Margaret Farrington: Sociability and Sanity in Georgian England

Pears, Richard

Abstract

Margaret Farrington was a single woman declared to be a lunatic in 1765 and moved with legal authority from a fashionable London residence to lodgings in her home town, Newcastle upon Tyne. Analysis of her possessions in an inventory and biographical details recovered by subsequent research suggest a life immersed in the sociability of the metropolis before her illness. Her subsequent care by her relatives is documented; this may have been a more typical form of care than institutional provision for people with mental illness, although the latter has received much more attention in previous literature.

Citation

Pears, R. (2022). Margaret Farrington: Sociability and Sanity in Georgian England. Northern History, 59(2), 194-215. https://doi.org/10.1080/0078172x.2022.2116743

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 19, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Sep 22, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Nov 8, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 9, 2022
• Journal: Northern History
• Print ISSN: 0078-172X
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-8706
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 59
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 194-215
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0078172x.2022.2116743
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1189469