Further to the story of George, it seems that after attempting to commit suicide on the 12th June 1886, he was admitted to the Medway Union workhouse. Then on Tuesday 15th June he was “taken by a Police Constable to the County Magistrate’s Office”. On the 1st July he was convicted and on the 2nd July he was certified to be insane. He was admitted on the 5th July to the Kent County Lunatic Asylum at Barming, near Maidstone. I am not sure if he remained there or if he was released at some stage. The next record I can find for him is from the Kent County Asylum records which show he was admitted on 18th October 1889 and remained there until his death in March 1898. This period of time from 1886 to 1898 may have been one period of incarceration with yearly continuation orders keeping him there. To ascertain that I would need to access the records of Kent County Lunatic Asylum.
Point of interest – Elizabeth & George had been together since about 1861 (first child born then) but had never married. There is a question mark over the parentage of the last few children (including my grandfather Aaron) as the father is not named on their birth certificates – indeed, there was a rumour that their father was an Irish eel fisherman!! but I can find no evidence of that. I think it much more likely they were fathered by a local man. In fact, in 1887, one year after George was incarcerated, Elizabeth married James Eaton Barty, a local widower.