John Conolly [1774 - 1866] was born at Market Rasen into a collateral branch of the prominent Castletown, Co. Kildare, family. After graduating at Edinburgh in 1821, his efforts in clinical practice, bolstered by indifferent forays into medical journalism, were repeatedly unsuccessful. Thus, at the age of 45, over the course of four years as Resident Superintendent of Hanwell Asylum in Middlesex, he became one of the leading psychiatrists in England. Though his consulting practice blossomed thereafter, it is as the consummate, kindly administrator responsible for the introduction of non-restraint in public asylums in England and Wales that he is remembered today.
