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How can I find out more about seaman John Keenan?
Q My great great grandfather, John Keenan, died aged 34 in June 1864 at the Royal Naval Hospital, Great Yarmouth. His death certificate stated he had suffered from insanity for four years, and paralysis for two years. I suspect that they were due to syphilis.
John left a widow, Mary, and two sons aged five and three in Troon, Ayrshire.
When he married in 1856, John was a seaman in the merchant service. How can I find out more about his life?
Colin McKinnon
A The Royal Navy (RN) established its own asylums for men affected by mental illness. One such was the Royal Naval Hospital at Great Yarmouth. There are records of inpatients here, but unfortunately not for the period you’re interested in.
However, the hospital was used for other purposes in the 1840s and 1850s. When it reopened for naval use in 1863, existing seamen with mental illness were admitted from the Royal Hospital Haslar near Portsmouth and the Sussex County Lunatic Asylum at Haywards Heath. Hopefully your ancestor was among these. You need to look at Haslar admissions musters for 1860 at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew (ADM 102/915) and for 1862-1863 (ADM 304/37). Alternatively, you might find John on a register of ‘naval lunatics’ compiled 1861-1863 in ADM 305/87, but this record has pages missing. East Sussex Record Office also has registers of admissions to the county asylum, but I’m not sure if this includes naval admissions.
I couldn’t find John’s). The full text of the record is on Ancestry (), so you may well have seen it already.
