bed or any 'other necessaryes' from the Governors'9.
In addition, it was only a few patients found 'to be in greatest necessity' who might be provided
by the Governors with such items 20 . I have discovered no mention of sheets being provided for
patients by the hospital before the eighteenth century, although one assumes that some patients
were graced with sheets. In the seventeenth century, sheets and other bedding seem to have
been issued more often by the Bethlem Governors to staff than to patients 21 . Even at Bridewell,
spent this interim period sleeping upon the hospital boards again.
15 Reed, Bedlam on the Jacobean Stage, 34.
16 Just 15 new bedsteads were ordered 'w[ilth all expedition for the Lunatikes...belore their Removall'; another
6 were ordered 3 months later. See ib,d, 21 July & 13 Oct. 1676, loIs 277 & 293.
17 See mIre.
18 Thid, 13 Oct. 1676, lol. 293.
19 Ibul, 25 Jan. 1667 & 18 April 1674, fol 29 & 632.
20 For example, at the same juncture as Dunn was allowed a bed etc. in 1674, the Court ordered the Tr,.asurer
to provide in the same way for 'such other' as he and the Physician 'shall linde to be in greatest necessity', ibid,
18 April 1674, fol. 632.
21 For entrie, in the Minutes concerning the issue of bedding to servants, see chap. 5.
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