Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Norfolk County (Va.) Health and Medical Records, 1774-1905. Local government records collection, Norfolk County Court Records, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

This collection came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Norfolk County Circuit Court.

Historical Information

Mental Health Records may consist of a variety of documents that historically were referred to as lunacy papers in the courthouses of Virginia localities and municipalities.

A fiduciary is an individual who enters into a confidential and legal relationship which binds them to act on behalf of another. Guardians are legally invested to take care of another person, and of the property and rights of that person. Thus, some records referred to as insanity papers are housed with fiduciary records and not with mental health records. Those pertain to estates of three persons adjudged insane in 1819, 1884, and 1893, respectively.

During its session begun in November 1769, the House of Burgesses passed an act establishing a hospital in Williamsburg for the mentally ill. The Eastern Lunatic Asylum (now Eastern State Hospital) was the first institution in America constructed as a mental hospital. The first patients were admitted in October 1773.

In January 1825 the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation providing for the construction of an asylum in the western part of the state. The institution, which became known as Western Lunatic Asylum, was constructed close to the town of Staunton, west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and was the second mental health facility built in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The buildings and surrounding gardens were designed to embrace the idea of "moral therapy" for mentally ill patients by providing an aesthetically pleasing and tranquil atmosphere in which patients lived comfortably, exercised and worked outdoors.

Western Lunatic Asylum opened in 1828, accepting both male and female patients suffering from a variety of mental disorders. It should be noted that the hospital underwent a short-lived name change between 1861 and 1865, when it was known as Central Lunatic Asylum. (It should not be confused with an asylum of the same name later built in Petersburg, Virginia to house African American patients). From 1865 to 1894 the name was again Western Lunatic Asylum. However, in 1894 the General Assembly passed legislation changing the name to Western State Hospital.

Norfolk County was created in 1691 when Lower Norfolk County was divided into Norfolk County and Princess Anne County. Norfolk County became extinct on 1 January 1963, when it was consolidated with the city of South Norfolk to form the city of Chesapeake. The county seat was Portsmouth.

Scope and Content

Norfolk County (Va.) Health and Medical Records, 1774-1905, consist of four folders: Mental Health Records, 1824-1891; Registers of Medical Professionals, 1909; Sanitary Inspectors' Reports, 1847-1885; and Smallpox Epidemic Records, 1774-1905.

Mental Health Records, 1824-1891, may include warrants, orders, petitions, depositions, reports, etc. for or by justices of the peace and others regarding the mental condition of individuals who were released to the recognizance of a family member or who were committed to a mental hospital. Includes references to Western Lunatic Asylum and Eastern Lunatic Asylum. Fiduciary records such as estate inventories of a person judged insane may also be present. One brief estate inventory includes two unnamed enslaved people.

Registers of Medical Professionals, 1909, consists of one dental register for a Norfolk County dentist.

Sanitary Inspectors' Reports, 1847-1885, relate to reports to boards of health of the cities of Portsmouth and Norfolk regarding unsanitary slaughterhouses, brickyards, and factories.

Smallpox Epidemic Records, 1774-1905, consists of papers relating to quarantines and hospitals for the containment or treatment of smallpox outbreaks near Portsmouth, Norfolk and Norfolk County. 1774 item is a bond and attachment relating to plans and specifications for construction of a small pox pest house. Also includes a handwritten 1832 copy of "An act to amend the act entitled an act to reduce into one act the several acts for regulating inoculation & for the prevention of the small pox and for other purposes. Passed February the 11th 1832." 1854-1855 materials document the establishment of a temporary hospital near Lambert's Point for receiving and treating contagious diseases among merchant seamen arriving at the port, and findings related to yellow fever rather than smallpox.

Arrangement

Chronological by entry date, then alphabetically by last name of individual.

Related Material

Additional Norfolk County court records can be found on microfilm and in the Chancery Records Index at the Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm" and The Chancery Records Index .

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Eastern State Hospital (Va.).
• Norfolk County (Va.) Circuit Court.
• Western State Hospital (Va.).

Subjects:

• African Americans--Mental Health--Virginia--Norfolk County.
• Insanity--Jurisprudence--Virginia--Norfolk County.
• Jails--Virginia--Norfolk County.
• Mental illness--Virginia--Norfolk County.
• Physicians--Virginia--Norfolk County.
• Psychiatric hospitals--Virginia.
• Public health administration--Virginia.
• Public records--Virginia--Norfolk County.
• Slaves--Virginia--Norfolk County.
• Smallpox--Virginia Norfolk County.

Geographical Names:

• Norfolk County (Va.)--History--18th Century.
• Norfolk County (Va.)--History--19th Century.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Health and Medical--Virginia--Norfolk County.
• Local government records--Virginia--Norfolk County.

Adjunct Descriptive Data