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

meetings in conjunction with William Battie, Physician to St. Luke's, a reminder that the
rift between the two physicians, and between Bethiem and St. Luke's, was not as extreme as
some historians have suggested (see infra). Monro and the other medical officers could be quite
protective of their patients interests, as, for example, in 1763, when maintaining the need for
lunatics to 'be kept Extreamly Quiet', they successfully opposed the application of Coleman
Street Ward to build a watchhouse nearby the hospital211.
While Cruden assailed both of the Monros for the treatment he had received, and he and
other patients brought legal actions against the doctors, they lost their cases 2t2. Many of
the charges Cruden levelled appear unjustified and prejudiced, if not paranoid. For example;
Cruden saw James's exclusion of his visitors, unless they obtained tickets from the doctor, as
a conspiracy against him, and an attempt to silence him and to prevent his escape. On the
contrary, this seems to have been Monro's standard policy in his private practice, he clearly
considering isolation as therapeutic (although this reflects rather poorly on his tolerance of
visiting at Bethlem) 213 . The Monros were not always so unsympathetic to appeals for liberty
from private madhouses, while some patients, and their families, were plainly very pleased
with the treatment they had received from the doctors. Thomas Monro was praised as a 'real
Gentleman of the Faculty', 'a man of feeling' and 'understanding', by William Beicher, for his
assistance in achieving Belcher's liberation from Hackney madhouse 214 . Horace Walpole seems to
have been highly satisfied with John Monro's attendance on his nephew, Lord Orford 215 . henry
Roberts was helped out sympathetically (if vainly) by both James Monro and the apothecary
and l3ethlem governor, John Markham, when attempting to obtain his liberty from Canterbury
madhouse, both of them agreeing to write to the Lord Chancellor and to testify on his behalf2t6.
248-50, 349, 359-60 & 155-8.
211 BCGM, 27 Jan. 1763, fol 46-7.
212 James Monro was served with a suit not only by Cruden, but by an ex-Bethlem patient, Thomas Leigh.
Leigh's suit was filed in the King's Bench in 1742 and the hospital filed bail and defended the action on Monro's
behalf. See Bwe1IGCM, 22 Oct. 1742, lot. 126.
213 Cruden, Mr. Critden Greatly Jnjsred (London, 1739), 2 & 4.
214 Belcker', Address to II*manity, Conta,*ing, A Letter to Tkomiu Monro... (London, 1796), 1-4.
215 Walpole, Correspondence (ed.), Lewis, vol. 12, 95; vol. 24, 316, 367 & 372; vol. 34, 47; vol. 36, 118, 335-6,
& vol. 42, 355-6.
216 See The Snfferings and Death of Henry Roberts E.qsire, trans. from French by Paul de St. Pierre (Dublin,
1748), 52 & 54; Porter, Manacles, 112-13; Hunter & Macalpine, Psychiatrjr, 373-5.
294