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General Register of Lunatics in Asylum

Jump to index
​We have indexed the first 16 volumes of the General Register of Lunatics in Asylum. At present these are the only volumes in the series that are open, and cover the years 1858 to 1921. They are held in the National Records of Scotland under reference MC7. The register covers patients admitted to an asylum in Scotland in this period as well as nearly 4000 patients in asylums on 1 January 1858.
The original registers include the following information:
  • Admission Number: unique to an individual carried through from the first to subsequent admissions and other records in the MC Series held by the National Records of Scotland.
  • Name - this may include alternative names, so married and maiden surnames for married women, aliases
  • Private/Pauper - whether the patient's stay in the asylum is being paid for privately or by a parochial board
  • Date of admission
  • Asylum - the name of the asylum to which the patient is admitted
  • Date of discharge
  • Type of discharge (Recovered, Relieved, Not improved, Incurable)
  • To whom discharged - not always included, sometimes can be just a place, or a relationship (e.g. "to son")
  • Date of death if died in an asylum
  • Comments - sometimes about type of admission, whether a criminal, subsequent re-admission
Our index
The index covers 206,476 admissions to asylums, involving 131,500 individual patients. We have consolidated the index so that each entry covers all the admissions for that patient. The index is arranged alphabetically by surname/forename. We have extracted alternative names from the register which may include maiden surnames and aliases so that you can view an individual's entire admission history.

We have also included dates of death in an asylum. Although the registers only run up to 1918, deaths were recorded in these registers up to the early 1960s. You should bear in mind that a statutory death record you have for an individual may only show the address of the asylum not the institution name. We will shortly publish addresses for asylums and institutions such as poorhouses with lunatic accommodation.

We are also working on enhancing the index with additional information from other sources - primarily from admission documents, as these generally give an indication of when the patient was born, their occupation, and their "home" parish, making it easier to identify individual patients.

When you find an individual admission you can order the relevant pages in the register. The number of admissions is shown in brackets by the Order Images link. Our fees are £3 for one image, £6 for two or three images, and £9 for 4 or more images relating to the same patient.
Picture
A page from MC7/1 showing patients resident in asylums on 1 January 1858. (Courtesy National Records of Scotland)

What next?
The General Register is the first step. Official Notices of Admission survive for most patients admitted after 1858. These were 4-page printed forms submitted by the Superintendents of individual asylums to the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy whenever a patient was admitted to an asylum. They contain much more information than the General Register. They include a report by the physician admitting the patient, a record of the petition to the Sheriff, biographical and medical information about the patient, two medical certificates (usually including descriptions of the symptoms). In emergencies, patients could be admitted based on a single medical certificate. In such cases, a Sheriff's order was required, and details of this order are included in the form. An example of a Notice of Admission is shown below.
Picture
Notice of Admission for Fanny Banks Nicklin or Stevenson (NRS Ref MC2/401)
Picture
Notice of Admission for Fanny Banks Nicklin or Stevenson (NRS Ref MC2/401)
Picture
Notice of Admission for Fanny Banks Nicklin or Stevenson (NRS Ref MC2/401)
If you wish us to research and retrieve a Notice of Admission, you can order here.
Patient registers, case notes and other asylum records
The General Register and Notices of Admission are records that were held centrally, by the General Board of Commissioners in Edinburgh. Individual asylums also kept records of their own patients. Where they survive, these records can sometimes provide an extraordinary amount of information, particularly in the case notes. One record we have seen includes details of every bath a patient took over a period of several years, as the asylum's medical officer was a great believer in hydrotherapy.

However, not all asylum records have survived. We are currently surveying asylum records held in archives across Scotland, and hope to be able to offer a record retrieval service in the near future.

Indexes to the General Register
A - Allan
Allan - Anderson
Anderson - Bain
Bain - Baskerville
Basley - Bessock
Best - Blue
Blue - Braidwood
Braidwood - Brown
Brown - Bryson
Bubowith - Cairns
Cairns - Campbell
Campbell - Carr
Carr - Christie
Christie - Coffield
Coffield - Cordiner
Cordiner - Crawford
Crawford - Cunningham
Cunningham - Davidson
Davidson - Dickson
Dickson - Donoughie
Donovan - Duffy
Duffy - Easton
Eastwood - Farmer
Farmer - Findley
Findon - Foreman
Foreman - Fraser
Fraser - Gardner
Gardner - Gilchrist
Gilchrist - Gordon
Gordon - Grant
Grant - Grigor
Grigor - Hamilton
Hamilton - Hay
Hay - Hermalhalch
Herman - Horsburgh
Horsburgh - Hutchison
Hutchison - Jaffray
Jaffray - Johnstone
Johnstone - Kemlo
Kemlo - King
King - Lamond
Lamond - Leishman
Leishman - Livingstone
Livingstone - Lyons
Lyons - Mackenzie
Mackenzie - Maharty​

​​Maher - Martin
Martin - Mcarthur
Mcarthur - Mccartney
Mccartney - Mcdermid
Mcdermid - Mcdougall
Mcdougall - Mcghee
Mcghee - Mcguire
Mcguire - Mckay
Mckay - Mckenzie
Mckenzie - Mclaughlin
Mclaughlin - Mcluskey
Mcluskey - Mcneill
Mcneill - Mcvey
Mcvey - Miller
Miller - Mitchell
Mitchell - Morgan
Morgan - Muir
Muir - Murray
Murray - Nicholl
Nicholls - Ogilvy
Ogilvy - Paterson
Paterson - Petrie
Petrie - Pryde
Pryde - Reid
Reid - Richardson
Richardson - Robertson
Robertson - Rosenthal
Rosenthall - Russell
Russell - Scott
Scott - Sherry
Sherry - Skelly
Skelly - Smith
Smith - Spain
Spalding - Stevenson
Stevenson - Stirling
Stirling - Sweeney
Sweeney - Thain
Thain - Thomson
Thomson - Tweeddale
Tweedell - Wallace
Wallace - Watt
Watt - Whitelaw
Whitelaw - Wilson
Wilson - Wooster
Wootton - Yule
Yule - Zuill
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  • Home
  • Records
    • Board of Supervision
    • Fathers Found
    • Asylum Patients
    • Sheriff Court Paternity Decrees
    • Sheriff Court Extract Decrees
    • School Leaving Certificates
    • Crown Office Cases AD8 >
      • AD8 index 1890 01
      • AD8 index 1890 02
      • AD8 index 1890 03
      • AD8 index 1890 04
      • AD8 index 1890 05
      • AD8 index 1890 06
      • AD8 index 1890 07
      • AD8 index 1890 08
      • AD8 index 1890 09
      • AD8 index 1890 10
      • AD8 index 1890 11
      • AD8 index 1900 1
      • AD8 index 1900 2
      • AD8 index 1900 3
      • AD8 index 1900 4
      • AD8 index 1900 5
      • AD8 index 1900 6
      • AD8 index 1905 1
      • AD8 index 1905 2
      • AD8 index 1905 3
      • AD8 index 1905 4
      • AD8 index 1905 5
      • AD8 index 1905 6
    • Crown Counsel Procedure Books
    • Registers of Deeds
    • General Register of the Poor
    • Registers of Sudden Deaths
    • Anatomy Registers
  • Resources
    • Scottish Genealogy Sources
    • KINCLAVEN One Place Study >
      • Kinclaven 1911 census
      • Kinclaven Parish Church Books
      • Kinclaven Communion Roll 1880-1894
    • Archives in Scotland map
    • Scottish surnames >
      • Surnames-A
      • Surnames-B
      • Surnames-C
      • Surnames-D
      • Surnames-E
      • Surnames-F
      • Surnames-G
      • Surnames-H
      • Surnames-I
      • Surnames-J
      • Surnames-K
      • Surnames-L
      • Surnames-M
      • Surnames-N
      • Surnames-O
      • Surnames-P
      • Surnames-Q
      • Surnames-R
      • Surnames-S
      • Surnames-T
      • Surnames-U
      • Surnames-V
      • Surnames-W
      • Surnames-Y
      • Surnames-Z
    • Statutes
    • Auchterarder in WWI
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Managed Service Customer Login
    • Tourism Partners Login
  • Shop