Richard Brocklesby, FRS

Will is available from: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D5259108

For Royal Society publications by Richard Brocklesby, see: http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/search?fulltext=Brocklesby&s...

School: Ballitore. From: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Irish-Quakers.html

The Quaker village of Ballitore

In 1685 two Quakers arrived in County Kildare with the intention of creating a Quaker community. They found a suitable spot beside the River Griese at Ballitore and started to build what became the only planned Irish Quaker settlement.

Irish Quaker Museum, Ballitore Ballitore Museum tells of the only planned Quaker settlement in Ireland

Wool and floor mills were built to provide work, the rich farmland provided food, and a school was established in 1726 by Abraham Shakleton (an ancestor of the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton).

Over the years the school gained such a reputation that even Protestant and Catholic parents sent their children to be educated there. Among its alumni was Edmund Burke, the famous political philosopher.

Today the little village still attracts those that want to learn about the Quakers in Ireland.

It has several restored historical buildings and a Quaker burial ground but the gem is its small museum, which contains many artefacts relating to local Quaker history.

The Quaker museum is free to visit and its opening times are:

All year: Tues-Sat, 12-5pm. June to Sept, Sunday 2-6pm. Tel: 00 353 (0)59 862 3344. - See more at: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Irish-Quakers.html#sthash.NZ...

See article on Richard Brocklesby:

Wiiliam S Curran. 'Dr. Brocklesby of London (1722–1797)'. J Hist Med Allied Sci (1962) XVII (4): 509-521.

Doctor and Fellow of the Royal Society. Experimented on nervous system. Attended Dr Samuel Johnson. Member of Parliament. Great-uncle of Thomas Young, discoverer of the wave nature of light and decipherer of the Rosetta Stone.

Richard Brocklesby, physician, was the only son of Richard Brocklesby (d. c.1763), of Cork, and his wife, Mary Alloway, of Minehead, Somerset, in which town Brocklesby was born on 11 August 1722. He received his early education in his father's house and, as both parents were Quakers, he was sent at the age of twelve to a Quaker school at Ballitore, co. Kildare. Edmund Burke became a pupil there during Brocklesby's final year, and despite the difference in their ages the two boys established a friendship that proved to be lifelong. In 1742 Brocklesby began studying medicine in Edinburgh, but before completing his course he transferred to Leiden, so as to avoid the anti-Jacobite feelings in London which might prevent an Edinburgh graduate from practising in the metropolis. On 28 June 1745 Brocklesby gained his MD with his thesis, ‘De saliva sana et morbosa’.

Brocklesby's first practice was in Broad Street, near Bishopsgate, in the City of London; to support him during the difficult years before he could earn an adequate income, his father made him an annual allowance of £150. To gain some publicity he wrote An essay concerning the mortality … among horned cattle in several parts of Europe and chiefly about London (1746). The epidemic was a matter of widespread concern, and as Brocklesby had witnessed its devastating results while in the Netherlands, his essay was opportune. He advocated the burial of the infected carcasses in deep graves. Prudently he dedicated his essay to Richard Mead, the most influential physician in London. During the next few months Brocklesby sent four articles to the Royal Society (of which Mead was a fellow), and these in due course appeared in the society's Philosophical Transactions. Two of them were concerned with certain poisons and their effects on humans and animals; a third gave an account of the author's experiments to analyse the various types of salts; the fourth described his efforts to prove that fish can hear and make sounds. Mead was impressed by Brocklesby's talents and in February 1747 proposed him for membership of the Royal Society; he was elected later in the month. Another article dated June 1755 described his experiments on various animals which demonstrated that the nerves transmitting pain were separate from those serving motor functions.

In 1749 Brocklesby published a book entitled Reflections on Antient and Modern Musick with the Application to the Care of Disease. In it he described many of the ways that music was used in the ancient world to affect the emotions, especially its use as therapy—a function that in his opinion ought to be revived. His abilities as both writer and practitioner were by now recognized, and in April 1751 he was admitted licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. Three years later he was awarded an honorary MD from Dublin and a similar degree from Cambridge. His election as fellow of the Royal College of Physicians followed in June 1756. He delivered the Harveian oration in 1760.

In 1758 Brocklesby was appointed physician to the army and served in Germany during the Seven Years' War. His experiences there provided the material for his most important work, Oeconomical and medical observations … from 1758 to 1763 inclusive tending to the improvement of military hospitals and to the care of camp diseases incident to soldiers (1764). Brocklesby observed that army surgeons were poorly equipped to deal with the majority of soldiers' illnesses, which were medical, not surgical, cases; thus it was important that a medical officer should be a qualified physician. At that time there were very few barracks, most of them badly designed: Brocklesby believed that barracks of a good quality would help troops to stay healthy by promoting personal cleanliness, physical activity, and regular meals. On the Isle of Wight he had noticed that men suffering from wounds or diseases were more likely to survive in sheds open to fresh air than in poorly ventilated houses requisitioned by the army as hospitals. His continuing interest in the health of soldiers led in March 1794 to his appointment as physician-general to the ordnance.

Brocklesby had moved to a new house in Norfolk Street, off the Strand, London, in 1763 and lived there for the rest of his life with an unmarried sister as his housekeeper. On the death of his father he inherited £600 a year and this sum, added to his fees from his many patients and his half-pay from the army, gave him an ample income. Part of this he spent on hospitality to his friends, who appreciated his sociability and his conversational powers. But he was also noted for his many charitable acts: he raised a subscription for Captain Thomas Coram, who had spent all his money on establishing the Foundling Hospital, and among his patients there were several widows who received free treatment and financial support. Brocklesby had intended to leave his friend Edmund Burke a legacy of £1000 in his will, but in fact gave it to him as an ‘instant present’ in 1788, as at that time Burke had no official pension (Correspondence of Edmund Burke, 406).

In politics Brocklesby was a whig, like his patient John Wilkes, whom he had known since their days at Leiden, and his friend the duke of Richmond. Brocklesby's most famous patient was Samuel Johnson, whom he attended from June 1783 until Johnson's death eighteen months later. They became close friends, although Johnson was a difficult patient, prone to self-treatment and to violent criticisms of his doctor's methods. With his usual generosity Brocklesby offered to accommodate Johnson in his own more spacious house, and on another occasion, to finance a trip to the continent. Johnson as an orthodox Christian was deeply worried by Brocklesby's ‘speculative views’ on religion and tried to persuade him of the importance of Christian faith (Boswell, Life, 4.414). But these efforts were ineffective and Brocklesby remained a deist.

After Johnson's death Brocklesby kept in touch with members of the Johnson circle and attended the meetings of the Essex Head Club which he and Johnson had founded. He maintained his busy practice and devoted much time to the education of his brilliant great-nephew Thomas Young (1773–1829), who described him as ‘somewhat querulous in temper and exacting in claims to respect … although liberal in great things he was somewhat parsimonious in small’ (Peacock, 124). According to the Gentleman's Magazine, ‘the Doctor had one son, a private pupil to Mr Wakefield after he quitted the academy at Hackney’ (GM, 1132–3).

Brocklesby's portrait by John Copley has been lost, but an engraving shows a middle-aged man dressed in Quaker style in black with white cuffs, his expression alert and good-humoured. Brocklesby died suddenly at home in Norfolk Street, London, on 11 December 1797, very soon after the death of Edmund Burke. His own death may have been hastened by a visit to Beaconsfield to offer condolences to his friend's widow; he died within hours of his return to London. He was buried in St Clement Danes Church on 18 December. He bequeathed his house, furniture, library, and pictures with £10,000 to Thomas Young; his Irish estates were left to his nephew Mr Beeby. (ODNB)

See also http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Brocklesby,_Richard_%281722-1797%29_%...

From: http://www.archive.org/stream/generalbiograph35dictgoog/generalbiog...

BROCKLESBY (Richard), an eminent English physician, the son of Richard Brocklesby, esq. of the city of Cork, by Mary Alloway, of Minehead, Somersetshire, was bom at Minehead, where his mother happened to be on a visit to her parents, Aug. 11, 1722. There he remained until he was three years old, at which time he was carried to Ireland, and privately instructed for some years in his father's house at Cork, At a proper age he was sent to Ballytore school in the north of Ireland, at which Edmund Burke was educated, and although they were not exactly contemporaries, Dr. Brocklesby being seven years older, this circumstance led to a long end strict friendship. Having finished his classical education at Ballytore, with diligence and success, his father, intending him for a physi- cian, sent him to Edinburgh, where after continuing the usual time, he went to Leyden, and took his degree under the celebrated Gaubios, who corresponded with him for several years afterwards. His diploma is dated June 28, 1745, and the same year he published his thesis, " De Saliva sana et morbosa."

On returning home he began practice in Broad-street, London ; and diligence, integrity, and economy, soon enabled him to surmount the difficulties which a young physician has to encounter, while his father assisted him with £150 a year, a liberal allowance at that time. In 1746, he published " An Essay concerning the mortality of the horned cattle:" and in April, 1751, was admitted a licentiate of the college of physicians. He had by this time risen into reputation ; and as his manners were naturally mild and conciliating, his knowledge well-founded, and his talents somewhat known as an author, he soon became acquainted with the leading men in the profession — particularly the celebrated Dr. Mead, Dr. Leatherland, Dr. Heberden, Sir George Baker, &c. He added another testimony to the fame of Dr. Mead, by always praising his skill, his learning, urbanity, &c. and amongst many other anecdotes of this extraordinary man, used to relate the circumstance of his giving that celebrated impostor, Psalmanazar, an opportunity of eating nearly a pound of raw human flesh at his table, to prove that this was the constant food of the inhabitants of Formosa.

On the 28th of September 1754, he obtained an honorary degree from the university of Dublin, and was admitted to Cambridge ad eundem the 16th of December following. In virtue of this degree at Cambridge, he became a fellow of the college of London the 25th of June 1756 ; and, on the 7th of October 1758 (on the recommendation of Dr. Shaw, favoured by the patronage of the late lord Harrington), he was appointed physician to the army. ln this capacity he attended in Germany the best part of what is called " the seven years war," where he was soon distinguished by his knowledge, his zeal, and humanity; and particularly recommended himself to the notice of his grace the duke of Richmond, the late lord Pembroke.

On the 27 th of October 1760, be was appointed physician to the hospitals for the British forces, and returned to England some time before the peace of 1763.

On his return he settled in Norfolk-street, in the Strand, where he was considered as a physician of very extensive experience, particularly in all diseases incident to the army. His practice spread in proportion to his reputation, and, with his half-pay, and an estate of about six hundred pounds per year, which devolved on him by the death of his father, he was now enabled to live in a very handsome manner, and his table was frequently filled with some of the most distinguished persons for rank, learning, and abilities in the kingdom. In the course of his practice, his advice as well as his purse was ever accessible to the poor, as well as. to men of merit who stood in need of either. Besides giving his advice to the poor of all descriptions, which he did with an active and unwearied benevolence, he had always upon his list two or three poor widows, to whom he granted small annuities, and who, on the quarter day of receiving their stipends, always partook of the hospitalities of his table. To his relations who wanted his assistance in their business or professional, he was not only liberal, but so judicious in his liberalities as to supersede the necessity of a repetition of them. To his friend Dr. Johnson (when it was in agitation amongst his friends to procure an enlargement of his pension, the better to enable him to travel for the benefit of his health}, he offered an establishment of one hundred pounds per year during his life, and, upon doctor Johnson's declining it (which he did in the most affectionate terms of gratitude and friendship), he made him a second offer of apartments in his own house, for the more immediate benefit of medical advice. To his old and intimate friend Edmund Burke, he had many years back bequeathed by will the sum of one thousand pounds; but recollecting that this event might take place (which it afterwards did) when such a legacy could be of no service to him, he, with that judicious liberality for which he was always distinguished, gave it to him in advance, " ut pignus amicitia ;" it was accepted as such by Mr. Burke, accompanied with a letter, which none but a man feeling the grandeur and purity of friendship like him, could dictate.

Passing through a life thus honourably occupied in the liberal pursuits of his profession, and in the confidence and friendship of some of the first characters of the age for rank or literary attainments, the doctor reached his 73rd year ; and finding those infirmities, generally attached to that time of life, increase upon him, he gave up a good deal of the bustle of business, as well as his half-pay on being appointed, by his old friend and patron the duke of Richmond, physician general to tbe royal regiment of artillery and corps of engineers, March, 1794. This was a situation exactly suited to his time of life and inclinations ; hence he employed his time in occasional trips to Woolwich, with visits to his friends and patients. In this last list be never forgot either the poor or those few friends whom he early attended as a medical man gratuitously. Scarcely any distance, or any other inconvenience, could repress this benevolent custom ; and when he heard by accident that any of this latter description of his friends were ill, and had through delicacy abstained from sending for him, he used to say, somewhat peevishly, " Why am I treated thus ? Why was not I sent for ?"

Though debilitated beyond his years, particularly for a man of his constant exercise and abstemious and regular manner of living, he kept up his acquaintance and friendships to tbe last, and in a degree partook of the pleasantries and convivialities of the table. The friends, who knew his habits sometimes indulged him with a nap in his armchair after dinner, which greatly refreshed him : he then would turn about to the company, and pay his club of the conversation, either by anecdote or observation, entirely free from the laws or severities of old age.

In the beginning of December 1797, he set out on a visit to Mrs, Burke, at Beaconsfield, the long frequented seat of friendship and hospitality, where the master spirit of the age he lived in, as well as the master of that mansion, had so often adorned, enlivened, and improved the convivial hour. On proposing this journey, and under so infirm a state as he was in, it was hinted by a friend, whe ther such a length of way, or the lying out of his own bed, with other little circumstances, might not fatigue him too much. He instantly caught the force of this suggestion, and with his usual placidity replied, " My good friend, I perfectly understand your hint, and am thankful to you for it, but where' s tbe difference whether I die at a friend's house, at an inn, or in a post-chaise ? I hope I'm every way prepared for such an event, and perhaps it would be as well to elude the expectation of it." He therefore began his journey the next day, and arrived there the same evening, where he was cordially received by the amiable mistress of the mansion, as well as by doctors Lawrence and King, who happened to be there on a visit. He remained at Beaconsfield 'till the 11th of December, but recollecting that his learned nephew, Dr. Young, now foreign secretary to the royal society, was to return from Cambridge to London next day, he instantly set out for his house in town, where he ate his last dinner with his nearest friends and relations. About nine o'clock he desired to go to bed, but going up stairs fatigued him so much, that he was obliged to sit in his chair for some time before he felt himself sufficiently at ease to be undressed. In a little time, however, he recovered himself; and, as they were unbuttoning his waistcoat, he said to his elder nephew, " What an idle piece of ceremony this buttoning and unbuttoning is to me now !" When he got to bed he seemed perfectly composed, but in about five minutes after, expired without a groan.

He was interred Dec. 18, in the church-yard of St. Clement Danes, in a private manner, according to his request. His fortune, amounting to near 30,000/. after a few legacies to friends and distant relations, was divided between his two nephews, Robert Beeby, esq. and Dr. Thomas Young. The preceding facts may be sufficient to illustrate Dr. Brocklesby's character. His future fame as a writer must rest on his publications, of which the following is, we believe, a correct list: 1. " Dissertatio Inaug, de Saliva Sana et Morbosa," Lug. Bat, 1745, 4to. 2. " An Essay concerning the Mortality of the Horned Cattle," 1746, 8vo. 3. " Eulogium Medicum, sive Oratio Anniversaria Harveiana habita in Theatris Collegii Regalis Medicorum Londinensium, Die xviii Octobris," 1760, 4to. 4. " (Economical and Medical Observations from 1738 to 1763, tending to the improvement of Medical Hospitals," 1764, 8vo. 5. fi € An Account of the poisonous root lately found mixed with Gentian," Phil. Trans. N. 486. 6. " Case of a Lady labouring under a Diabetes," Med. Observ. No. III. 7. " Experiments relative to the Analysis and Virtues of Seltzer Water," ibid. vol. IV. 8. " Case of an Encysted Tumour in the Orbit of the Eye, cured by Messrs. Bromfield and Ingram," ibid, 9, " A Dissertation on the Music of the Antients." We do not know the date of this last article, but believe it to be amongst his early literary amusements. When Dr. Young was at Leyden, a professor, understanding he was a nephew of Dr. Brocklesby's, shewed him a translation of it in the German language.

Footnote in: The Letters of Horace Walpole (http://www.digilibraries.com/html_ebooks/120579/4773/www.digilibrar...)

Dr. Richard Brocklesby, an eminent physician. He had been examined before the House of Commons, as to Mr. Wilkes's incapacity to attend in his place. His Whig politics, which probably induced Mr. Wilkes to sen@ for him, induced the majority of the House to distrust his report, and to order two other medical men to visit the patient. This proceeding implied a doubt of Dr. Brocklesby's veracity, which certainly called for,@ the interference of Mr. Charles Townshend, who was a private as well as a political friend of the doctor's. Dr. Brocklesby, besides being one of the first physicians of his time, was a man of literature and taste, and did not confine his society nor his beneficence to those who agreed with him in politics. He was the friend and physician of Dr. Johnson, and when, towards the close of this great man's life, it was supposed that his circumstances were not quite easy, Dr. Brocklesby generously pressed him to accept an annuity of one hundred pounds, and he attended him to his death with unremitted affection and care.-C.

• "Richard Brocklesby", Munks Roll, Royal College of Physicians of London