VPRS 1706 Alphabetical Register Of Lunatics

The Master in Equity (and Lunacy) was responsible until 1940 (and the transfer of the function to VA 719 Office of the Public Trustee) for the general care protection and management or supervision of the management of the estates of all lunatics, persons of unsound mind and those incapable of managing their own affairs. With very considerable powers over the management of estates, the Master was to charge all expenses incurred against the estate from which they were to be paid and from which they were recoverable. In addition, a percentage of the estate, set out in the Act (S 135-136), was to be paid into the consolidated revenue. Moneys collected were to be paid to the credit of a fund to be called the Lunatic Patients Estate Fund from which they would be placed to the credit of the particular estate of the patient(S 188). All management of estates was to be subject to the provisions of the Audit Act. This series consist of an alphabetical list of persons designated as lunatics and whose estates were under supervision of the Master in Lunacy. The volume in VPRS 1706/P2 also includes the asylum at which the person was confined (as an abbreviation), the number of the Ledger Folio, the date of the Last Payment, the Rate of payment and a column for remarks. Under this last column were placed dates of death or of discharge of the patient. It is believed that some information in the volume may have been transferred from earlier volumes.