CAMBOURNE, Richard.

£1,950 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Memoirs of the C - & L - Families; with an Account of their Misfortunes, Afflictions, and Disappointments. First edition of this previously unattributed account of the medical hardships of the Cambourne and Lintott families, particularly George Cambourne (c.1744-1809), a patient at St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics. This copy has the pencil notes of the psychiatric historian Richard Hunter on the front free endpaper and was perhaps considered for inclusion in his landmark bibliography.Cambourne was formerly a tradesman and silversmith in the service of Sir John Macpherson - sometime Governor-General of Bengal - and "personally known to most of the male branches of the royal family" (p. 73). In 1808, Cambourne suffered a psychiatric episode; Hunter's notes suggest senile dementia. He was admitted to the private asylum of Peter Gillies Briand on Kensington Gore, but financial constraints meant he was moved to St Luke's, a paupers' hospital until the mid-19th century (p. 45). The author movingly describes the "cruel discipline" he experienced at the hospital: "His linen [was] stained with the rust from his fetters; his body, oh gentle reader, whoe'er thou art, pray excuse me saying more" (p. 71). Cambourne died at St Luke's in March 1809.The author was likely George's son, Richard (1789-1833), based on the biographical information provided. He details his own and other family member's struggles with chronic illness and disability, including temporary paralysis, speech impairment,

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