1916: Four Inmates Escaped

“Four inmates of Dunning insane asylum escaped. One was woman said she was going to marry another of the four.” ~The day book. (Chicago, Ill.), 07 Aug. 1916. Chronicling America. Lib. of Congress. 

1905: Masqueraded as Man

“A person giving the name of Paul Bowning, who was arrested at Black Friars’ Bridge, has been ordered to be sent to the insane asylum at Dartford, says a London dispatch to the Herald. Bowning turned out to be a Georgia negress, who for two years has been masquerading in England as a man. She was arrested Saturday, but the police had no suspicion of her sex, and not until she had been removed to Bow infirmary was the discovery made.  At the time she was taken into custody the negress who posed as a man claimed to be looking for a wife in the omnibusses that were passing.”

~From Palestine Daily Herald (Palestine, Tex), September 12, 1905 

Paul Downing (not Bowning) was born Caroline Brogden and worked as a laborer in Kent before getting arrested in London. According to Caroline Bressey’s essay here, Downing/Brogden died in the asylum in 1906.