William Reader
Born: 1817
Died: 1861
Author: Lynda Fase
BACKGROUND
William Reader was baptised in Ramsgate, Kent, in April 1817.
William’s parents were Thomas and Elizabeth Reader. He was one of the middle children in a family of about six children, whose names and and baptism years are as follows:
| Name | Baptism Year |
| Mary Ann | 1813 |
| Thomas | 1815 |
| William | 1817 |
| John | 1820 |
| Elizabeth | 1822 |
| Sarah | 1825 |
In 1841, William’s three younger siblings, John, Elizabeth, and Sarah were all living in Hertford Place, Ramsgate.
John, aged 22, was a saddler, as was his father (daughter’s marriage certificate) and older brother Thomas (Census entry). I can’t identify their parents at this point. But in 1851 William’s mother Elizabeth was definitely located at Hertford Place with her daughter of the same name. Elizabeth senior was described as being of independent means, while Elizabeth junior was a needlewoman.
The Very Few Known Facts about William
William was not with his family in 1841, and the 1841 Census does not make it easy to identify him elsewhere.
One possibility is that he was in the army, as there was a William Reader born in the area at the right time. He served from 1839 to 1845, and he was with his regiment in Stockport Lancashire in 1841. But further investigation is needed to confirm if this is the same William Reader as the subject of this story.
William must have married and lost his wife by 1851, because in the Census he was recorded as a widower, living with his brother John and Jane (John’s wife) at 30 Effingham Place, Ramsgate.
John was still a saddler and had been married for nearly ten years, but there were no children living with them. Jane was working as a laundress and William was a carpenter.
John and William probably had plenty of work in their trades, as Ramsgate was at the peak of its popularity as a seaside town. By this time it had changed from a predominantly select upper class resort, to one being visited by the middle and working classes due to the arrival of the railways.
William’s Death
Ten years later, on 9th March 1861, William was transported to Sussex County Asylum after a fall from a scaffold and what might have been a head injury, causing “acute mania”. This is surprising as Ramsgate is in Kent, a different county from Sussex, and Kent had its own asylum in the much closer town of Maidstone.
The Sussex County Asylum admissions notes say that William was “rapidly sinking from typhoid symptoms. No doubt his death hurried by the shock of the journey and removal.” William’s death happened three days later. Neither typhoid nor accident were mentioned on the death certificate, which simply gave acute mania and exhaustion as the cause of death.
WILLIAM’S SIBLINGS
William’s brother John was still alive at this point, still working as a saddler, and his wife was adding to their income by working as an informal nurse. They were living at the same address with another family, who may have been occupying the section where William lived in 1851.
Elizabeth was also in Ramsgate, working as a housemaid.
Sarah was widowed and keeping a lodging house in the town.
Thomas was a saddler living in Maidstone.
Mary Ann, William’s eldest sister, had moved away and married in London. She died in 1855 in her husband’s birthplace of Witham, Essex.
William was buried far away from all of them in an unnamed and now unmarked grave in the Sussex County Asylum cemetery.
AUTHOR’S THOUGHTS
So why this possibly fatal eighty-mile journey from Ramsgate to Haywards Heath, when Kent had its own asylum in Maidstone?
I wondered if William was temporarily working in Sussex. But the name of the doctor certifying William for admission to a County Asylum is Dr Henry Curling – a surgeon found in the Ramsgate census around that time. Dr Curling had an established practice in Ramsgate and was a well-known doctor there, so presumably William’s fall from scaffolding was in or fairly close to Ramsgate. Unfortunately, the Find My Past newspaper archives do not have a newspaper report of this accident or of an inquest.
The journey to Sussex may be explained by an entry in the Sussex Asylum logbook of 1861. This refers to a number of patients from Kent being sent back to relieve overcrowding in Sussex. Perhaps there was a temporary reason why the Maidstone Asylum could not take new patients, which was very unfortunate for William. (Information from Sweet Bells Jangled Out of Tune by James Gardner.)
My feeling is that the ‘acute mania’ for which William was admitted was most likely due to a head injury. But it could be that he had previous mental health problems known to the certifying doctor, and that they even contributed in some way to the fall.
The mention of typhoid in William’s admission register entry is also confusing as it is not mentioned on his death certificate. Most symptoms of typhoid seem to be fairly unspecific, so could they have been confused with symptoms caused by the head injury? Indeed, did they not consider (or know) that an untreated head injury might have been the cause of death?
The Sussex County Asylum official who was in attendance (at his death?) and signed William’s Death Certificate was S. A. Mortlock. This was Samuel Mortlock, the resident Steward and Clerk of Sussex County Asylum; he did not hold a medical post.
(With thanks to the James Gardner’s book, mentioned above, about the Sussex County Asylum.)
Effingham Street, Ramsgate: William’s last known place of residence.
Number 30 is the black house, if there has been no change of numbering.
William was recorded at this house as a separate household to his brother and sister-in-law in 1851, so he was probably there more permanently than as a visitor.
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