Joseph Thomas Digby (1812-1899)

Joseph Thomas Digby's family
Joseph had an older sister, Mary Wiltshire Digby, who was born on 23 February 1809 and baptised on 21 May 1809 at the same church where Joseph was later to be baptised.

This then means that Joseph's parents were not the Joseph Digby and Catharine Mason who married on 23 March 1809 at St Clement, Eastcheap, London.

Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum, New South Wales
Joseph Thomas Digby was the (non-Medical) Superintendent of the Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum on the northern shore of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) at Gladesville west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia from 1838 to the end of 1847. On 1 January 1848 a Medical Superintendant was appointed, and Joseph Thomas Digby continued at the Asylum as Steward. He was dismissed in 1850.

In 1837 Joseph Thomas Digby had been selected in England to be the first Superintendent based on his previous experience in English Asylums. His bride was appointed as Matron. Joseph Thomas Digby and his wife Susannah arrived in the Colony if New South Wales on 1 July 1838 aboard the "John" ("Sydney Gazette", 3 July 1838) to a new building that had been purpose built. He immediately clashed with the architect and wanted skylights installed to reduce the darkness in the corridores, but his pleas were ignored. The Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum then opened on 29 November 1838 when female patients were transfered from the Liverpool Asylum and the Female Factory, Parramatta. The first male patients were transfered from the Liverpool Asylum in 1839. Tarban Creek received both free and convict patients, the proportion of the later decreasing as transportation of convicts to New South Wales diminished and then ceased. Tarban Creek Asylum was then the first Government medical institution to be granted full civil status.

Whilst at Tarban Creek Joseph Thomas Digby insisted on a humane system for his inmates by negotiating tirelessly for tolerable living conditions and the minimum of restraint (Rev. Eileen Thomson, Baillie Henderson Hospital: A Century of Care 1890 - 1990).
 * Digby was a conscientious administrator and firm believer in the existing philosophy of insanity, viz that it was due to moral causes associated with undue social and psychological stresses. Therapy emphasised ‘close and friendly association with the patient, intimate discussion of his difficulties and daily pursuit of purposeful activity’. This philosophy was the underlying factor in the struggle for control by medical staff, in the belief that only with medical control could a sympathetic therapeutic milieu be maintained in each institution. (C.J. Cummins, A History of Medical Administration in NSW 1788-1973- Chapter: Lunacy and idiocy, Page 36)


 * Digby’s administration of Tarban Creek Asylum is an important milestone in the history of psychiatry in this State (New South Wales). His was an endless fight against frustration and opposition, and yet withal there is continuing evidence of his strong dedication to the welfare of his charges. He was pilloried for his failings and but grudgingly acknowledged for his successes. (C.J. Cummins, A History of Medical Administration in NSW 1788-1973- Chapter: Lunacy and idiocy, Page 36)

During Dugby's administration the assistant surgeon had supervision of those patients actually ill, but no control over the others or the conduct of the Asylum. In 1846, after agitation in the newspaper that the medical executive should have control over the Asylum, a Select Committee of Enquiry of the NSW Legislative Council was held which issued a report that it was "indispensable that the head of the institution should be a medical man". The report recognised Digby’s services and proposed that his services should be retained as Keeper or Steward. This report resulted in the appointment of a Medical Superintendant at the end of 1847. Digby stayed on as Steward until 1850 when he was dismissed after two further Boards of Enquiry.

Joseph Thomas's wife Susannah was matron at Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum from 1838 to 1847. In September 1847 an enquiry was held into her conduct at the Asylum on the accusation that she had been drunk on duty. During the enquiry Joseph Thomas Digby gave evidence that she had fallen from a horse three years previously, "and from subsequent illness, has at times suffered from aberration of intellect, which might to a stranger have given the appearance of intoxication". This evidence was supported by two others who added that they had never seen her actually intoxicated or even drinking. The findings of the enquiry were that the appearance of drunkenness could have come from "the disordered state of her mind arising from bodily ailments" (Sydney Morning Herald, 30 September 1847). Her position at Tarban Creek was terminated when the new Medical Superintendant was appointed on 1 January 1848.

Joseph Thomas Digby's "death" announced in the newspapers of 1846
On 15 January 1846 Joseph Thomas Digby was viciously assaulted by a convict keeper (convict in charge of convict inmates at the Asylum). Digby was punched to the ground and then kicked about the head a number of times. Immediately after the assault Digby was at first thought to be dead. As a result The Sydney Morning Herald of 16 January 1846 published:
 * We announce with great regret that Mr. Thomas Digby, Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum, Tarban Creek, was most inhumanly murdered yesterday morning by a convict named Edward Maher

This story was picked up by other newspapers.

When it was realised that Digby was not dead, his survival at first was still not certain with The Sydney Morning Herald of 17 January 1846 publishing that Digby had not been expected to survive from one moment to another.

In April Maher was before the court charged with intention to murder and intention to do some grievous bodily harm. The prisioners defence was that the assault had not been as aggravated as stated, and that ''he had experienced great provocation from Mr. Digby, who had repeatedly called him an Irish convict, and other similar epithets. In his defence, he endeavoured to show that Mr. Digby displayed much prejudice against such assigned servants as were Irishmen, that he had on the occasion in question, used a good deal of abusive language towards the prisoner, and had seized him by the collar and violently shaken him. (Morning Chronicle'', 8 April 1846)

The jury found the prisioner not-guilty of the charges, but instead found him guilty of the lesser charge of common assault. They did, however, express their opinion that it was one of a very aggravated nature.

Luck on the gold-fields of New South Wales
After Joseph Thomas was dismissed from Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum in 1850 he tried his luck on the western goldfields of New South Wales in the gold-rush which had begun at Bathurst on 14 May 1851. Joseph Thomas was lucky enough to find enough gold to set himself up for life. In the "Empire of 3 April 1852 he is reported to have on 30 March 1852 sold 502oz 29dwts of gold for £1599 5s 7d.

He then returned with his wife Susannah to London, after first applying for a clearance to leave the colony ("Sydney Morning Herald", 6 April 1852) on the "Duchess of Northumberland" barque on 23 April 1852 ("Sydney Morning Herald", 24 April 1852), accompanying 590oz 7dwts of his gold thathe had not sold in Sydney. The "Empire" of 26 April 1852 valued this gold at £2066 6s 11d.

Life in London 1852-1899
On his return to London Joseph Thomas was able to invest the money from the sale of his gold in property (1861 census) and never had to work again (1871, 1881 & 1891 censuses).

His wife Susannah died in London in 1860 and Joseph Thomas was left a widower.

In 1866 Joseph Thomas remarried to the younger Caroline Susan Brierley, and they then had 3 children.

Joseph Thomas died in London in 1899.

Land Grants
Whilst living in Australia Jospeh Thomas Digby had received 3 land grants: The land grants were either sold or were abandoned when he returned to England after 1850. The first land grant (Gladesville) ended up in government ownership, and in July 1947, nearly 100 years later, the last land grant (Berrima) was advertised in the "Sydney Morning Herald" as owned by Joseph Thomas Digby of Tarban Creek with over £7 of outstanding rates owing.
 * 12 July 1839 he received 1 acre 25 perches of land near the Lunatic Asylum at Gladesville, New South Wales for an annual quit rent of one farthing. On this grant he built a home in about 1841.
 * 16 December 1839 he received a town allotment in Dungog, New South Wales for an annual quit rent of one farthing.
 * 23 December 1839 he received a town allotment in Berrima, New South Wales for an annual quit rent of one farthing.