[1] In March 1799, Carnegie was successful in persuading the kirk session of the town council in Montrose to approve her plan for an asylum.
[1] She was motivated by the then-unusual belief that the treatment of mental illness should be what one modern source describes as "humane and science-based", rather than being a matter for prisons.
[5] Carnegie's influence on the ethos of the institution persisted even after her death; in 1834, in accordance with her wishes concerning the kind of care which should be provided, the asylum hired William A. F.
[2] Before their marriage, George had fought in the Jacobite rising of 1745 and, after the Battle of Culloden, was exiled in Gothenburg until his eventual return in 1769.
[2] Her obituary, published in the Caledonian Mercury and the Montrose Chronicle, stated "To befriend the widow and fatherless, to feed the hungry and to clothe the naked, to assist the honest and industrious in time of need, and to shield, by the utmost extent of her influence, the weak and unprotected, ever yielded her the highest gratification.