Institution Information - Eastfield House, Joppa
Town/Parish/County: Duddingston, Midlothian
Alternative Names: [none]
Location Map: Click here to see a historic map showing where the institution was located.
Other institutions: Click here to see a list of Scottish mental health institutions.
Indexes: Click here to search the records we have indexed so far.
Locating Records for this institution
For people admitted to Scottish Mental Health institutions from 1 January 1858 a record usually survives in the ‘Notices of Admissions by the Superintendent of the Mental Institutions’ which are held by the National Records of Scotland. We are creating an index to these records and can assist you in searching the unindexed period. Search our index here or read more about the project here.
Records kept by this private institution do not seem to have survived. If you learn of anything concerning the survival or whereabouts of these records, please contact us.
Text from 1857 Royal Commission Report
“EASTFIELD HOUSE, JOPPA; Visited 2d May 1855; Miss Wotherspoon, Proprietor.
This is a small cottage on the road-side between Portobello and Musselburgh. It is comfortably furnished, and has a garden enclosed by a high wall, but with a seaward view. It is, perhaps, more a house of detention for ladies addicted to intemperance than an asylum for lunatics. At present there is only one lady, under warrant as a patient, who pays £63 a year; but there is also another inmate, a deaf and dumb person, who, though fatuous, is not under warrant.
Miss Wotherspoon receives ladies who come under a voluntary obligation not to go out unattended, but she has had only one case of this kind. In such cases restraint would be used if necessary. The name of the deaf and dumb patient is not in the Weekly Register, and she has not been seen by the Sheriff, nor by the medical inspector.”