Thomas Braidwood

Who was Thomas Braidwood?

Thomas Braidwood was a Scottish teacher of the deaf.

Born at Hillhead Farm, Covington, Lanarkshire, Scotland, he was the fourth child of Thomas Braidwood and Agnes Meek. Braidwood originally established himself as a writing master instructing the children of the wealthy at his private residence in the Canongate in Edinburgh. In 1760 he changed his vocation from teaching hearing pupils to teaching the deaf and renamed his building 'Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf and Dumb' which is recognised as the first school of its kind in Britain. His first pupil was Charles Shirreff, son of Alexander Shirreff, a wealthy wine merchant based at the Port of Leith. Among Braidwood's pupils were John Goodricke, the famed astronomer; Francis Mackenzie who became a Member of Parliament and later the governor of Barbados; John Philp Wood, who went on to become a famed author, genealogist, editor and Over Deputy of the Scottish Excise Office; Jane Poole; Sarah Dashwood; Ann Walcot; Thomas Arrowsmith, an artist, and John Creasy who inspired the Rev. John Townsend to found the first ever public school for the Deaf in England in 1792.

Braidwood had three daughters, Margaret, Elizabeth and Isabella.