University College London.
Hist Psychiatry. 2024 Jun;35(2):234-242. doi: 10.1177/0957154X231222528. Epub 2024 Jan 28.
An 'inquisition' (or inquiry) held before a Justice of the Peace was the primary instrument for management of lunacy in eighteenth-century England. Yet its purpose was to protect wealth rather than the individual. The 1766 case book of Dr John Monro, London's leading doctor for madness, unexpectedly records a consultation that links two siblings who both had inquisitions. Nicholas Jeffreys' only son was attested lunatic in 1744: to circumvent inheritance through primogeniture, Jeffreys directed the family wealth to his last living child. One of his three daughters married Lord Camden, a former Lord Chancellor: after her and her second sister's deaths, the last-surviving sister was also placed under inquisition in 1780, to ensure the inheritance for his own family.
在 18 世纪的英国，治安法官进行的“审讯”（或调查）是管理精神错乱的主要手段。然而，其目的是保护财富而非个人。伦敦治疗精神错乱的首席医生约翰·莫罗（John Monro）博士在 1766 年的病例手册中意外地记录了一次咨询，该咨询将两个都接受过审讯的兄弟姐妹联系在一起。尼古拉斯·杰弗里（Nicholas Jeffreys）唯一的儿子在 1744 年被证明是疯子：为了规避长子继承制的遗产继承，杰弗里将家族财富转移到他最后一个在世的孩子身上。他的三个女儿中有一个嫁给了前大法官卡姆登勋爵（Lord Camden）：在她和第二个妹妹去世后，最后幸存的妹妹也在 1780 年接受了审讯，以确保为他自己的家庭继承遗产。
