Cash and Conscience: Financing the General Hospital at Bath 1738–1750

SUMMARY

Between 1720 and 1800, over 30 voluntary hospitals were founded in England, and a further five north of the Border. These ventures were not altruistic projects, divorced from the overall development of eighteenth-century society; on the contrary, they were a clear manifestation of contemporary economic, social, political, and religious values. The focus of this paper is the early years of the General (later Mineral Water) Infirmary at Bath, opened in 1742 to grant the sick and disabled poor access to the city's spa waters. From an examination of the hospital's income and expenditure, and of the arguments used in fund-raising campaigns, there emerges a broader discussion of philanthropy in Hanoverian England. Four principal themes are addressed: mercantilism, status, social control, and religion. As a jewel in the crown' of Georgian elegance and leisure, Bath counted among its visitors the wealthy and powerful. Consequently, the concerns of the country's elite are much illuminated by a study of the city's General Hospital.

eighteenth century, voluntary hospital, infirmary, hospital finances, medical philanthropy, England, mercantilism, spa-water, Bath, social status, social control, poor patient, Evangelicalism