Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Brushfield, Thomas Nadauld
BRUSHFIELD, THOMAS NADAULD (1828–1910), lunacy specialist and antiquary, born in London on 10 Dec. 1828, was son of Thomas Brushfield, of an ancient Derbyshire family, J.P. and D.L. of the Tower of London, by his wife Susannah Shepley. His grandfather, George Brushfield, married Ann Nadauld, great granddaughter of Henri Nadauld, a Huguenot who, settling in England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, became a sculptor and in 1698 decorated Chatsworth House with statuary and friezes.
Brushfield was educated at a private boarding school at Buckhurst Hill, Essex, and matriculated with honours at the London University in 1848. He studied medicine and surgery at the London Hospital, which he entered in 1845, and won three gold medals—for chemistry in 1847, and for medicine and physiology in 1849—besides other honours. He became M.R.C.S. in 1850 and graduated M.D. at St. Andrews University in 1862. After serving as house surgeon at the London Hospital he joined Dr. Millar at Bethnal House Asylum, London, and acquired there his first experience of lunacy. He was appointed house surgeon to Chester County Lunatic Asylum in 1852, and was first resident medical superintendent from 1854 until 1865. In 1865 he was appointed medical superintendent of the then projected Surrey County Asylum at Brookwood. The buildings at Brookwood were planned in accordance with his suggestions, and later on he helped to design the Cottage Hospital there. He retired on a pension in 1882. Brushfield was a pioneer of the ‘non-restraint’ treatment of lunatics. He sought to lighten the patients' life in asylums by making the wards cheerful and by organising entertainments. His contribution to the literature of lunacy includes ‘Medical Certificates of Insanity’ (Lancet, 1880) and ‘Practical Hints on the Symptoms, Treatment and Medico-Legal Aspects of Insanity,’ which was read before the Chester Medical Society in 1890.
On his retirement from professional work in 1882 Dr. Brushfield settled at Budleigh Salterton, on the east Devon coast, near Hayes Barton, the birthplace of Sir Walter Ralegh. Brushfield made the career of Ralegh his main study for the rest of his life. He became a member of the Devonshire Association in 1882, was elected to the council in 1883, and was president in 1893–4. A paper, ‘Notes on the Ralegh Family,’ which he read before the 1883 meeting of the Association (Trans. xv. 1883), proved the first of a long series of papers called ‘Raleghana,’ embodying minutest research into Ralegh's life and literary work, which were published in the same ‘Transactions’ between 1896 and 1907. ‘Ralegh Miscellanea’ (pts. i. and ii.) followed in 1909–10. He contributed many other papers on the same and cognate themes to other archæological journals. He was a reader for the ‘New English Dictionary,’ and contributed over 72,000 slips (see preface, vol. i.). His bibliography of Ralegh, which was published in book form in 1886 (2nd edit. 1908, with photographic portrait), first appeared serially in the ‘Western Antiquary,’ vol. 5, 1885–6.
Brushfield was a freemason, was elected F.S.A. in 1899 and was a founder of the Devon and Cornwall Record Society. He was a popular lecturer in the west country, and his lantern slides are now in the Exeter Public Library, together with the more important ‘Ralegh’ items from his library. The rest of his library of about 10,000 volumes and manuscripts, many of local interest, was dispersed after his death. He died at Budleigh Salterton on 28 Nov. 1910, and was buried there. He married, on 5 Aug. 1852, Hannah, daughter of John Davis of London, who survived him with three sons and three daughters.
[Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries, 1910-11, vi. 161; private information; personal knowledge.]