Superintendent Records

The superintendent of Friends Asylum and the matron (his wife) answered to the Visiting Managers, and they were responsible for the day-to-day welfare of the patients, as well as running the farm and the household. The superintendent and matron also oversaw the caretakers, or keepers, who supervised, cleaned, and entertained the patients. The Daybooks consist of daily entries about life at the Asylum, including entries on how patients were acting, what tasks they were involved in, and any visitors to the Asylum. They were meant to provide a record for future superintendents about how to run the Asylum. Originally, superintendents wrote daily entries in the Day Books, providing a rich picture of life at the Asylum in the early nineteenth century. By the 1840s, superintendents had switched to writing weekly entries, which give less detail about day-to-day life.