Belfast Poor Houses and Hospitals in the Early Nineteenth Century

The Incorporated Poor-house, for the reception of the aged and infirm poor, and the support of their children during infancy, was built at an expense of £7000, raised by a lottery and by public subscription, on an elevated site at the upper end of Donegal-street, granted in 1771 by the Marquess of Donegal; and the founders of this humane institution were incorporated by act of parliament in 1774, under the title of "the President and Assistants of the Belfast Charitable Society." The funds, which from the improvement in property are likely to increase, at present exceed £2500 per annum, arising from an annuity of £750 paid by the commissioners of water, the surplus of the revenue of the harbour commissioners after paying the necessary expenses of improving and maintaining the harbour, rents of land and houses, annual subscriptions and donations, and from collections at the churches and principal chapels. There are at present more than 480 individuals who are lodged, clothed, and fed in the house, of whom the aged, both male and female, are employed in some useful occupation, or in its domestic management; and the children, for whose instruction a master and a mistress are appointed with salaries respectively of £25 and £20 per annum, are also taught some business in the house, or apprenticed to trades, or to the sea service: each is at liberty to attend his own place of worship on Sunday; and ministers of all denominations are allowed to officiate in the house during the week.

The House of Industry, for the suppression of mendicity and the promotion of industry among the poor, was established in Smithfield in 1809; it is principally supported by voluntary contributions, and affords employment in weaving, spinning, knitting, net-making, and other branches of industry, to the unemployed poor, making up any deficiency in their earnings by donations of food and clothing; it assists poor housekeepers, relieves strangers and forwards them to their destination, supplies deserving mendicants with food and punishes the refractory, accommodates industrious families with small loans or occasional grants, and has diffused great benefit over this populous town, in which it has entirely abolished mendicity.

The Fever Hospital was established in 1817, and a dispensary, instituted in 1792, has been incorporated with it: the buildings, situated in Frederick-street, are handsome and commodious, with a spacious area in front, and are adapted to the reception of 226 patients; it is supported by donations, bequests, and subscriptions, also by fines levied by magistrates and grand jury presentments, of which the last alone amount to about £400 per annum, and its annual income is about £1000: it is open to patients not only of the town, but from the county at large, of whom a great number are annually relieved. The Lying-in Hospital was originally established in Donegal-street, in 1794, but in 1830 removed to a more spacious and handsome building erected for it on the new road; it is liberally supported by subscription.

The Belfast District Lunatic Asylum, for the reception of pauper patients from the counties of Antrim and Down, and from the county of the town of Carrickfergus, was erected on an eminence one mile from the town, near the Falls road, in 1829, at an expense, including furniture and other contingencies, of £25,319. 13., defrayed by Government under an act of the 1st and 2nd of George IV.: the buildings, which are handsome, were originally adapted for 104 patients, and consist of a centre comprising the house of the governor and the committee-rooms, and two wings, in which are eight corridors containing each thirteen cells for patients, and two others of smaller size containing six cells each, for those of more violent derangement; each corridor has a day-room for the patients, and one also for the keeper: the grounds surrounding the house comprise an area of more than 21 acres, to which the patients have free access, and the whole is enclosed with a stone wall fourteen feet high, with a porter's lodge at the entrance: the males are employed in weaving linen and cotton, gardening, and cultivating the land; and the females in spinning, knitting, and domestic occupations. The management of the asylum is vested in a committee appointed by the general board in Dublin; the medical department is superintended by a physician, governor, and matron, assisted by 26 keepers and others: the annual expenditure, about £2000, is advanced by Government, but repaid by the grand juries of the respective counties. Many extraordinary cures have been effected, and upon an average nearly one-half of the patients have been restored to sanity by the skilful and humane system of treatment introduced and successfully practised by the governor.

A savings' bank was established in 1816, for which a handsome edifice was erected in 1830, at an expense of £1400, raised from a fund which had accumulated from the gratuitous superintendence of the committee for the fourteen years preceding; the amount of deposits at present is nearly £90,000. There are also several minor establishments for the benefit of the poor, among which may be noticed the female penitentiary; the society for the relief of the destitute sick, established in 1826; the society for clothing the poor, in 1827; the society for discountenancing vice and promoting the Christian religion, also in 1827; the association for the protection of the rights of conscience, in 1830; the society for the religious improvement of the poor, also in 1830; a Bible society, tract societies, and a library of religious books for the use of the poor.