Alice Petschler

Carried off by night, under false pretences, Alice Petschler fought back against wrongful incarceration in a Victorian asylum.
About this Event

Most accounts of pauper asylums are from the viewpoint of the medical staff, but Alice Petschler, an educated woman, was far from a typical ‘pauper lunatic’. Carried off by night under false pretences, she refused to accept without a fight her forcible incarceration for ten months in Macclesfield Asylum. When released, she pursued those who had put her there in court, through the press, and in inquiries. She also raised questions about how ‘lunatics’ were treated by ill-trained and resentful staff. Her story stirred society into considerable agitation, and eventually helped to revise the laws which regulated the whole system. It tells us much about attitudes to mental illness, gender and class in mid-Victorian Britain.

MLFHS Quarterly Talk
Date: 22nd July 2026
Day: Wednesday, 11.00am
Venue: Manchester Central Library
Speaker: Joanna Williams
Booking: Eventbrite
Cost: members - free of charge
Cost: non-members - £5