In 1822, twenty-eight year old Frances Susanna Archer married Charles Crawford Parks in Lymington in Hampshire. Fanny, as she was known was born in Conwy in North Wales in 1794 and after a long and very exciting and interesting life, she died in Marylebone in 1875. Fanny and her husband spent a number of years in India, then part of the British Empire, and she wrote about her travels and experiences there, which is how I came across her.
I had been writing about a recipe for ice-cream from the 1930’s and before home freezers, people could still contrive to make such things as ice-cream by using a freezing pail. I tried to find out more about freezing pails and came across Fanny’s travelogue and a chapter where she describes these ‘appliances’ and gave recipes. Fanny and her husband who worked in the civil service in the East India Company, had been in India for a number of years and she kept a journal which was later published as a book. The book was published in 1850, “Wanderings of a Pilgrim in search of the Picturesque,”
Intrigued, I began to investigate her.and discovered the first thing which popped up, was not about her but about her husband Charles. It seems he was admitted to what was then called a lunatic asylum, in 1846… could it have been a different Charles Crawford Parks? I looked at census returns and in 1851 Charles and Fanny are living in Marylebone in Westbourne Park Terrace. Sadly Charles died three years later.
I discovered that he had returned home from his service abroad in 1845. He had been living alone in Cape Town as Fanny had returned to England on the death of her father in 1839. She remained in England and Charles was alone; Her mother died in 1841 and Fanny stayed in ‘at home’ until she learnt that Charles was ill. In those days of course she couldn’t just hop on a plane she had to travel by ship to Cape Town. She was now aged fifty, he was a couple of years younger. They didn’t stay in the Cape, they returned to India, to Allahabad, but not for long. Charles health was suffering and he applied for a furlough and he and Fanny returned to England in 1845… so it seems that yes indeed, poor Charles was admitted to the ‘lunatic asylum’ on the 8th June, 1846.
Moorcroft House in Hillingdon, the hospital where Charles stayed, was an old building dating back to Tudor times, under the proprietorship of Dr James Stilwell. It only catered for forty upper-class patients as they were called and apparently they were treated with kindness. I don’t know how long Charles was resident, but he was back with Fanny by 1851.
After his death Fanny lived alone; in 1871, aged seventy-five she is living in Cornwall Terrace a John Nash designed building, overlooking Regent’s Park and only a couple of hundred yards from where my own family lived, my great-great-grandmother in York Terrace. She died four years later and was buried with her husband in Kensal Green cemetery
Here is a more detailed story of Fanny Parks – although it doesn’t mention freezing pails –
http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/fanny-parks-case-study/fanny-parks-case-study-who-was-fanny-parks/
… and here is a little of the history of Moorcroft House:
https://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/moorcrofthouse.html
Lois Elsden 