Thomas Nadauld Brushfield

He was educated at a private boarding school at Buckhurst Hill in Essex, and matriculated with honours at London University in 1848.

[1] Brushfield studied medicine and surgery at London Hospital, which he entered in 1845, and won three gold medals besides other honours.

[1] In 1852 Brushfield was appointed house surgeon to Chester County Lunatic Asylum, and was first resident medical superintendent from 1854 until 1865.

Brushfield was a pioneer of the non-restraint treatment of lunatics, and he sought to lighten the patients' life in asylums by making the wards cheerful and by organising entertainments.

[1] On his retirement Brushfield settled at Budleigh Salterton, living in a Georgian house known as The Cliff, Cliff Road in Budleigh Salterton on the east Devon coast, near Hayes Barton, the birthplace of Sir Walter Ralegh.

A paper, 'Notes on the Ralegh Family,' which he read before the 1883 meeting of the Devonshire Association, began a series of papers Raleghana, research into Walter Ralegh's life and literary work, which were published in the Association's Transactions between 1896 and 1907.

A bibliography of Ralegh, which was published in book form in 1886 (2nd edition 1908), first appeared serially in the Western Antiquary, vol.