Aged forty-eight, admitted in June 1821. This is a lady of great
personal magnitude. She lived for fourteen years in Canterbury Place,
Lambeth, where she was well-known, as well for her eccentricities as by
the dilapidated state of her mansion, and the clamorous attention paid
to her by arch boys and idle gazers.
Various reports are circulated as to the cause of her insanity; some
state that she was deserted by her husband, and others that her child
met its death by getting into a copper of boiling water, through the
carelessness of its nurse; however, her residence became a complete
nuisance to the neighbourhood, and it was in contemplation many times
to indict her on that account. She was highly eccentric in every
particular; every window in the front of her house was broken, and the
railings entirely carried away. She lived solitary, without servant
or companion, cooked her own provisions, enjoyed the best of every
thing, and what she could not eat she consumed in the fire. She had a
char-woman occasionally to clean the part of the house she lived in.
She was some time ago accustomed to parade in front of her house as
a sentinel, with her head adorned with a turban, _à la Turque_, and
a quarter-staff in her hand. Mobs frequently collected, and annoyed
her and the neighbours very much. She would sometimes sally forth and
distribute her sturdy favours indiscriminately upon the heads and
shoulders of the gazers. When she went out to walk, she carried a brass
ladle concealed in her muff, and was always joined by the arch boys,
or, as she called them, “her jolly crew;” but if annoyed or attacked by
them, she would draw her ladle and baste them soundly. She has been
seen in all parts of the town, in various strange dresses. Leopard-skin
apron, odd-looking furs, tippets, muffs, shawls, and cloaks, and always
numerously attended, though much against her inclination. One of her
Amazonian freaks procured her an assignment to Horsemonger-lane prison
for riotous conduct, and from thence she came here.
She has a room in the criminal wing of the hospital, well furnished
with goods of her own, and she is permitted to purchase what she
pleases for her own use in eatables. If report speaks true, she was
much addicted to strong liquors, to which was ascribed her disorder;
but here she is strictly debarred all such indulgence; yet her disorder
continues.
She styles herself a woman of great and extensive scientific knowledge,
“the daughter of the Almighty;” and when displeased, she will look
upwards and exclaim, “Joe! Joe! do you think this right? Is this
justice? Is this justice, Joe?”
She is at times inclined to violence, but has done no particular
mischief. She is certainly a well-educated woman, and has some
property; is said to have been honest in all her dealings, and punctual
in her payments. She used to attend the Bank to receive her dividends
with great punctuality, and paid her bills equally correct. She is of
huge size, with masculine features, and has more the voice of a stentor
than that of an accomplished fair one.