Author: Bakewell, Thomas
Biography:
BAKEWELL, Thomas (1761-1835: ODNB)
Born at Kingstone, near Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, on 1 June 1761, he was the third of six children of Thomas Bakewell and his wife Mary Chadwick (d 1801) who had married in Grindon, Staffordshire, on 4 Nov. 1758. He was raised by his maternal grandfather, John Chadwick, who kept a madhouse first at Grindon and then at Ashbourne in Derbyshire. He had limited education and was profoundly influenced by seeing the patients in his grandfather’s care. He apprenticed as a tape weaver in 1774. On 12 Nov. 1782 he married Mary Bott (d 1795) at Prestwich, Manchester; they had nine children. After the death of John Chadwick in 1770, the madhouse was managed by his son, John, but in about 1793 Thomas Bakewell took over the management when his uncle became unwell. ODNB states that financial difficulties sent Bakewell to America in the mid 1790s and he returned only in 1802. Evidence for this is wanting although a Thomas Bakewell advertised linen and other fabric goods for sale in Virginia in 1794. If this was the same Thomas Bakewell, he had returned to England by the time of his marriage to Ann Keys at Cheadle on 20 Feb. 1799; Ann died in 1805 when their fourth child was born. Bakewell set himself up as a mad-doctor in Cheadle and in 1805 published his Domestic Guide in Cases of Insanity intended as a manual of advice for families. In 1808 he opened a madhouse, Spring Vale, near Stone in Staffordshire, where he advocated care based on fresh air, exercise, good diet, a supportive environment, and “moral treatment.” His third marriage, to Sarah Glover on 6 May 1809, helped financially and practically. They had eleven children and the eldest assisted his mother in successfully managing Spring Vale after Thomas Bakewell’s death. Bakewell campaigned for better understanding and treatment of the insane; he contributed articles to the periodical press and vigorously opposed the development of large public asylums which, he feared, would focus on confinement rather than cure. He died on 6 Sept. 1835 at Spring Vale and was buried in St. Michael’s Church, Stone. (ODNB 10 Jan. 2023; ancestry.co.uk 10 Jan. 2023; Virginia Chronicle 9 June 1794; Imperial Magazine 8 [1826] 401-15, 513-19; Staffordshire Advertiser 26 Sept. 1835)