Thomas Braidwood

Background

Thomas Braidwood was born in 1715 at Hillhead Farm, Covington, South Lanarkshire, Scotland; the son of Thomas Braidwood and Agnes Meek.

Education

Braidwood was educated at Edinburgh University.

Career

Braidwood became a school teacher, and in 1760 opened in Edinburgh, with one pupil, the first school in Great Britain for the deaf and dumb, following the system of Dr John Wallis, described in Philosophical Transactions nearly a hundred years before. This school was the model for all of the early English institutions of the kind. Dr Johnson visited it in 1773, and describes it as “a subject of philosophical curiosity . .. which no other city has to show, ” and Braidwood's dozen pupils as able “to hear with the eye. ” In 1783 Braidwood moved to Hackney, where he died on the 24th of October 1806.

Achievements

• Braidwood opened the first school in Great Britain for the deaf and dumb in Edinburgh. He also established the Braidwood Academy for the Deaf and Dumb in London.

Connections

Braidwood married Margaret Pearson on 1 October 1752. The couple had three daughters.

Father:

Thomas Braidwood

Mother:

Agnes Meek

Wife:

Margaret Pearson

References

• The Deaf and Dumb: Their Education and Social Position