Study unearths Britain’s first speech therapists

ta385 — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 08:15:00 +0000

Until now, historians had assumed that John Thelwall became Britain’s first speech therapist in the early nineteenth century.*

But Cambridge historian Elizabeth Foyster has discovered that James Ford was advertising his services in London as early as 1703, and that many other speech therapists emerged over the course of the eighteenth century.

Ford’s advert (pictured), published in the Post Man newspaper on 23 October 1703, states that "he removes Stammering, and other impediments in Speech", as well as teaching "Foreigners to pronounce English like Natives".

Ford had previously worked with the deaf and dumb but realised that there was more money to be made by offering other speech improvement services as a branch of education for wealthy children.

“In the eighteenth century, speaking well was crucial to being accepted in polite society and to succeeding in a profession,” said Foyster. “Speech impediments posed a major obstacle and the stress this caused often made a sufferer’s speech even worse. At the same time, wealthy parents were made to feel guilty and they started spending increasingly large sums to try to “cure” their children.”

By 1703, Ford was based in Newington Green, in the suburbs of London, but twice a week he waited near the city’s Royal Exchange and Temple Bar to secure business from merchants, financiers and lawyers desperate to improve their children’s life chances.

By 1714, some of these families were seeking out the help of Jacob Wane, a therapist who drew on a 33-year personal struggle with the condition. And by the 1760s, several practitioners were competing for business in London.

“We have lost sight of these origins of speech therapy because historians have been looking to identify a profession which had agreed qualifications for entry, an organising body, scientific methods and standards, as we have today,” said Foyster. “In the eighteenth century, speech therapy was regarded as an art not a science. But with its attention to the individual, and the psychological as well as physiological causes of speech defects, we can see the roots of today's speech therapy.”

Art and business

Foyster’s study, published in the journal Cultural and Social History, shows that speech specialists emerged in the early eighteenth century as new attention was given to the role of the nerves, emotions and psychological origins of speech impediments.

Prior to this, in the seventeenth century, the main cure on offer had involved painful physical intervention including the cutting of tongues. But as speech defects came to be understood as resulting from nervous disorders, entrepreneurial therapists stepped in to end the monopoly of the surgeons.

“These men, and some women, made no claim to medical knowledge,” Foyster says. “In fact, some were very keen to emphasise that they were nothing like the surgeons who had caused so much unnecessary pain. They described themselves as ‘Artists’ and their gentler methods were much more attractive to wealthy clients.”

These speech ‘artists’ jealously guarded their trade secrets but gave away some clues to their methods in print. Close attention was paid to the position of the lips, tongue and mouth; clients were given breathing and voice exercises to practise; and practitioners emphasised the importance of speaking slowly so that every sound could be articulated.

By the 1750s, London’s speech therapists had become masters of publicity publishing books, placing advertisements in newspapers and giving lectures in universities and other venues. In 1752, Samuel Angier achieved the remarkable feat of lecturing to Cambridge academics on four occasions about speech impediments and the ‘art of pronunciation’, despite having never attended university himself.

Foyster has identified several successful speech therapy businesses, some of which were passed down from one generation to the next. Most of these were based in London but practitioners would often follow their clientele to fashionable resort towns such as Bath and Margate.

In 1761, Charles Angier became the third generation to take over his family’s business; and by the 1780s, he claimed to be able to remove all speech impediments within six to eight months if his pupils were ‘attentive’. By then, he was reported to be charging fifty guineas ‘for the Cure’ at a time when many Londoners were earning less than ten guineas a year.

To be successful, these entrepreneurs had to separate themselves from quackery. Some heightened their credibility by securing accreditation from respected physicians while others printed testimonials from satisfied clients beneath their newspaper advertisements.

Suffering and determination

Foyster’s study also sheds light on the appalling suffering and inspirational determination of stammerers in the eighteenth century, including some well-known figures.

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), the theologian, scientist and clergyman (pictured), recalled that his worsening stammer made ‘preaching very painful, and took from me all chance of recommending myself to any better place’.

His fellow scientist, Erasmus Darwin, also suffered from a stammer, as did Darwin’s daughter, Violetta, and eldest son, Charles. In 1775, Darwin compiled detailed instructions to help his daughter overcome her stammer which involved sounding out each letter and practising problematic words for weeks on end.

“It is tempting to think that sympathy for stammering is a very recent phenomenon but a significant change in attitudes took hold in the eighteenth century,” said Foyster. “While stammerers continued to be mocked and cruelly treated, polite society became increasingly compassionate, especially when someone demonstrated a willingness to seek specialist help.”

References:

Elizabeth Foyster, ‘Fear of Giving Offence Makes Me Give the More Offence’: Politeness, Speech and Its Impediments in British Society, c.1660–1800.' Cultural and Social History (2018). DOI: 10.1080/14780038.2018.1518565

* Denyse Rockey, ' ̽��ֱ��Logopaedic thought of John Thelwall, 1764-1834: First British Speech Therapist', British Journal of Disorders of Communication (1977). DOI: 10.3109/13682827709011313

On International Stammering Awareness Day (22 October), a new study reveals that Britain’s first speech therapists emerged at least a century earlier than previously thought.

It is tempting to think that sympathy for stammering is a very recent phenomenon but a significant change in attitudes took hold in the eighteenth century

Elizabeth Foyster

National Portrait Gallery, London

Joseph Priestley: theologian, scientist, clergyman and stammerer. Pastel by Ellen Sharples, probably after James Sharples, c.1797

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Care in the community

lw355 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:30:07 +0000

When institutionalised care for the mentally disabled was phased out under Margaret Thatcher in 1983, and the responsibility for care shifted principally to family members, the policy was considered to be one of the biggest political changes in the history of mental healthcare. But the approach to care was really coming full circle.

Mental illness and disability were family problems for English people living between 1660 and 1800. While mental illness was a subject of morbid fascination to the English public, and queues formed to see incarcerated women, the reality was more mundane. Most women and men who were afflicted by mental illness were not institutionalised, as this was the period before the extensive building of asylums. Instead, they were housed at home, and cared for by other family members.

Now a new study by Cambridge historian Dr Elizabeth Foyster will reveal the impact on families of caring for mentally ill and disabled relatives.

Much has been written about the insane themselves but few studies have considered mental illness from the perspective of the carers. ̽��ֱ��lifetime burden of caring for those individuals whose mental development did not progress beyond childhood, and who contemporaries labelled as ‘idiots’, ‘naturals’ or ‘fools’, has been little explored by historians. Foyster’s research, which has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust, will unpick the emotional and economic consequences for families at a time when the Poor Law bound them to look after their mentally ill and disabled family members.

By asking key questions about the impact of ‘care in the community’ in the 18th century, Foyster hopes that her research will bridge social and medical history. Specifically, she aims to provide an historical perspective to contemporary debates such as how resources can be stretched to provide for children with learning difficulties and an ageing population.

“ ̽��ֱ��stresses and strains of family life were exacerbated by high infant mortality and low life expectancy, and many individuals were pushed towards mental breakdown,” she explained. “Moreover, inherited conditions, senility and what today would be described as ‘special needs’ could put great emotional demands on family members who had primary responsibility for their sick or disabled relatives.”

̽��ֱ��research will shed light upon how caring for the mentally ill and disabled raised difficult issues for families about the limits of intergenerational responsibility, and whether family ties were weakened or strengthened by the experience. ̽��ֱ��questions of how far shame was attached to having insanity or idiocy within a family, and at what point families began to seek outside help, will also be addressed.

“ ̽��ֱ��family must have seemed an inescapable feature of daily life between 1660 and 1800,” said Foyster. “Although there were those who were abandoned and rejected, for the majority, mental disability was accommodated within the family unit. I aim to get to the heart of what this really meant for people’s lives.”

For more information, please contact Louise Walsh (louise.walsh@admin.cam.ac.uk) at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Office of External Affairs and Communications.

Historians have long recognised that the family were the chief carers of the mentally ill. A new study will investigate the emotional and economic consequences of what care in the community meant to 18th-century families.

Although there were those who were abandoned and rejected, for the majority, mental disability was accommodated within the family unit.

Dr Elizabeth Foyster

Fitzwilliam Museum

'Madness', James McArdell, after Robert Edge Pine 1760

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̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Elizabeth Foyster

Study unearths Britain’s first speech therapists

Art and business

Suffering and determination

Care in the community