William Tickner

Subject Name :  William Tickner (b1852 – d1892)

Researcher : Julia Browne and Mike Brock

William Tickner spent nearly 30 years in the Guildford Union Workhouse after he was born with severe mental disability.  His mother, who had cared for him in his early years, went on to raise a large family, but committed suicide at the age of 53.   

William was born on 21st June 1852, the illegitimate son of Elizabeth Tickner of Grove Heath, Ripley 1.   Although no father was named at George’s baptism on 25th July at Ripley’s St Mary Magdalen Church, it seems likely that he was 22-year-old William Worsfold, who married Elizabeth, aged 21, at the Send St Mary the Virgin Church, about 3 miles (5km) south-west of the Ripley church, on 10th October the same year 2, 3.  They had probably met in William’s home village of nearby Ockham where Elizabeth had been working as a servant and William as an agricultural labourer 4, 5, 6.

The couple remained in Ripley, close neighbours to Elizabeth’s parents 7, 8, 9.  By 1861, 8-year-old William had three siblings, George (6), Eliza (3) and Ann Elizabeth (1).  William was noted as a scholar and with ‘Worsfold’ as his surname.  However, there was no indication on the Census to his condition.

The Guildford Union Poor Law Half-Yearly Accounts showed that in 1864 William, now with his birth surname of ‘Tickner’, became a permanent inmate of the Guildford Union Workhouse 10.  Since the Census in 1861, William’s mother Elizabeth had had another child and with another due in late 1864, it may well have been felt that caring for William, now about 11, was becoming too much 11, 12.

The 1871 Census confirmed that William was an inmate of the Guildford Union Workhouse, noting him as an unmarried 21-year-old (actually 18) with no occupation and, in the accepted language of the time, was an ‘idiot’ 13.  This was a word used by the Victorian psychiatric and legal professions to describe someone of a mental age of two or less 14.

William’s family had continued to grow and had recently moved a short distance north to Byfleet15.  Living in Woking Road, his 39-year-old mother Elizabeth and her husband William, 40, an agricultural labourer, had five of their children there aged from 16 down to 2.

There are no admission and discharge records for the Guildford Union Workhouse, but it seems certain that William Tickner remained there for the rest of his life.  The 1881 Census confirmed him as an inmate, although it now said he was an ‘idiot from birth’, highlighting the likely challenges his mother had faced in the first 11 years of his life 16.

William’s family were still in Byfleet in 1881, with his mother Elizabeth having had three more children since the 1871 Census, making a total of 10 siblings for William 17. 

Grandmother and grandson in the workhouse

On 24th October 1881, William’s 70-year-old grandmother Elizabeth Tickner also became an inmate of the Guildford Union Workhouse after she had been discharged from the Brookwood Asylum as a ‘fit case for a Union’ 18, 19. 

Grandmother Elizabeth had first suffered an ‘attack’ back in 1862 and had been admitted to the Hoxton House Asylum in north London from her Grove Heath, Ripley home 20.  She was transferred to the Surrey County Asylum at Tooting the following year, before being released in January 1865 21.  However, just five months later, she was readmitted to Hoxton House after suffering her second ‘attack’ 22.  In July 1865 she was recorded as ‘breaking furniture and windows and throwing utensils out of the window to the danger of others, hanging clothes out to dry during a storm… was unable to be reasoned with’.

Elizabeth was transferred to the new Brookwood Asylum in Woking shortly after it opened in 1867, suffering from dementia, remaining there for over 14 years.  In October 1881, with ‘pressure for space’ at the Asylum 23, and Elizabeth now assessed as having become ‘quiet and harmless, causes no trouble’, she was moved to the Guildford Union Workhouse.  She remained there until she passed away in April 1883, aged 72.

William’s mother commits suicide

Two years later, Elizabeth’s daughter – William’s mother Elizabeth – took her own life at home in June 1885 24.  She was 53.  An inquest heard that a neighbour had called at the house in Byfleet to take Elizabeth to Guildford Hospital where husband William was recovering from a broken leg.  Instead, the neighbour could only find at the house one of Elizabeth’s children crying, who when questioned, told him Elizabeth was ‘down the well’.  The neighbour managed to pull her out, but Elizabeth was already dead, drowned in about 3 feet (1m) of water.  After hearing further evidence at the inquest, the jury’s verdict was ‘death by drowning whilst in an unsound state of mind’.  

Elizabeth’s son William would of course not have been aware of the tragedy.  He remained in the Guildford Union Workhouse for another seven years, until he passed away from phthisis (tuberculosis) on 17th June 1892 25.  He was buried at the Send St Mary the Virgin Church on 22nd June, a day after what would have been his 40th birthday 26.

April 2021, updated May 2024

References

All references are from Ancestry.co.uk, unless otherwise noted

  1. William Tickner 21 Jun 1852 England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index 1837-1915; Guildford; volume 2a, page 33. Digital copy of original certificate from GRO.gov.uk
  2. William Tickner 25 Jul 1852 Baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Ripley, St Mary Magdalen; reference RIP/4/1; page 125
  3. Elizabeth Tickner & William Worsfold 12 Oct 1852 Marriage Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Send, St Mary the Virgin; reference Sen/2/7; page 51
  4. Elizabeth Tickner 1851 England & Wales Census; Ockham, Guildford, Surrey; Class HO107; Piece 1594; Folio 225; page 6
  5. William Worsfold 1851 England & Wales Census; Ockham, Guildford, Surrey; Class HO107; Piece 1594; Folio 224; page 4
  6. William Worsfold 12 Dec 1830 Baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Ockham, All Saints; reference OCK/1/1/6; page 46 (born 15 Nov 1830)
  7. Elizabeth Tickner 12 Feb 1832 Baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Ripley, St Mary Magdalen; reference RIP/4/1; page 61 (born 9 Jan 1832)
  8. William, Elizabeth, William, George, Eliza Worsfold 1861 England & Wales Census; Oak Ryde, Ripley, Guildford, Surrey; Class RG9; Piece 425; Folio 160; page 32.
  9. John, Elizabeth, James, Thomas, George, Lydia, Fanny, William Tickner 1851 England & Wales Census; Grove Heath, Ripley, Guildford, Surrey; Class HO107; Piece 1594; Folio 179; page 8
    John, Elizabeth, Thomas, George, Fanny, William, Arthur Worsfold 1861 England & Wales Census; Grove Heath, Ripley, Guildford, Surrey; Class RG9; Piece 425; Folio 162; page 35.
  10. William Tickner Lady Day 1864 (Sep 1863-Mar 1864) to Michaelmas 1871 (Mar 1871-Sep 1871) Indoor Relief, Guildford workhouse; Guildford Poor Law Union Half Yearly Accounts 1864–1871; ref BG6/33/1. Available at Surrey History Centre, Woking
  11. Harry Worsfold 6 Apr 1862 Baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Ripley, St Mary; reference RIP/4/1; page 157 (born 8 Feb 1862)
  12. Emma Worsfold 4 Dec 1864 Baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Ripley, St Mary; reference RIP/4/1; page 167 (born 5 Oct 1864)
  13. William Tickner 1871 England & Wales Census; Guildford Union Workhouse, Stoke Next Guildford, Surrey; Class RG10; Piece 813; Folio 81; page 7
  14. Idiot Wikipedia.org
    The Clinical History of ‘Moron’, ‘Idiot’, and ‘Imbecile’ The words have a less-than-savory past. Word history.  Merriam-Webster Dictionary  Merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/moron-idiot-imbecile-offensive-history
    Social Stigma, 19th Century Insanity Register of Qualified Genealogists blog Qualifiedgenealogists.org/RQGNews/blog/insanity
  15. William, Elizabeth, George, Eliza, Harry, Emma, Flora, Thomas Worsfold 1871 England & Wales Census; Woking Road, Byfleet, Chertsey, Surrey; Class RG10; Piece 805; Folio 99;
    page 4
  16. William Tickner 1881 England & Wales Census; Guildford Union Workhouse, Stoke Next Guildford, Surrey; Class RG11; Piece 778; Folio 93; page 7
  17. William, Elizabeth, Thomas, Walter, Arthur, Fanny Worsfold 1881 England & Wales Census; West Hall, Byfleet, Chertsey, Surrey; Class RG11; Piece 769; Folio 63; pages 14 & 15
  18. Elizabeth Tickner (6 Jul 1867-20 Jul 1881) Brookwood Hospital Woking; Female Case Books 1867-1900; Reference 3043/5/9/2/1; page 39. Available at Surrey History Centre, Woking
  19. Elizth Tickner 6 Jul 1867-24 Oct 1881 Woking Asylum (Brookwood) The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; Commissioners in Lunacy, 1845–1913. Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, Series MH 94; Piece 20
  20. Elizth Tickner 22 Mar 1862-1 May 1863 Hoxton House The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; Commissioners in Lunacy, 1845–1913. Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, Series MH 94; Piece 4
  21. Elizth Tickner 1 May 1863-26 Jan 1865 Surrey Asylum The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; Commissioners in Lunacy, 1845–1913. Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, Series MH 94; Piece 18
  22. Elizth Tickner 26 Jul 1865-6 Jul 1867 Hoxton House The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; Commissioners in Lunacy, 1845–1913. Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, Series MH 94; Piece 4
  23. Elizabeth Tickner 3 Sep 1881Guildford Poor Law Union Workhouse Minute Books 1836-1918, BG6/11/20; page 186. Available at Surrey History Centre, Woking
  24. Elizabeth Tickner 21 Apr 1883 Burial Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Ripley, St Mary Magdalen; reference RIP/5/1; page 135
  25. Byfleet 4 Jul 1885 West Surrey Times and County Express, page 3
    British Newspaper Archive / FindMyPast.co.uk
  26. William Tickner 17 Jun 1892 England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index 1837-1915; Guildford; volume 2a, page 55. Digital copy of original certificate from GRO.gov.uk
  27. William Tickner 22 Jun 1892 Burial Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Send, St Mary the Virgin; reference SEN/5/3; page 24