Dr. John Brickett, detail, courtesy of Museum of Old Newbury. The Worcester Lunatic Asylum.
Dr. John Brickett and the Worcester Lunatic Asylum
Dr. John Brickett and the Worcester Lunatic Asylum, both played a major part in the Newburyport Pardee Family Saga.
Dr. John Brickett, detail, courtesy of Museum of Old Newbury. The Worcester Lunatic Asylum.
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Oil on canvas portrait of Dr. John Brickett, c. 1800, collection of the Museum of Old Newbury. The painting is attributed to itinerant artist William Jennys who was active in Massachusetts from the late 1790s to about 1807. Dr. Brickett is portrayed holding Volume II of Materia Medica, a book essential to his profession. The photograph is taken by Bob Watts.
Dr. John Brickett
Dr. John Brickett, by Susan Edwards the Executive Director of the Museum of Old Newbury
“Newburyport’s Dr. John Brickett (1774-1848) was an apothecary and successful physician. Twice married and father of seven children, he also served in the War of 1812 acting as surgeon on the privateer Decatur in 1813 under the command of Captain William Nichols.
John Brickett was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, the son of James and Edna Merrill Brickett of Newbury. After completing a course of study in the 1790s, he became the first physician in the new town of Bethel, Maine. In 1794, he returned to Haverhill to marry Elizabeth Ayer before settling in Newburyport to practice medicine.
However happy their marriage might have been, it was marred with sadness. Elizabeth Brickett died in March 1807, weeks after her thirtieth birthday. In April, a nine month old daughter, named for her mother, also died, followed by the death of another daughter, age nine, in August.
In September 1809, Brickett married again to Lydia Woodbury with whom he had one daughter in 1811. Martha Ann Kimball Brickett was named for a daughter from his previous marriage.
Three more children all died in their early twenties, including an only son, John James, who was the first officer on the Brig Margaret. His death occurred on a passage from Jamaica to Newburyport in September 1824. He was 22 years old.
The same year that Martha Ann Kimball Brickett was born, across the world in Siam, twin boys were born. The boys were conjoined and subsequently became known as the Siamese twins Chang and Eng. They became inextricably linked with the story of Dr. Brickett.
In 1829, Scottish merchant Robert Hunter traveled to Siam with Captain Abel Coffin of Newburyport with the purpose of taking the then 17 year old twins to America as human curiosities. Hunter and Coffin stopped in England to have the boys examined by physicians before arriving in Boston and exhibiting the twins to the American public. They were taken to Newburyport where they lived with Captain Coffin and his family on Washington Street.
Dr. Brickett was appointed their personal physician and as the twins became traveling performers, Brickett traveled with them until they became their own managers in about 1832. Chang and Eng traveled throughout the country and later the world. Dr. Brickett returned to his quiet life in Newburyport and made his home in a three-story dwelling on the southwest side of High Street near the corner of Boardman, 189 High Street. John Brickett died of dysentery at the age of 75. His funeral was held at St. Paul’s church, and he is buried in the churchyard near his wife, Lydia.”
Siamese twins, Change and Eng Butler
Chang and Eng were siamese twins that were joined at the waist. They were born May 11, 1811 in Mekong, Siam (now Thailand) and died January 16 and 17, 1874 at Mount Airy, North Carolina. Chang and Eng were 17 years old when they traveled to the United States with Robert Hunter and Abel Coffin and arrived in Boston on August 16, 1829. They toured extensively, were very famous and their story, which is part of Dr. John Brickett’s story, is fascinating. There is a great deal written about them and you can find out more about Chang and Eng here.
189 High Street, home of Dr. Johne Brickett, courtesy of the Newburyport Preservation Trust.
This is the document that is signed by Dr. John Brickett regarding Jane M. Pardee, it reads:
“To whom it may concern, This is to certify that Miss Jane M. Pardee of Newburyport, whom I have attended for 5 or 6 weeks past is insane: and has been so for three or four weeks, and now has become so troublesome that it is impossible to do her justice in my opinion, without as moving her from her present situation to some institution provided for Insane Persons.” It is dated October 1841.
Document signed by Dr. John Brickett stating that Jane M. Pardee should be placed in an institution provided for insane persons.
The First Worcester Lunatic Asylum on Summer Street, Collection of the Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester Massachusetts
The Worcester Lunatic Asylum
In 1841 Jane M. Pardee was to the Worcester Lunatic Asylum at the age of 20. She was diagnosed by Dr. John Brickett and committed by her guardian, Solomon H. Currier. There is no way of knowing why Jane was sent to the Asylum. I was able to trace Jane at the Worcester asylum. She was inmate/patient number 1346. The reason for her being there is listed as “ill health.” Every year that she was there, it stated that there was an “improvement” and that she was never homicidal or suicidal. That seems to be a different picture from the terrifying legal documents from very powerful Newburyport men. She was discharged in 1844 after being there 2 years and 8 months. She went to live with her niece and husband in the house she had inherited from her father.
Please see the earlier page on Jane M. Pardee and the Newburyport Family Saga.
Document from the court saying that Jane M. Pardee was dangerous and should be “committed to the state lunatic hospital agreeable to law.”
“In the 18th to the early 20th century, women were sometimes institutionalized due to their opinions, their unruliness and their inability to be controlled properly by a primarily male-dominated culture. There were financial incentives too; before the passage of the Married Women’s Property Act 1882, all of a wife’s assets passed automatically to her husband.
The men who were in charge of these women, either a husband, father or brother, could send these women to mental institutions, stating that they believed that these women were mentally ill because of their strong opinions. “Between the years of 1850–1900, women were placed in mental institutions for behaving in ways the male society did not agree with.” These men had the last say when it came to the mental health of these women, so if they believed that these women were mentally ill, or if they simply wanted to silence the voices and opinions of these women, they could easily send them to mental institutions.” ~ Women in Psychiatric Institutions, Wikipedia
First image: 1844 Annual Report of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester.
Second image: Page 17 from the 1844 Report, where it shows inmate/patient number 1346, who was Jane M. Pardee.
A great deal of crowdsourcing was done to find out as much as possible about the Pardee Family Saga. This was one comment that was left by a member of the Newburyport History Buffs which shed light on how women were treated when it came to committing them to lunatic asylums.
“When my mother died in 1994, and I was arranging her funeral, I discovered a relative buried in the family grave I had never heard of. I told my Aunt I thought someone was erroneously buried in the family grave and she said, “Oh that’s not a mistake that was your great Aunt Susan who was committed to the State Hospital in Tewkesbury because she spent several years living in Cuba in the early 1900’s and your grandfather and his brothers had her committed upon her return because she was very outspoken and had affairs with men”. Your research sheds a lot of light on this horror.”
This is from Madeline Kearin Ryan, the Worcester Historical Museum:
“Women were often institutionalized for what was considered abnormal, hysterical, or inconvenient behavior, and it was certainly easier to have someone committed than it is today. Elizabeth Packard, for example, was committed by her husband because she challenged his religious beliefs. Elizabeth Hill claims that she was committed to the Worcester State Hospital by the town selectmen because of a lawsuit she brought against the railroad company that was encroaching on her property.
Ill health was considered a major cause of insanity, along with the others listed – masturbation, domestic afflictions, fear of poverty, etc. At that point there was no standardized set of diagnoses for mental illness but there were a few commonly used ones, such as monomania and melancholia. The threshold at which someone was considered worthy of commitment in the 19th century was much lower than it is today.”
The First Worcester Lunatic Asylum on Summer Street, Collection of the Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester Massachusetts
The First Worcester Lunatic Asylum
“In 1830, the Massachusetts State Legislature passed a resolve calling for the establishment of a 120-bed hospital to accommodate its mentally ill citizens. The Worcester State Hospital, opened in 1833, was one of the first institutions of its kind in the United States. Unlike earlier asylums, the hospital was intended to provide therapeutic treatment that would restore so-called “lunatics” to sanity. It was located on Summer Street, in what was at the time a relatively rural and peaceful area of the town. During the tenure of its first superintendent, Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, the Worcester State Hospital enjoyed a glowing reputation. However, by the 1850s, the institution had become overcrowded and its physical plant was deteriorating. It was replaced in 1877 by a larger structure on Belmont Street.” ~ The Worcester Historical Museum
There is a great deal of information about the Worcester Lunatic Hospitals at the Worcester Historical Museum as well as the First Worcester State Lunatic Hospital also at the Worcester Historical Museum.
History compiled by Mary Baker Eaton, Susan Edwards the Executive Director of the Museum of Old Newbury and the Worcester Historical Museum.
References
The Annual report of the Trustees of the Worcester State Hospital, years 1841, 1842, 1843 and 1844 https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000059102
Women in Psychiatric Institutions, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunatic_asylum#Women_in_psychiatric_institutions
Check Out The Interactive History Map
More information about Newburyport and its history can be found on the interactive history map, “Newburyport – Keeping the Story Alive.”