Broadmoor Revealed_ Victorian Crime and the Lunatic Asylum - Mark Stevens [35]
Unlike the Chorley Guardians in the earlier case, the Warrington Guardians did not see their acceptance of the child as the logical outcome. Replying to Broadmoor in May 1873, they stated that they saw no reason why the able-bodied Joseph Davenport could excuse himself from the care of his only living child, and no reason why the burden of her care should fall upon the parish ratepayers. They dared Orange to provide a legal authority upon which he could base his request.
Dr Orange did not give up easily. He saw no benefit to anyone in having the child remain at Broadmoor longer than necessary, and felt that the Guardians of the Union were being unnecessarily difficult. He gathered together what precedent he could find, and wrote again to them suggesting that under statute, the child’s legal place of settlement was Warrington; that the father was destitute; and that the mother might destroy her child. The Guardians did not dispute the need for safety, but they did dispute the extent to which Broadmoor could rely on laws created many years before its own invention, and they also disputed whether Joseph Davenport was truly destitute. It was known that he was a working man of working age, employed as a carter, and the Guardians stated confidently that a man in this position would be turned away from their own workhouse, should he fall upon it for relief. By extension, they did not see why there was a need for them to provide poor relief to his child. The Guardians finished off their financial reasoning with an attempt to reclaim the moral high ground, arguing against the harm that could be caused by the removal of such a young child from its parents.
The Home Office was compelled to make a decision in the matter. In July, it instructed Broadmoor’s Council of Supervision, and by default, Dr Orange, to send the girl to Joseph Davenport. Orange wrote to him again. This time Davenport sent a long reply in September, once again pleading poverty, and also saying that he had a bad leg which meant that he was currently out of work. No sooner had the situation appeared clear than it was muddied again. Orange forwarded Davenport’s response to the Warrington authorities, saying that as ordered, he would still send the child to its father but would be grateful if the Union could stand by if Joseph Davenport refused to take custody of his daughter. The last thing that he wanted was to send an attendant and the baby all the way to Warrington, only to find no room at any inn. He also threatened Joseph Davenport with legal proceedings if he did not agree voluntarily to the arrangement. This threat seems to have finally done the trick. In late October 1873, when she was eight months old, one of the female attendants took Elizabeth on the long journey to Warrington and delivered her to her father.
But this was not to be a happy ending, like the Mellers’ tale. Elizabeth Davenport the second was another sickly child, and she would only live for another two years, dying as a toddler at the end of 1875. Joseph Davenport lived on, alone, though he remained in regular contact with his wife down south. He died fourteen years later, in June 1889.
Margaret continued to be a Broadmoor patient while her family’s story was played out Warrington. She remained delusional and persecuted. She stated that the other patients threw knives at her, and that she was visited and tormented by them at night, with one particular patient taking the form of a serpent. She evidently lived in fear and tried to hide. Dr David Nicolson, Deputy Superintendent, wrote that ‘when spoken to she covers her face with her hand, shuts her