Lunacy (Ireland) Act, 1821

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LUNACY (IRELAND) ACT 1821

CHAPTER XXXIII.

An Act to make more effectual Provision for the Establishment of Asylums for the Lunatic Poor, and for the Custody of Insane Persons charged with Offences in Ireland. [28th May 1821.]

[Preamble recites 57 Geo. 3. c. 106. and 1 Geo. 4. c. 98.]

Asylums established under recited Acts to be regulated by this Act.

[1.] All asylums erected or established under the said recited Acts shall in future be regulated under the directions of this Act.

Lord lieutenant may direct any number of asylums for the lunatic poor in Ireland to be erected and established in districts consisting either of two or more counties, or of one county only.

Capacity of asylums.

2. It shall and may be lawful for the lord lieutenant by and with the advice and consent of his Majesty’s privy council in Ireland, to direct and order that any number of asylums for the lunatic poor in Ireland shall be erected and established in and for such districts in Ireland, as to the said lord lieutenant and privy council shall seem expedient; and that every such district shall and may consist either of the whole of two or more counties, or of one or more county or counties, and one or more county or counties of cities or towns, or of one county, or county of a city, or county of a town only, and no more; but shall not in any case include part only of any county, county of a city or town; and that all lunatic poor within every such district respectively shall be maintained and taken care of in the asylum belonging to such district; and that every such asylum established or to be established for any district consisting of more than one county, or one county of a city or county of a town, shall be sufficient to contain such number of lunatic poor, not being less than one hundred . . . in any one asylum, as shall seem expedient in such lord lieutenant and privy council; and that where any such district shall consist of only one county or county of a city or county of a town, and no more, every such asylum shall be sufficient to contain such number of lunatic poor, not being less than fifty, as shall seem expedient to such lord lieutenant and privy council; and every order of council to be made for any such purpose shall be published in the Dublin Gazette.

[S. 3 rep. 36 & 37 Vict. c. 91. (S.L.R.)]

Lord lieutenant may direct money to be advanced out of the consolidated fund for establishing such asylums;

4.[¹] It shall and may be lawful for the lord lieutenant, by and with the advice of his Majesty’s privy council in Ireland, to order and direct that any sum or sums of money shall be advanced and issued and paid out of the growing produce of the consolidated fund of the United Kingdom arising in Ireland, to such person or persons as shall be named in any such order of council, or into the Bank of Ireland in the names of any such person or persons, to be paid and applied for the purpose of erecting and establishing any such asylum for the lunatic poor in any such district in Ireland, in such sums and at such times, and in such manner and proportions, and under such rules, regulations, terms, and conditions, and to annex such penalties for breach of such rules, regulations, terms, and conditions, as to such lord lieutenant and privy council shall seem best suited for promoting the beneficial purposes of this Act; . . .

and may appoint governors of asylums and commissioners for general control thereof,

and frame regulations for their management.

Governors, &c. to act without salary.

5. It shall and may be lawful for the lord lieutenant, by and with the advice of his Majesty’s privy council in Ireland, to nominate and appoint such persons as he shall think fit and proper, to be governors or directors of every or any such asylum in any such district; and also to nominate and appoint any persons, not exceeding eight in number, to be commissioners for general controul and correspondence, and for the superintending and directing the erection, establishment, and regulation of all such asylums; and also it shall and may be lawful for the lord lieutenant and privy council, to make, frame, and establish, or upon the suggestion and recommendation of such commissioners for general controul and correspondence, to adopt and authorize, any rules and regulations for the good conduct and management of such asylums in general, or of any such asylum in particular: Provided always, that every person who shall be appointed to be a governor or director of any such asylum, or to be one of the commissioners for such general controul and correspondence, shall act without any salary, fee, reward, or emolument whatsoever.

Commissioners may rent and purchase premises for erecting lunatic asylums.

6. In each and every case where an order of council for the erection of a district lunatic asylum shall have been made and published in the Dublin Gazette as in this Act is provided, the said commissioners for general controul and correspondence shall have full power and authority to rent or purchase any houses, buildings, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, on the scite, or scites of which it shall be proposed to erect or maintain any such district lunatic asylum; and any houses, lands, tenements, buildings, or hereditaments so rented or purchased shall and may be conveyed to the said commissioners or any three of them, and to their heirs and successors, in trust to and for the uses and purposes of the said district lunatic asylum.

[S. 7 rep. 36 & 37 Vict. c. 91. (S.L.R.)]

Bodies corporate, &c. may demise, sell, and convey premises for such purposes.

8. It shall and may be lawful to and for all bodies politic and corporate, trustees, guardians of infants, committees of lunatics, femes covert with their husbands, and all other persons whatsoever, who are or shall be seised or possessed of or interested in or entitled unto any estate or interest whatsoever in the lands, houses, grounds, tenements, buildings, or hereditaments, which by the said commissioners shall be thought necessary to be rented or purchased for any of the purposes of this Act, by deeds indented and enrolled, to demise, sell, and convey all and any such grounds, houses, tenements, or hereditaments, or any part thereof, and all the respective estates and interests therein, to the said commissioners, or any three of them, and their heirs and successors; and all contracts, agreements, bargains, sales, and conveyances that shall be so made shall be good and valid in law to all intents and purposes whatsoever; and such commissioners, and their heirs and successors, shall be trustees of all such houses, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, as shall be conveyed to or vested in them under and by virtue of this Act, for the purposes herein provided, and for no other purpose whatsoever.

Sheriffs, on warrant of commissioners shall proceed in making valuations of premises, as in cases of valuation of sites of gaols under 50 Geo. 3. c. 103., &c.

9. It shall and may be lawful to and for the said commissioners, or any three of them, to issue a warrant or warrants or precept or precepts to the sheriff of the county, or county of a city, or county of the town wherein the lands, tenements, and hereditaments proposed to be purchased are lying and being; and such sheriff or sheriffs respectively shall thereupon proceed to take such steps for the valuation of such lands, tenements, or hereditaments, as are prescribed for the valuation of lands, tenements, or hereditaments taken for the scites of gaols, by virtue of an Act passed in the fiftieth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Third, intituled “An Act for repealing the several laws relating to prisons in Ireland, and for reenacting such of the provisions thereof as have been found useful, with amendments,” or of any Act or Acts for amending the same.

Powers vested in commissioners for building gaols shall be vested in commissioners of controul, &c. for district lunatic asylums.

10. All the powers vested in the commissioners for building gaols in the said recited Act of the fiftieth year of his late Majesty’s reign, or of any Act for amending the same, shall be and are hereby vested in the commissioners of general controul and correspondence for the district lunatic asylums of Ireland, or any three of them, so far as the same relate to the holding a court and proceeding to the valuation of the lands, tenements, and hereditaments, on the scite of which any district lunatic asylum shall or may have been or may be erected under and by virtue of this Act or the said recited Acts.

Provisions of 50 Geo. 3. c. 103., &c. as to purchase and valuation of sites, &c. shall extend to cases of lunatic asylums.

11. All and every of the provisions of the said recited Act of the fiftieth year of his said late Majesty’s reign, or any Act for amending the same, which affect or relate to the purchase and valuation of lands, tenements, or hereditaments for the scites of gaols or prisons, or to any notices, proceedings, summonses, verdicts, and judgments, or to any conveyances or enrolments, or to the lodgments of consideration money, or to petitions to the High Court of Chancery in Ireland, or to any payments of purchase money, or to any rights and titles of parties interested, shall be held to apply to the valuation of lands, tenements, or hereditaments rented or taken for the scites of lunatic asylums under this Act or the said herein-before recited Acts; and such verdicts, judgments, and conveyances shall be binding and conclusive to all intents and purposes whatsoever.

Where a jury is impannelled to value premises, commissioners, with consent of the lord lieutenant, may appoint persons to preside in the court and receive the verdict.

12. Provided always, that in every case when a jury shall be impannelled and sworn for the valuation of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments rented or taken for the scite of any lunatic asylum as aforesaid, it shall and may be lawful to and for the said commissioners or any three of them to appoint, by an instrument in writing under their hands and seals, by and with the approbation of the lord lieutenant in council, not less than six persons, nor more than twelve, three of whom shall be competent to act on behalf of the said commissioners in presiding at such court and receiving the verdicts of such jury as shall be held and impannelled for such valuation, such persons so appointed and approved of being magistrates for one or more of the counties, counties of cities, or counties of towns comprehended within the district for which such asylums respectively have been or shall be erected, or of the county, county of a city, or county of a town of which such district shall consist; and the acts of such magistrates, or any three of them, shall be of equal force and validity with those of the commissioners themselves, so far as relates to holding a court for such valuation and performing the duties necessary for such valuation, as prescribed by the said recited Act of the fiftieth year of his late Majesty’s reign, or any Act or Acts for amending the same.

Rent or purchase money to be paid out of the general funds.

13. The rent or purchase money so fixed and ascertained as aforesaid shall be provided for out of the general funds for the erection of and maintenance of lunatic asylums by virtue of this Act.

[Ss. 14, 15 rep. 31 & 32 Vict. c. 97. s. 3; s. 16 rep. 46 & 47 Vict. c. 38.]

Persons indicted for any offence, or brought up to be discharged for want of prosecution, and found insane, may be detained in custody.

17. If any person indicted in Ireland for any offence shall be found to be insane by a jury lawfully impannelled for that purpose, so that such person cannot be tried upon such indictment; or if, upon the trial of any person so indicted, such person shall appear to the jury charged with such indictment to be insane; it shall be lawful for the court, before whom such person shall be brought to be tried as aforesaid, to direct such finding to be recorded, and thereupon to order such person to be kept in strict custody, and to be taken care of, until the pleasure of the lord lieutenant shall be known; and if any person charged with any offence shall be brought before any court to be discharged for want of prosecution, and such person shall appear to be insane, it shall be lawful for such court to order a jury to be impannelled to try the sanity of such person; and if the jury so impannelled shall find such person to be insane, it shall be lawful for such court to order such person to be kept in strict custody, in such place and in such manner as to such court shall seem fit, until the pleasure of the lord lieutenant shall be known; and in all cases of insanity so found it shall be lawful for the lord lieutenant to give the like order for the safe custody and care of such person so found to be insane, as the lord lieutenant by this Act is enabled to give in the cases of persons acquitted on the ground of insanity.

Such insane criminals shall be detained in the lunatic asylum of the county, when provided.

18. Provided always, that whenever and as soon as there shall be a lunatic asylum built or maintained, either wholly or in part, in any county, county of a city, or county of a town, wherein such prisoner, in any of the cases aforesaid, shall be tried or found insane as aforesaid, then and from thenceforth such insane person shall without delay be removed to such asylum, and shall be kept therein so long as such prisoner shall be detained in custody.

[¹ So much of this section as is inconsistent with part I. of 40 & 41 Vict. c. 27, (Public Works Loans, Ireland) is repealed by s. 10 of that Act.]