In Memory of Edward James Weeks 1852-1910 Poison and an Imaginary Heiress. Edward was born into a family of poor farm labourers at High Littleton, Somerset in 1852. In 1889 he was hospitalised after an accident but was sent away as his behaviour upset the other patients on the ward. Three months later the doctor was called to his home. Edward had become restless and unmanageable; he imagined “that snakes had taken abode in his entrails” and that he had been poisoned. He talked about hoping to marry an heiress but had been sent away, only to find on his return that the wealthy lady had married in his absence. Talk of this made him tearful and distressed and would occupy his mind for the rest of his life. After spending some years at an #Asylum in #Exeter, Edward was transferred to the Wells Asylum in July 1897. He still complained of having poison in him but was happy to work washing potatoes as long as he wasn’t interfered with. If crossed, he became tearful and incoherent, occasionally lashing out the other patients in the work party. Edward still seemed to live in hope that his heiress would arrive to marry him. Still complaining of the poison inside him, by the autumn of 1910 he was observed to be “wandering about with sunken head, looking very miserable”. At the beginning of November he became very ill and was put to bed in the hospital ward, where he died on the 7th November, aged 56. A post mortem examination revealed that he had died of Chronic Renal Disease. Edward James Weeks was buried in unmarked grave 19, Section F, Mendip Hospital Cemetery, on the 11th November 1910. Details on how to find Mendip Hospital Cemetery are on there Facebook page and there website. Email: [email protected] #photocolorization #mendiphospitalcemetery #bringingbacktolife #Renaldisease #mendip #pastlife #ancestors #genealogy #findagrave #colouryourmemories #blackandwhitephotography #graveyard_life #colourrestoration #history #historyincolour #historyinthemaking #historyinpictures #mycolorfulpast #cemetery #lunaticasylum #photorestoration #somerset #epilepsyawareness #familyhistory #historyphotographed #pauper #EdwardJamesWeeks (at Mendip Hospital Cemetery)
