Eastern State Hospital Plaque

Eastern State Hospital plaque (photo by Bernard Fisher, The Historical Marker Database.)

In November, 1769, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed "An Act to make provision for the support and maintenance of ideots, lunatics, and other persons of unsound minds," founding the first public hospital for the mentally ill in the United States. The act appointed a board of trustees which included George Wythe:

WHEREAS several persons of insane and disordered minds have been frequently found wandering in different parts of this colony, and no certain provision having been yet made either towards effecting a cure of those whose cases are not become quite desperate, nor for restraining others who may be dangerous to society: Be it therefore enacted, by the Governor, Council, and Burgesses, of this present General Assembly, and it is hereby enacted, by the authority of the same, That the honourable John Blair, William Nelson, Thomas Nelson, Robert Carter, and Peyton Randolph, esquires, and Robert Carter Nicholas, John Randolph, Benjamin Waller, John Blair George Wythe, Dudley Digges Lewis Burwell, Thomas Nelson Thomas Everard, and John Tazewell, esquires, be, and they are hereby constituted trustees for founding and establishing a public hospital, for the reception of such persons as shall, from time to time, according to the rules and orders established by this act, be sent thereto. And the said trustees shall be called and known by the name and style of the court of directors of the public hospital, for persons of insane and disordered minds.

Now known as Eastern State Hospital, the original public hospital was located in what is now downtown Williamsburg, Virginia. Relocated to the outskirts of the city between 1937 and 1960, this memorial to the original directors of the hospital board was erected in 1925.

Memorial text, 1925

1768	EASTERN STATE HOSPITAL	1925
	WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA

THIS HOSPITAL IS THE OLDEST INSTITUTION OF ITS KIND IN AMERICA
FRANCIS FAUQUIER WAS GOVERNOR IN 1768
IN NOVEMBER, 1769, THE TENTH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE THE THIRD
AN ACT WAS PASSED BY THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES CONFIRMING
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THIS INSTITUTION

THE ASSEMBLY PLACED THIS GREAT WORK IN THE HANDS OF DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS
AS THE FIRST COURT OF DIRECTORS, WHICH WAS COMPOSED OF THE FOLLOWING:
THOMAS NELSON, JR., ONE OF THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE,
GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA IN 1781,
PEYTON RANDOLPH, PRESIDENT OF THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS IN 1774,
GEORGE WYTHE, THE PRECEPTOR OF BOTH MARSHALL AND JEFFERSON IN LAW,
AT THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY,
BENJAMIN WALLER, THOMAS EVERARD, ROBERT CARTER, ROBERT CARTER NICHOLAS,
JOHN BLAIR, JOHN BLAIR, JR., THOMAS NELSON, WILLIAM NELSON, JOHN RANDOLPH,
DUDLEY DIGGES, JR., JOHN TAZEWELL AND LEWIS BURWELL

---

E. LEE TRINKLE, GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA
C.A. OSBORNE, COMMISSIONER OF HOSPITALS

---

BOARD OF DIRECTORS ED. WHITLOCK, W.M. CEASE, MRS. T.S.D. COVINGTON
DR. C.W. BROWN, SUPERINTENDENT

1925

See also

• Wythe Tablet

External links

• Eastern State Hospital, at the The Historical Marker Database.