Devonshire hospital and Buxton Bath charity : instituted for the relief of poor persons from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland suffering from rheumatism, gout, sciatica, and neuralgia ; pains, weakness or contractions of joints or limbs, arising from these diseases, or from sprains, fractures, or other local injuries ; chronic forms of paralysis ; dropped hands, and other poisonous effects of lead, mercury, or other minerals ; spinal affections ; dyspeptic complaints, uterine obstructions, etc. etc. ; supported by annual subscriptions and voluntary contributions : annual report for the year 1872 ; management, history, annual statement, accounts, meteorological report and tables, rules and regulations, list of subscriptions and benefactions &c., Bath charity report for 1785, and a copy of conveyance of hospital from the Duke of Devonshire to the trustees.

  • Devonshire Royal Hospital (Buxton, Derbyshire, England)
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Devonshire hospital and Buxton Bath charity : instituted for the relief of poor persons from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland suffering from rheumatism, gout, sciatica, and neuralgia ; pains, weakness or contractions of joints or limbs, arising from these diseases, or from sprains, fractures, or other local injuries ; chronic forms of paralysis ; dropped hands, and other poisonous effects of lead, mercury, or other minerals ; spinal affections ; dyspeptic complaints, uterine obstructions, etc. etc. ; supported by annual subscriptions and voluntary contributions : annual report for the year 1872 ; management, history, annual statement, accounts, meteorological report and tables, rules and regulations, list of subscriptions and benefactions &c., Bath charity report for 1785, and a copy of conveyance of hospital from the Duke of Devonshire to the trustees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Charity Natural Baths ; the large remaining sum which those baths cost, •and the whole cost of the Hot Baths of the Charity, having been paid by the munificence of the late Duke of Devonshire. Again, in 1853—4, when the proposal of an hospital to receive the patients of the Institution was brought before the public by Mr. Smithers and the other Trustees, the sum of £1,000 from the accumulated fund was given towards the Hospital; leaving a residue of £1,500 consols, which sum remains thus invested. (See Estate Account.) The history and doings of the Buxton Bath Charity have thus been sum- marily brought down to the time of forming the Hospital, the expenses of which were defrayed by the individual and collective liberality of the Trustees; by special subscriptions from the pubhc ; by the proceeds of a bazaar, that was bountifully supplied and supported, &c. ;—a total sum of £6,000 having been thus got together, and expended on the conversion of this valuable building to hospital purposes. This conversion with its anxious details and successful results, was mainly due to the untiring exertions of the late Mr. Wilmot, aided by the architectural skill of Mr. H. Cm-rey, and the liberal consideration of the late Duke of Devonshire. It forms an interesting episode in this history, that, in the winter of 1862—3, during what will be long remembered as the Cotton Famine, a special fund was obtained, chiefly by the exertions of the late Mr. Wilmot; and 100 young women, under 30 years of age, selected by the Belief Com- mittees of their respective towns, as being most likely to be benefitted by the change of air and the comforts of the Hospital, were received, and taken care of, as to food, and as to medicines, and restored to their homes in the subsequent spring, with renovated health and strength, and full of gratitude for what they had received. The balance of the subscriptions, amounting with interest to £256, was invested as a separate fund for ever, to enable poor female operatives from, factory towns to be received into the Hospital. This fund may be increased by special donations. A very important circumstance in the history of the Hospital is, that the grounds in front of it have been, with much kind consideration, made over to the Institution, on the part of the Duke of Devonshire, maintaining the detached position of the building, enhancing its appearance, and adding to the out-door advantages of the patients. The building is the property of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire; and the conversion of it to the use of the Hospital for ever, on the payment of the rent of £5 yearly, was benevolently granted by the late Duke of Devon- shire, as testified on the stone over the principal entrance, on which is inscribed: The last munificent Charity of William Spencer, 6th Duke of Devonshire, K.G., who allowed these buildings to be converted to the use of the sick poor, January, a.d. 1858. A considerable sum of money that had been collected for the construction of the Hospital was expended upon the work. The walls and roof of the structure were fortunately found to be in good preservation; the interior was entirely removed and re-arranged; the sub-soil carefully taken away; and about two-thirds of the building occupied for the purposes of the Hospital, by a chaplain's house, a dis-