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Edward Long Fox (psychiatrist)

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Edward Long Fox
Edward Long Fox
Born26 April 1761
Died2 May 1835
Brislington, Somerset
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh
Known forPioneer of mental health-care
Scientific career
FieldsPsychiatry

Edward Long Fox (26 April 1761 – 2 May 1835) was an English psychiatrist. He established an insane asylum at Brislington House, near Bristol, England, and classified the patients according to social class as well as behavioural presentation.[1]

He was a member of the Fox family of Falmouth, one of the 11 children of Joseph Fox (1729–1784) and Elizabeth Hingston, his wife. He graduated and MD from the University of Edinburgh in 1784. Following the death of John Till Adams in 1786 he cared for many of Till Adams patients in the local Quaker community.[2] Around the same time he joined Bristol Infirmary as a physician. He worked there for 30 years.[3]

In 1830, he purchased Knightstone Island in Weston-super-Mare to create a therapeutic spa with a range of hot, cold and chemical baths.[1]

He died at Brislington House in 1835, aged 74, and was buried in the nearby Friends' burial ground which had been purchased by the family along with an adjoining property called the Rookery.[4][5]

Family

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Twice married, Fox had 15 daughters and 8 sons.[6] He married Catherine Brown, daughter of Edward Brown, Esq., in 1784. After Catherine's death in 1803, Fox married Isabella Ker, eldest daughter of Major John Charles Ker.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b Smith, L. (2008). "A gentleman's mad-doctor in Georgian England: Edward Long Fox and Brislington House" (PDF). History of Psychiatry. 19 (2): 163–84. doi:10.1177/0957154X07081136. PMID 19127837. S2CID 28304699.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ Hall, Walker (1919). "Contemporary Medicine from the Standpoint of Pathology". The Bristol Medico-Chirurgical Journal. XXXVI (137 December 1919): 105–117.
  3. ^ "Parks and Gardens UK, Dr Edward Long Fox". Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  4. ^ "Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries". Bristol Mercury. 9 May 1835.
  5. ^ "FUNERAL OF DR. FRANCIS FOX, AT BRISLINGTON". Bristol Mercury. 13 January 1883.
  6. ^ Fox, Barclay (2008). Barclay Fox's Journal. Cornwall Editions Limited. p. 27. ISBN 9781904880318.
  7. ^ Foster, John (1872). A revised genealogical account of the various families descended from Francis Fox of St. Germans, Cornwall; to which is appended a pedigree of the Crokers of Lineham. Privately printed. p. 14.