During the course of the afternoon of 21st April 1849, after the body of J.B. Rush had been cut down, his head was shaven and a cast taken of the features and skull by Mr. Gaivonni Bianchi, a Figure maker, of St George's Middle Street, Norwich, in order that a phrenological examimation could be made.
There are two descriptions that have been published:
Ref: Anon. 1849. An Introductory Narrative and Revised Report of the Trial and Execution of J. B. Rush, for the murder of Isaac Jermy, of Stanfield Hall, Esq. ..... and of his son Isaac Jermy Jermy, Esq. Bacon and Kinnebrook, Norwich. 162pp.A phrenological development of the cranium of Rush has been obtained from an inspection of the original cast, by Mr. Stark, of this city:- The measurement of the cranium is 24½ inches, being 2½ inches above the average. From ear to ear, round the back of the head, is 12½ inches - the back of the head being 9½ inches wide. From ear to ear round the front is 12 inches, the perceptive organs being very full. From ear to ear across the crown is 14½ inches; whilst, owing to the receding of the forehead, the facial angle is greatly below the average. The anterior and middle lobes of the brain are exceedingly small in comparison with the posterior lobe containing the animal propensities. The cranium might be mapped out thus:- Philoprogenitiveness, large; Concentrativeness and Adhesiveness, full; Combativeness, or Aggressiveness and Constructiveness, large; Acquisitiveness, Secretiveness, Self-Esteem, and Love of Approbation, full; Cautiousness and Benovolence, small in comparison; Veneration, very small; Hope, also very small; Ideality and Conscientiousness, very deficient; Firmness, very large. All the organs about the eyes, appropriated to the perception of external objects and the rememberance of events, are fully developed; but the reflective organs, Causality and Comparison, are exceedingly small.
His forehead is small and low - the organs of comparison and casualty but little developed; his perceptive organs over the eye, size, locality, weight, &c., are fully developed. Altogether, the front part of the head does not indicate any mental power, nor would it have been possible for any training to have produced any high degree of such power. His forehead is narrow; ideality is very deficient; he has no great degree of imagination; his circle of mental vision is extremely limited. The top of his head if flat; benevolence and veneration are wanting; he has naturally no strong religious tendencies. Marvellousness is fully developed; credulous himself, he believes others to be equally so. That organ misnamed destructiveness, is full above the ear; it ought to be called impulsiveness (that which prompts a man to immediate action), and it may be as fully developed in a benevolent as in a malevolent person's head, or even more so. Cautiousness and concentrativeness are very full, especially the latter. His natural powers, though weak, were aided by his tendency to rivet them on one object; if he had not a good object before him he would inevitably have a bad one, and unless great obstruction came in the way, he would succeed. He has combativeness full; also amativeness exceedingly strong, as indicated by his thick neck. He is naturally five times more animal than intellectual, and his whole history proves him to have been a gross sensualist - a man incapable of any generous emotion, a low, mean, grovelling character, but of active habits; and under stern command, his physical energies might have been turned to good account: left to the governance of himself, he soon began to run riot. His passions had their full swing, and because he felt no moral restraint, he came to be considered as a man of resolute and determined will, but without any just claim to the distinction any more than a headstrong horse, that, left to himself, would run his head against a will. I have met with a great many of these headstrong people, who, because they will have everything their own way, and because they bully and swagger over everybody, pass, among the unthinking multitude, for men of importance and ability. Rush appears to be one of this class.
Ref: Anon. 1849. The Stanfield Hall Assassinations! Authentic Report of the Trial, Conviction, and Extraordinary Defence of Jas. Bloomfield Rush; including Every incident in the Most Appalling Tragedy of real Life ever Recorded in the Annals of Crime. Cleave, London. 26pp.