Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/212

 him to learn writing. In a few years Braidwood taught him to speak. About the end of 1768 some lines purporting to be by this lad, on seeing Garrick act, appeared in the London newspapers (reprinted in 'Gent. Mag.' 1807, p. 38), and called attention to the case. 'A.,' in 'Gent. Mag.' 1807, pp. 306-6, says the verses were really written as a means of getting an introduction to Garrick by Caleb Whitefoord. Sherriff became a successful miniature painter in London, Bath, Brighton, and the West Indies. Lord Monboddo reports of him (Orig. and Prog. of Language, 1773, i. 179) that he 'both speaks and writes good English;' on the other hand 'A.' (as above) nays he never could understand Sherriff whom he knew well. Encouraged by his success with Sherriff, Braidwood dedicated himself to the teaching of the mute. His only mechanical appliance was a small silver rod 'about the sixe of a tobacco-pipe,' flattened at one end, and having a bulb at the other. This he employed to place the tongue in the right positions. From about 1770 he was assisted by his kinsman, John Braidwood. Dr. Johnson visited the institution in 1773 at Edinburgh; he calls it a 'subject of philosophical curiosity … which no other city has to show; a college of the deaf and dumb, who are taught to speak, to read, to write, and to practise arithmetic' He set a sum, and 'wrote one of his sesquipedalia verba,' which was pronounced to his satisfaction. He says of Braidwood's pupils that they 'hear with the eye.' The number of scholars was 'about twelve.' Arnot says (Hist. of Edin. 1779, p. 426) the pupils were 'mostly from England, but some also from America.' Francis Green mentions that there were 'about twenty pupils' in 1783. Braidwood was then about to remove his academy to London, the king having, according to Green, promised 100l. a year from his private purse to help to make it a public institution (pp. 183-4), He established himself at Grove House, Mare Street, Hackney, where be died on 24 Oct. 1806, in his ninety-first year. John Braidwood, his coadjutor, was born in 1756, married in 1782 the daughter of Thomas Braidwood, and died 24 Sept. 1798 at Hackney of a pulmonary complaint, leaving a widow, two sons, Thomas and John, and two daughters. The academy was continued by the widow and sons.

 BRAILSFORD, JOHN, the elder (fl. 1712–1739), poetical writer, was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1712, M.A. 1717), and, after acting as curate at Blaston in Leicestershire, became rector of Kirby in Nottinghamshire. He wrote 'Derby Silk-Mill, attempted in Miltonick Verse,' Nottingham, 1739, fol.

 BRAILSFORD, JOHN, the younger (d. 1775), divine, after completing his education at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (B.A. 1744, M.A. 1766), was appointed in 1766 to the head-mastership of the free school at Birmingham, which situation he held till his death on 25 Nov. 1775. He was also vicar of North Wheatley, Nottinghamshire, and chaplain to Francis, lord Middleton. He published 'The Nature and Efficacy of the Fear of God,' an assize sermon preached at Warwick (London, 1761, 4to); and an octavo volume, containing 'Thirteen Sermons on various Subjects' by him, was published at Birmingham the year after his death.

 BRAITHWAITE, JOHN (fl. 1660), quaker, was probably born in 1633, as there is an entry in the Cartmel registers of the baptism on 24 March 1633 of John, son of James Braithwaite of Newton. George Fox records in his 'Journal' that, being at Newton-in-Cartmel in 1652, where he attempted to preach to the people after service, he spoke to a youth whom he noticed in the chapel taking notes of the clergyman's sermon. The young man was John Braithwaite, who afterwards became his earnest follower. He published three tracts in support of Fox's doctrines: In 1658 he, or one of his name, travelled many miles to visit a friend confined in 
 * 1) 'A serious Meditation upon the dealings of God with England and the State thereof in General,' n.d.
 * 2) 'The Ministers of England which are called the Ministers of the Gospel weighed in the Balance of Equity, &c.,' 1660.
 * 3) 'To all those that observe Dayes, Moneths, Times, and Years, &c.,' 1660.