In a letter to J. T. Searcy, the superintendent at Bryce Hospital, Probate Judge T. A. Street wrote that he was satisfied with Andrew Sheffield’s care.  Street wrote that he fully agreed with Searcy that Sheffield should not be allowed to write to anyone.  Street believed that she would “denounce and abuse any one with whom she comes in contact.” Street argues that Sheffield was “insane from childhood and it could do her no good to let her exhaust her dislikes in writing letters.”

Probate Judge T. A. Street was Sheffield’s half-brother.  He described her as insane since childhood.  She quickly denounced and abused people who she disagreed with.  Was she disagreeable because she was headstrong, or did she have some sort of pathology?

Citation:

Hughes, John S. The Letters of a Victorian Madwoman (University of South Carolina Press, 1993) 49.