Hannah Mills was a Quaker from

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, whose treatment and death in 1790 while confined in the York Asylum (now

Bootham Park Hospital Bootham Park Hospital was a psychiatric hospital, located in the Bootham district of York, England. It was managed by the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust. The main building is a Grade I listed building. History Construction an ...

) is recognised as having led to the development of the

York Retreat The Retreat, commonly known as the York Retreat, is a place in England for the treatment of people with mental health needs. Located in Lamel Hill in York, it operates as a not for profit charitable organisation. Opened in 1796, it is famous ...

, which pioneered the

moral treatment Moral treatment was an approach to mental disorder based on humane psychosocial care or moral discipline that emerged in the 18th century and came to the fore for much of the 19th century, deriving partly from psychiatry or psychology and partly fr ...

of mental illness that became a model for progressive practices worldwide. Mills was admitted as a young

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word can so ...

to the York Asylum on 15 March 1790, suffering from ' melancholy' (what might now be termed

clinical depression Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Intro ...

). At the request of her relatives, local York Quakers tried to visit her but were refused permission on the grounds that she was in private treatment. Mills died there on 29 April 1790.Digby, A. 1983
Changes in the Asylum: The Case of York, 1777–1815. ''The Economic History Review'' New Series, Vol. 36, No. 2 (May), pp. 218–239 These events shocked the Quakers.

William Tuke William Tuke (24 March 1732 – 6 December 1822), an English tradesman, philanthropist and Quaker, earned fame for promoting more humane custody and care for people with mental disorders, using what he called gentler methods that came to be ...

was enlisted to help develop a more humane alternative and the York Retreat was opened in 1796.

References

People from Leeds 1790 deaths English Quakers People detained in psychiatric hospitals Year of birth unknown {{UK-reli-bio-stub