Church warden at Christ Church Spitalfields in 1836.
At Wikia we found a Thomas Brushfield who we think must be our man: A businessman and local politician. Born Derbyshire, he moved to London where he established himself as a paint manufacturer in Union Street. Various activities and achievements: Chairman of the Commercial Gas Company; involved in local affairs as treasurer of the parish of Christchurch, Spitalfields, chairman of the Whitechapel Board of Guardians, member of the vestry and from 1865 until his death was the representative of the Whitechapel District Board on the Metropolitan Board of Works. A member of Whitechapel Board of Guardians; a justice of the peace; a lieutenant of the Tower of London. Part of Union Street was renamed Brushfield Street in 1870 in his honour.
We found a photo of a Thomas Brushfield at Lunacy to Croquet and wrote asking for confirmation that it was ‘our’ Thomas Brushfield and permission to use it. Roger Bowen wrote back giving us all we asked and more. The rest of this page is from Roger, to whom we are very grateful.
A few years ago I became interested in Thomas Nadauld Brushfield and wrote a book about his life entitled 'Lunacy to Croquet'.
Your Thomas Brushfield, aged 31, was father to Thomas Nadauld Brushfield and came to London from Derbyshire (where he married Susannah (Susan)) to improve his trade prospects. They moved to Church Street, depicted in 1676 as an unnamed road on the south side of Spitalfield running between Crispin Street and Red Lion Street, though by the beginning of the 18th century it had acquired the name Little Paternoster and later Paternoster Row. It was extended to Bishopsgate in the latter half of the 18th century, the new extension cutting through Crispin Street, Gun Street, Steward Street and Duke Street (later Fort Street). This new section was called Union Street. It was renamed Brushfield Street in honour of `Thomas Brushfield on 25th February 1870 who had become a Justice of the Peace and a prominent Vestryman of Christ Church in Spitalfields.
In 1828 Thomas and Susan had a son, Thomas Nadauld. At that time your Thomas was becoming very successful in the City as a colour and paints merchant in which business he was helped then followed by his son Richard Brushfield. He lived in 5 and 12 Church Street. He was also a trustee of the London Dispensary at 27 Fournier Street so known until the NHS was formed in 1946. He was chairman of the Christian Evidence Society. (You can read about the trial of the Reverend Robert Taylor, of that society, who was charged with blasphemy in 1827). Thomas died a very rich man in 1876.
The reason for the book title was as follows. Son Thomas Nadauld Brushfield entered London University and matriculated with honours in 1848. He then studied medicine at the London Hospital and served a period of probation at the notorious Bethlem Asylum. He was so ashamed of the treatment afforded to the insane there that he decided to dedicate his life’s work to the treatment of mental disease culminating in his appointment to a new hospital of his own design near Woking. Here he became a great success and was greatly admired by colleagues. One day in 1872, whilst conducting his ward round, a patient hid behind a door and hit him over the head with a bottle. He was near to death for some weeks but recovered. Against all protestations he decided to leave medicine for a literary career in retirement and chose Budleigh Salterton as his new home. He devoted most of the rest of his life to a study of the literary achievements of Sir Walter Raleigh. Thomas was an energetic man even after his unfortunate experience and was responsible for much of the development of the famous Budleigh Croquet Club. Hence the title of the book.
Your Thomas had an inscription placed upon Susan’s grave after she died in 1865. His was added in 1876.
The Nadauld name derives from the family's Huguenot origins, when in 1685, Henri Nadauld, then aged 31, travelled from Santongue in France near Lille d’Oleron close by La Rochelle to England. Born in 1653, to Simon Nadauld, he was a Calvanist protestant. He was married to Mary and had three children. Henri settled in London where he had a yard and studio in Piccadilly, and was active in providing garden and house sculptures to many famous estates from 1690 until he died in 1723. In 1690 he was responsible for some of the sophisticated carvings in Chatsworth and is mentioned in the archives of that estate. His son, Pierre was born in 1685 in France. He eventually retired to Brushfield in Derbyshire. More detail of the Nadauld family is contained in my book.
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