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David Langridge

Born: 1821
Died: 3rd October 1868

Author: Linda Miles-Cartwright

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David was admitted to the newly opened Sussex County Lunatic Asylum on 28th July 1859. He was patient Number 64.

When David entered the asylum, he was 38 years’ old and a single man. The records described him as having Dementia caused by a “kick on the head from a horse”. He had been suffering from epilepsy for over 30 years, and the seizures were probably a result of the accident.

David was the son of David and Ann Langridge nee Luxford. He was baptised on 5th August 1821 at the parish church of Lindfield. His father was a carpenter. The couple married on Christmas Day in 1820 at Fletching in Sussex.

Family trees trace the Langridge family back to 1682 in Horsted Keynes in Sussex, but I could only trace his Ancestry back to his 2 x Great Grandfather William Langridge. They all appear to have been carpenters, passing their skills from father to son.

David’s father was born in 1796 in Horsted Keynes in Sussex. His mother Ann was also born in Horsted Keynes in 1804. Ann’s parents were James Luxford and Jane Weller, who married on 30th Jan 1800 in Ewhurst in Surrey.

There is a record of a James Luxford who died in Ewhurst around 1803. If this is correct, Ann could have been born after her father died. Her mother Jane Weller was born in 1771 in Sedlescombe in Sussex. I found a record of Jane Luxford, a widow, marrying James Eldridge on 10th May 1804 in Camden. This Jane Eldridge died in 1856, and she may be Ann’s mother.

THE LANGRIDGE CHILDREN

As most of the couple’s children were born before civil registration in 1837, I had to rely on baptism records. As far as I can tell they had ten children. As the table below shows, David was the eldest of the family.

Name	Baptism date	Residence	Fathers Occupation	Death beforeAdulthood
David	5 Aug 1821	Lindfield	Carpenter
Stephen	15 Jun 1823	Lindfield	Carpenter
Lucy Ann	28 Nov 1824	Lindfield	Carpenter
Ann	9 Apr 1826	Lindfield	Carpenter	Nov 1827
Mary	11 Nov 1827	Lindfield	Carpenter	May 1841
Charles	8 May 1831	Lindfield	Carpenter
Amos	31 Aug 1833	Lindfield	Labourer	March 1845
Eliza	12 Feb 1837	Lindfield	Labourer
Caroline	31 Oct 1841	Scaynes Hill	Carpenter
Will Luxford	31 Aug 1845	Scaynes Hill	Carpenter

(All baptisms took place at Lindfield parish church except for Eliza’s. She was baptised at Fletching.)

DAVID’S LIFE BEFORE THE ASYLUM

According to Sussex County Lunatic Asylum’s admission records,David received a kick to the head by a horse when he was five. The medical opinion was that this caused his mental illness. The poor boy must have suffered some kind of trauma to his brain, and he suffered his first epileptic attack at the age of five.

This would have been difficult for his parents with their growing family. Little was known about epilepsy at this time, and it was heavily stigmatised. This may have led David’s parents to try and hide his condition, excluding him from society.

There was no meaningful medical treatment for epilepsy. One can only hope that the family were supportive, as the rest of society may not have been so understanding.

As David grew older it is not clear if he was able to work. The Sussex County Lunatic Asylum records him as a “Farm Labourer”, but I found no evidence of this.

 LIFE AT SCAYNES HILL

1841

On 20th May 1845, David senior found himself in front of the magistrates at the East Sussex Quarter Sessions. He had been accused of stealing a fence from Henry Leigh. He was found not guilty and was acquitted. 

The Sussex Advertiser, dated 27 May 1845. Courtesy of British Newspaper Archives.

1851

According to the Census, the family was still living at Scaynes Hill in Lindfield in 1851.

David senior, now 54, was still working as a carpenter, and his wife Ann was 47. The children were:

• David aged 29, no occupation (there is another entry in the final column. It is almost illegible, but the word could be “Dumb”)
• Charles, aged 20, Carpenter
• Eliza, aged 14, House Servant
• Caroline, aged 9, Scholar
• William Danesford, aged 5

There was also:

• Ellen Beard, aged 1, from Brighton, a “Nurse Child”
• Joseph [Stean?], aged 24, Labourer, (Lodger)

A nurse child normally referred to someone who had been removed from their parents and placed in the care of another family – due to their welfare being at risk. This could be informal, taking place with or without payment.

I cannot trace with any certainty who Ellen Beard was. There is a birth entry for Ellen Susan Beard in the General Record Office in the September quarter of 1850. Her mother’s maiden name was Unsted, from the Lewes Chailey area. This could be her.

There are records of a couple named John and Ann Beard living in Lindfield in 1851; they had married in 1849. But Ann’s maiden name was Budgen. I am surmising the Langridge’s received some payment for this arrangement to help with family finances. How Ann Langridge coped with another dependent (especially when she had an adult son with epilepsy) is anyone’s guess. It is unclear how long baby Ellen stayed.

DAVID LEAVES HOME

David lived at home for another five years, but by 1856 he and his family could cope no longer. His parents were getting older, which could have been a factor, and his condition was probably deteriorating. 

On 10th June 1856 David was sent to Bethnal Green Asylum in London, probably from the local workhouse. He would have been examined here to decide the state of his mental health. Then sent to Bethnal Green because there was no County Asylum in Sussex at that time. This no doubt would have been a scary time for David, being sent away from everything and everybody he knew.

Three years later, on 28th July 1859, David was transferred to the new Sussex County Lunatic Asylum, Wivelsfield, Haywards Heath. This was the last asylum built in the Southeast to comply with the County Asylums Act of 1845. When it opened, the Medical Superintendent was Charles Lockhart Robertson, who believed in good food and a healthy lifestyle for the patients.

This must have improved David’s welfare. With Charles Robertson’s guidance and care, David survived for another ten years in the asylum. Over this period, Sussex County Asylum became grossly overcrowded. Sadly, no Case Notes survive to say how David fared or how he was treated.

David died on 3rd October 1868, aged 47 years. His occupation was described as a farm labourer. The cause of death was Diarrhoea. David was buried on 6th October 1868 in the burial grounds of the Asylum.

DAVID’S FAMILY

Ann (David’s mother) died a couple of years before David in 1866.

David Senior (David’s father) survived until 1871. He was buried in Lindfield.

David had six siblings who survived into adulthood.

Stephen

Stephen was a carpenter, like his father. He married Martha Beal on 5th August 1845, and the couple had no children. Martha followed her brother-in-law into Sussex County Lunatic Asylum, where she died in 1871. Stephen died in 1880.

Lucy Ann

When Lucy was thirty, she married a baker named William Creasey. Their wedding took place on 6th July 1856 at St Nicholas Church in Brighton. The couple had one son, William Stephen Creasey, who was born in July 1859. Sadly, WIlliam died in September of that year, shortly followed by Lucy. She died in the December quarter of 1859, aged 35.

William went on to remarry and remained at 26 Dean Street in Brighton, where he had lived with Lucy, for many years.

Charles

Charles never married and died in the June quarter of 1860 aged 29.

Eliza

Eliza married Michael Roffey on 6th January 1857 at Blindley Heath Chapel near Godstone, Surrey.

The couple had three children:

• Anne, born in 1860, died April 1870
• Charles, born 1861
• William, born 1863

Eliza died in July 1863, aged 26, possibly in childbirth. She was buried on 14th July 1863 at Blindley Heath.

After Eliza’s death, Michael Roffey was found guilty of assault and spent six months in Wandsworth prison. After his release he remarried and had a large second family. He died in 1907. 

Caroline

Caroline married William Dumbrell on 26th October 1867 at Lindfield Parish Church in a double wedding – alongside her brother William Luxford. Caroline and William emigrated to Queensland in Australia, leaving on the vessel “Light Brigade” and arriving in Australia on 30th March 1873. The couple raised their family there and Caroline died on 19th March 1919.

Will Luxford

Will, the youngest of David’s brothers, married on the same day as his sister Caroline. His wife was Lydia Barker Muzzell.

Will and Lydia had a large family of eight children and lived long lives. Will worked nearly all his life as a gardener in the Haywards Heath area. He died in 1920 aged 75.

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AUTHOR’S THOUGHTS

David’s childhood accident caused him irreparable damage. He must have sustained a significant brain trauma which could not be treated or understood. It sealed his fate. His parents must have tried to support him as long as they could. But when they could no longer cope, they could only turn to the Workhouse and ultimately the Lunatic Asylum. 

Sadly, the first three years of David’s institutionalisation was at Bethnal Asylum, which struggled to look after their patients properly. When the new Sussex County Lunatic Asylum opened in 1859 it was fortuitous for David. He could at least return to his county of birth. And at the time the facility was run with a considerate regime, which would have provided him with fresh air and a decent diet.

Sadly, this would never be enough to save David, as there was no cure for his condition. So he spent the rest of his life there, his resilience gradually weakening as he declined to infection and disease.

David was buried in the Asylum’s burial ground unnamed amongst other poor unfortunate souls.