This is a truly shocking story but not an unusual one. amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/nov/08/blue-plaque-to-honour-yorkshirewoman-who-was-locked-in-asylum-for-calling-vicar-a-liar?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&__twitter_impression=true
She caused a disturbance in church, challenging the vicar over an unpaid bill. For that, Mary Frances Heaton was declared insane and sent to a lunatic asylum in 1837.
She never emerged into the world again, spending the last 41 years of her life locked up. But this weekend her life has been acknowledged with a blue plaque to “the tragic patient” unveiled in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. It highlights her small collection ofneedlework samplers, a legacy of her life in stitches.
On one she stitched the words: “I wish the vicar would submit to arbitration my claim against him for music lessons given to his daughter, regularly, twice a week, during the years 1834 and 1835.”
In the asylum, Heaton was subjected to years of “treatments”, including electric shocks to her pelvis, purging concoctions and the ingestion of mercury. Her medical records describe her at various times as wild, flighty, excitable, ungovernable, extravagant, violent and abusive.