C. HELEN BROCK

    The Influence of Europe on Colonial Massachusetts Medicine*

    EUROPEAN medicine had already had an influence on the region that the Pilgrim Fathers colonized in 1620, and which, from 1691, was to be merged with the colony of Massachusetts. In 1603 Captain Martin Pring had explored the region looking for sassafras, first introduced by the Spaniards into Europe from Florida and much used for the treatment of syphilis, rheumatism, and dropsy. Subsequent contact between Europeans and the indigenous Indians led to “a prodigious Pestilence as carried off not a Tenth, but Nine Parts of Ten (yea ’tis said Nineteen of Twenty) among them; So that the Woods were almost cleared of those pernicious Creatures, to make room for a better Growth.”1

    It is, of course, correct to speak of European rather than English medicine, for Europe had a common medical tradition based, as it all was, on the writings of classical medical authors and maintained by the circulation of printed works and the policy of the great medical universities of accepting students from all countries. National differences existed, however, in the organization and control of medical services.

    Except possibly for Samuel Fuller, the Pilgrims had in their number no trained medical men. They were in this no worse off than many English rural communities that had to depend on oral tradition, herbals, and popular medical works to deal with their ills.

    The New England Company for a Plantation in Massachusetts Bay, formed to take over the assets of the failed Dorchester Company of Adventurers, realized the importance of medical services, and one of their first acts was to send to the colony in 1628 the surgeons John Pratt and Robert Morly. And, appreciating that the settlement could not depend on a perpetual supply of English-trained doctors, the following year they sent out, on a three-year contract, Lambert Wilson, part of whose job was to train in surgery two or three local young men.2

    Though Plymouth was founded by religious refugees, and the organization of the settlement was conditioned by Puritan faith and hope, its development was hindered by the slender resources of the settlers. It was the Massachusetts Bay Company, under which name the New England Company had received its royal charter, founded by men of wealth, education, and influence, that, in 1630, sent out John Winthrop as governor with some thousand emigrants to establish in Massachusetts a great Puritan state, founded not only on reformed religion but also on reformed social organization.

    Religious reformation in the sixteenth century had led some Europeans to consider other areas of thought and work in need of reformation, in particular education and the professions. Though little was published in England on those topics till after 1640, when censorship broke down, some of the highly educated men who emigrated with Winthrop must have known the writings of such men as Erasmus, Rabelais, Sir Thomas Elyot, and Ramus, and later of Comenius, all of whom criticized contemporary educational systems and the domination in the schools of Latin grammar, calling for a much wider curriculum in both schools and universities. They were certainly acquainted with the writings of Francis Bacon, for his books were in many early Massachusetts libraries. Bacon held that reformed education would lead to the advancement of learning and this, in turn, to the Great Instauration, for he said: “Man by the Fall fell at the same time from his state of innocency and from his domination over creation. Both these losses however can even in this life be in some part repaired; the former by religion and faith, the latter by arts and science.”3

    Of the “arts and science” medicine formed a most important part, for in the Great Instauration of man to his state before the Fall, not only was a healthy body a precondition of spiritual health, but also the restoration of man’s domination over creation included his domination over the ills of the body. This would be achieved through God’s help by man’s discovery of the secrets of health and sickness. The causes of sickness once known, they could be avoided or cured, and man would have restored to him his immortality, or at least a life span of a thousand years.4

    Massachusetts did not lack religion and faith, and after they had “builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, rear’d convenient places for Gods worship and setled the Civill Government: one of the next things we longed for, and looked after was to advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity.”5

    From 1635 onwards schools were founded in the main towns and universal education was aimed at, but, surprisingly, the curriculum of the Latin schools showed no improvement on the existing English grammar schools.

    The institute of higher education, later to be called Harvard College, was founded in 1636. The course of studies, which began there in 1638, was based on the teaching at the university and colleges of Cambridge which, maintaining the primacy of Latin and Greek, fell short of the ideals of the reformers. And at Harvard change was to come slowly. President Leonard Hoar, a Cambridge M.D., who attempted to introduce practical subjects into the curriculum was, in 1675, forced to resign.

    English Puritan commitment to educational reform was demonstrated in the enlightened curricula, including science and modern subjects, of the dissenting academies, established to provide higher education for dissenters excluded from Oxford and Cambridge by the Act of Uniformity of 1662. Charles Morton, founder of one of the earliest academies at Newington Green, in 1685 emigrated to Massachusetts and became vice president of Harvard, but the only innovation he introduced was the use of his manuscript natural philosophy text, Compendium physicae.6 His attempts to provide private tuition were frustrated by Harvard College.7

    Harvard lagged behind English universities in the introduction of science teaching. It was not till a later John Winthrop was appointed Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 1738 that physical sciences made any appreciable contribution to the curriculum, and neither chemistry nor botany was taught there during the colonial period.

    Not only did Harvard teach little of the sciences basic for medicine; it differed from Cambridge in providing no medical education at all during the whole colonial period. This is surprising, considering the high priority given to medicine by English Puritan reformers. Further, while only two professional medical men emigrated with John Winthrop, some of the clergy who came with him or joined him soon afterwards had, like other of their brethren in England, “on a foresight of a ruin of the clergy,” availed themselves of the medical education at Oxford or Cambridge or had studied it privately for an alternative profession, and these medical ministers were the mainstay of the medical services in the small communities of the colony, too poor to support both minister and doctor. Moreover, Puritan thought, as expressed by Gabriel Platte in his utopian Macaria, would have “the parson of each parish a good physician, and doth execute both functions, to wit cura animarum & cura corporum,” which Charles Chauncey, President of Harvard (1654–1672), firmly agreed with. Yet Harvard left the individual to train himself in medical matters. One wonders if better provision would have been made if the Swedish ambassador to Holland had not seduced Amos Comenius, the Czech educational philosopher, from honoring his commitment to John Winthrop, Jr., in 1642 to come to Massachusetts and take over the presidency of Harvard. The most influential educational reformer of the day, Comenius advocated universal education in universal colleges in which would be taught universal knowledge, including medicine.8

    Not only did Harvard provide no medical teaching, it provided virtually nothing by which students could help themselves to medical knowledge. In 1723, after nearly one hundred years of existence, its library contained none of the great works of European medicine of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, not even those published in England, Harvey’s De motu cordis, the works of Sydenham, Glisson, or Willis, or any modern work on surgery. Indeed, the only anatomy text at Harvard was the 1602 edition of Andre Du Lauren’s Anatomy, an edition without illustrations, supplemented by Nicholas Culpeper’s translation of Riolan’s Sure Guide to Physic and Chyrurgy, which had a few anatomical plates.9 But Harvard must not be blamed; because the college could not afford to purchase books, its library was built up by gifts. President Dunster, aware of its shortcomings, petitioned the Commissioners of the United Colonies in 1647 for books on various subjects, including physic, but the request met with no response.

    After 1723 there was a great improvement, for when the library was burnt in 1764 it lost “a collection of the most approved medical Authors.”10 Dr. Richard Mead, the famous London doctor, presented copies of his works in 1726 and again in 1748. William James of Jamaica, in 1752, gave medical books and £25 for the purchase of more, and in 1758 Dr. Hales sent twenty-nine volumes of the works of his father, Dr. Stephen Hales. And the university by this time possessed not only books, but two skeletons, a microscope, and Albinus’s anatomical tables given by local inhabitants.11 After the fire local doctors gave books and money, as did individuals and societies in Britain, to help rebuild the library, and Chief Justice Andrew Oliver arranged for his son Peter, studying medicine in London, to procure anatomical preparations for the College.12

    What was lacking in the Harvard library could often be found in private libraries, particularly those of such men as John Winthrop, Jr.,13 and the Mathers.14 By 1670 a bookshop had been established in Boston, and by 1686 a number were in existence, importing books from Europe. At least one was dealing in medical books and, increasingly, they became part of the stock-in-trade of most booksellers.15 Silvester Gardiner, a Boston physician who kept an apothecary shop, combined with it a medical bookstore, for there is in the manuscript collection at the Countway Library an invoice dated 1755 from Innys and Richardson, London, for multiple copies of some thirty recently published medical books supplied to Gardiner, ranging from twelve copies of Richard Brookes’s Introduction to physic (1754) to one copy of the translation of Winslow’s Anatomy (1733).16 It has not been possible to discover how common it was for apothecary shops to sell medical books.

    Even medical apprentices were using the most recent medical texts, or at least Silvester Gardiner’s were. John Hartshorn left a diary of his apprenticeship with Gardiner in which he recorded not only what he ate but also what he read. During the three years starting in 1752 he read, at least in part, some eighty books, all recently published, but he died before completing his apprenticeship, partly, one fears, from indigestion both physical and mental.17 But even Samuel Adams, Jr., apprenticed to Dr. Freeman at Sandwich, was, in 1769, reading Whytt’s Observations on Nervous diseases (1767) and van Swieten’s Commentaries on Boerhaave, which were being published at that time.18

    The first medical work published in Massachusetts, Thomas Thacher’s A brief guide to the Common people of New England how to order themselves in the Smallpox or measles, 1678, was based on an English book by Thomas Sydenham. During the colonial period some sixteen British medical works were republished in Massachusetts,19 mainly pamphlets relating to inoculation for smallpox, and popular works like John Theobald’s Everyman his own physician (1768), likely to have a wide sale rather than specialist texts, the demand for which would be limited and which arrived rapidly in the colony anyway. Not only was the colony dependent on Europe for medical texts, it also imported the bulk of its drugs and surgical instruments and even such items as wooden legs.20

    But books were not the only way that European medical ideas reached Massachusetts. Though few academically trained men emigrated to the colony, of these one or two, like William Douglass, played an important part in the history of medicine in Massachusetts. Naval and merchant ships and the army often brought to seaports and army camps doctors who had just qualified and could report on medical developments at home.

    But, from the beginning, young men of wealthy parents, ambitious of obtaining the best medical education, traveled to Europe to obtain it. It is impossible to make a full and accurate list of such students, but between 1630 and 1775 at least forty-six men from the colony studied medicine abroad. Between 1630 and 1700 eight studied in Leyden, Padua, or London, and one of them obtained, in 1654, the first medical degree awarded by King’s College, Aberdeen. Between 1700 and 1775 twenty-three studied in London, of whom three obtained medical degrees on application to Aberdeen. Six studied at Edinburgh, of whom two obtained M.D.s, and one studied somewhere “in Europe.” Of those studying in London two also spent time in Paris and one in Edinburgh, and of the Edinburgh men two spent time in London and Paris.21 Others, like Zabdiel Boylston, though trained in the colony, utilized visits to England to broaden their medical knowledge and surgical techniques.

    This pattern of foreign medical education differs markedly from that in the southern American colonies and also from that in Pennsylvania. For South Carolinians and Virginians tended to study only at Edinburgh, while Pennsylvanians often studied both in London and at Edinburgh.

    The education provided in London was predominantly practical, based on anatomy, with opportunities for dissecting, work in the hospitals learning surgical techniques and accompanying the physicians on their rounds of the wards, and in gaining experience in midwifery. At Edinburgh the courses were much more academic, concentrating on medical theory.

    Why was it, then, that Massachusetts tended to choose practical medicine, the southern colonies theoretical medicine and the Pennsylvanians an all-round medical education? Or was it more a matter of choice forced on them by circumstances? South Carolina and Virginia received many Scottish emigrants, particularly after the Jacobite rebellions in 1715 and 1745, including a number of Edinburgh-trained doctors who would have recommended their alma mater to medical students of their acquaintance. The tobacco trade intensified the connection between Virginians and Scotland. A fair percentage of South Carolinians and Virginians going to Edinburgh were the sons or grandsons of Scottish emigrants and had Scottish relatives and friends. For Pennsylvanians a somewhat different situation existed. Some medical students went to London with introductions to John Fothergill, an influential Quaker doctor, who corresponded with a number of Pennsylvanian Quakers. Others had introductions to Benjamin Franklin, a friend of Fothergill, to whom he then recommended them. Fothergill, himself a graduate of Edinburgh, counseled time in London to obtain a good grounding in fundamentals before going to Edinburgh to learn the theoretical aspects of the subject. It was two Pennsylvanians, trained in this way, who established the first medical school in Philadelphia and sent many of their students to follow the same course of study as they themselves had pursued.

    Massachusetts European trade was mainly with London, and it was there that parents could arrange for bills to be discounted to pay for their sons’ studies, and where relations and family friends were to be found. London-trained doctors were among the most prestigious medical men in the community, and aspiring students, particularly their apprentices, would desire a similar medical education.

    One of the most successful of the colony’s doctors, William Clark, studied in London in 1731, as did two of his apprentices, Joshua Gee and James Lloyd. Gee died in London, but James Lloyd rose high in the profession; four of his apprentices also went on to study there. Of those who studied in Edinburgh, two, Williams Smibert and John Cuming, were the sons of Scottish emigrants. Thomas Bulfinch, Jr., appears to have been attracted there from London by the growing reputation of the school. Of the other three I have no information. For anyone who could not afford to study in Britain, sets of notes from the London and Edinburgh lectures circulated in the colony.

    But perhaps there was some basic Massachusetts lack of interest in theoretical medicine which, through the colonial period, had little effect on practice, for the standard treatment, on whatever theory it was based, was to consist of, more or less, bleeding and purging with the use of a few specific drugs and chemicals.22 The one outstanding Massachusetts medical theorist of the period, Cotton Mather, failed to get a publisher for his great medical work, The Angel of Bethesda.23

    Not all who trained in Europe returned to practice in Massachusetts, but the majority did, and, both by example and by training apprentices, handed on European medical traditions. But some who practiced in the colony had little benefit of a medical education of any sort.

    In London the practice of medicine was restricted to those licensed by the Royal College of Physicians, while surgery and dispensing were controlled by the Barber Surgeons’ Company and the Apothecaries’ Company (though the Royal College of Physicians defined the spheres of activity of surgeons and apothecaries). In the provinces doctors were licensed by Oxford or Cambridge Universities or by diocesan bishops, though it was impossible to prevent some unlicensed people from practicing in rural areas. Undoubtedly, this system, particularly in London, though theoretically aimed at maintaining medical standards, created a monopoly in the supply of medical services. Since the days of Queen Elizabeth most people had viewed monopolies, in commerce, industry, or the professions, as placing enormous powers of oppression in the hands of the crown. Monopolies granted by royal charter, often to favorites or as a reward for services sought or rendered, forced up prices and restricted the availability of goods and sevices. Efforts to break monopolies came to a head during the Commonwealth, when the Royal College of Physicians came under heavy attack; although it survived, its restrictive practices were to be the center of controversy throughout most of the eighteenth century. In 1649 the General Court of Massachusetts attempted to regulate the medical profession by forbidding anyone to perform the office of practitioner “without the advice & consent of such as are skillful in the same art if such may be had, or at least the wisest & gravest then present,” but through the colonial period little governmental control was exercised over the practice of medicine.24

    The English organization also served to divide the profession into physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, frequently fighting each other as one profession accused the others of usurping its perogatives. In Massachusetts, and in America in general, the necessary organizations being absent, there was no hindrance and every encouragement for the practitioners to engage in all three branches of medicine.

    15. Title page of Richard Mead’s Poisons, given by him to Harvard College in 1748. Courtesy Boston Medical Library.

    16. Inscriptions in the copy of Mead’s Poisons (see figure 15) that he gave to Harvard College in 1748. Courtesy Boston Medical Library.

    17. Invoice for medical books ordered from London by Dr. Silvester Gardiner in 1755. Because he ordered several copies of most works on the list, he probably intended to distribute some to his students and colleagues. Courtesy Boston Medical Library.

    18. Certificate of attending hospital and lecture instruction issued to James Lloyd of Boston in March 1752 by Dr. Joseph Warner at Guy’s Hospital in London. Courtesy Boston Medical Library.

    19. Dr. William Hunter certifies that “Mr. James Lloyd, surgeon, hath diligently attended a Course of my Anatomical and Chirurgical lectures, and attended a private course of Dissections, and Operations of Surgery,” 23 March 1752. Courtesy Boston Medical Library.

    Up to the dissolution of the monasteries, the sick poor in England had been cared for in the hospitals of the religious houses. Henry VIII used some of the funds from the sale of monastic properties to endow the hospitals of three of the London foundations for the care of the city’s sick. But in the country generally the sick poor, through a series of acts passed in the sixteenth century, became the responsibility of the parish to which they belonged. How each parish responded to its responsibility depended on its circumstances. Some towns built almshouses or had them provided by benefactors for the care of their poor and sick. Some parishes were too poor to employ professional medical aid; some had locally no trained medical man to employ. A few, like Newcastle-on-Tyne, were sufficiently prosperous to employ a salaried “town’s physician.” There existed, under this system, a large amount of disease and distress for which no medical help was available.25

    Good, free medical care of the sick poor had been an ideal of long standing. Large, airy hospitals for their care had been featured in Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516). The Puritans, so concerned with the health of the people, put forward schemes for providing comprehensive, preventive, and curative medical services, including hospitals staffed by salaried state officials. Though the establishment in Britain of anything approaching the Puritan scheme was some three hundred years in the future, at least a beginning was made during the Commonwealth in setting up the Hospital of the Savoy and Ely House to care for wounded soldiers, along the lines advocated by William Petty in Advice of W.P. to Mr. Hartlib (1646), in which not only was the organization of the ideal hospital described but also the part it should play in teaching and research. Unfortunately, the two hospitals that were moving towards undertaking their teaching obligations were abolished at the Restoration.26

    By now, however, the importance of hospitals as caring and teaching institutions was generally recognized, and in the eighteenth century, up to 1775, five new London general hospitals and twenty-three in the provinces were founded, besides lying-in hospitals and dispensaries for the poor. But all these were the result of organized charity and were not state institutions.27

    Massachusetts took over the English system of making local communities responsible for their sick poor, and this responsibility was met, as in England, according to the circumstances of the community. Where possible, local doctors were paid to look after the sick and destitute. At first concentrations of population were not sufficient to warrant the establishment of hospitals. Local householders were paid to take in those in need of care and nursing. As the population grew, almshouses were established in some towns, which, to a limited extent, functioned as hospitals, providing care for those inmates who were sick. But throughout the whole colonial period no general hospital was established in Massachusetts. This is surprising, considering the Puritan interest in hospitals, the lack of other facilities for medical teaching in the colony, and the facts that by 1743 the population of Boston had risen to about 16,382, much larger than that of English towns like York, Northampton, and Worcester that had had hospitals since the 1740’s, and that the populations of both Salem and Marblehead, by 1775, were no smaller than those of some English towns in which hospitals had been established.28 In England the hospitals provided care for some, at least, of those who, not destitute, were too poor to pay for medical services. In Massachusetts this class of poor depended on the goodwill of some members of the medical profession who either gave their medical services free or did not press for the payment of their bills.29

    Between 1600 and 1775 medical theory had undergone fundamental changes. At the beginning of the seventeenth century it was based on the writings of Hippocrates, Galen, and other classical writers, and, though some cracks were appearing, the foundations still held. By 1775 the foundations of modern medicine were being laid. Massachusetts doctors who imported books, or who were trained in Europe, could keep abreast of new developments. Josiah Bartlett records:

    Though the works of Hippocrates, Galen and Stahl and others were not unknown, those of Sydenham and his followers were principally studied by our older practitioners till the time of Boerhaave, whose invaluable labors commenced in 1701, which, with the comments of van Swieten, the practical writings of Whytt, Mead, Brooks, Huxham, the physiology of Haller, the anatomy of Cowper, Kiel, Douglas, Cheselden, Munro and Winslow, the surgery of Heister, Sharp, Le Dran and Pott, the midwifery of Smellie and Hunter and the materia medica of Lewis, were in general use at our political separation from the British Empire.30

    One name, surprisingly, is missing, that of “that shining oracle of physic Dr. William Cullen of Edinburgh.” This omission may reflect the small number of Massachusetts men who had studied at Edinburgh; indeed, none but Swett had attended Cullen’s medical lectures, and Swett did not return to Massachusetts until 1778.

    This represented the mainstream of medical thought. But there were some who embraced a more unorthodox approach to the subject. In the sixteenth century the medical theories of Paracelsus, particlarly his emphasis on chemical therapy placed within the framework of a whole set of ideas about man, nature, and God, had raised much controversy on the continent but little in England. However, after 1640, the apothecaries saw chemical therapy as a weapon with which to attack the Royal College of Physicians, who had forbidden apothecaries to prescribe medicines. They taunted the physicians with ignorance in refusing to consider chemical therapy, for which so much was claimed. But, further, because Paracelsian medicine was grounded in strong religious beliefs, it became of great interest to Puritan medical reformers, as a viable alternative to heathen Galenic medicine.31

    Massachusetts had its advocates of Paracelsus’s chemical theories, known as iatrochemists. John Winthrop, Jr., had become interested in them before emigrating in 1631 to join his father, bringing with him a considerable library of iatrochemical works. He corresponded with European iatrochemists, and, during his subsequent visits to England, he strengthened these contacts. Although he is known to have prescribed chemical remedies, he was more interested in chemistry than in therapeutics, and his reputation in this field led to his election as a founder fellow of the Royal Society of London. His library was of use to other iatrochemists, such as Jonathan Brewer and George Starkey, who practiced chemical medicine for a time in Boston before going to London to join the group of iatrochemists centered round Samuel Hartlib.32

    Paracelsian chemistry and medicine had a nonrational component and were allied with alchemy and hermetic beliefs. In England the iatrochemists came under increasing attack when chemical therapy was found to be no more effective against the Great London Plague of 1665 than was the traditional materia medica. Some chemicals, however, had proved effective and both in Britain and in Massachusetts continued to be used. Silvester Gardiner advertised in the Boston Gazette33 that he had just imported from London “all sorts of drugs and medicines both chemical and Galenical.” Adepts lingered on in Massachusetts as in Europe till well into the eighteenth century. Samuel Danforth, although he claimed to have discovered an elixir conferring eternal life, which he offered to Benjamin Franklin, died in 1777; his son, a London-trained doctor, continued his father’s interests.34

    The colony of Massachusetts was founded just too early for its initial institutions to be influenced by the flood of reformist literature published in England after 1640. Judging from their libraries, the leaders of the Bay Colony were not ignorant of these writings, some of which were aimed at promoting the Great Instauration leading to the Millennium of God’s rule on earth. Nor were the men of Massachusetts less hopeful of the Millennium than their English brethren. However, it is not surprising, perhaps, from the forces that drove these men to emigrate, that the Massachusetts Puritans concerned themselves almost exclusively with promoting the Millennium through religion.35 Theoretically, Massachusetts would have been an ideal area in which to establish some of the social reforms, including those in education and medicine, advocated by the English Puritans. Besides the problems of finance and the lack of trained men that would have been necessary to develop comprehensive medical services, the strong religious bias of men dominant in the colony inclined them to the belief that illness, like other disasters, was God’s punishment for spiritual failure, and perhaps they thought prayer and repentance provided a better cure than doctors, and they had no interest in establishing in Massachusetts the first state medical service.

    Puritan ideals faded as the colony grew and became more cosmopolitan, but there never developed the acute conditions of poverty, overcrowding, and malnutrition, with their attendant health hazards, that in European towns and cities provided much of the stimulus for the provision of hospitals and other services for their relief. Yet without control of the practice of medicine, without medical schools and hospitals as in Europe, and with much of the medical care provided through the goodwill of private individuals, the health of the colony was, in general, well cared for. Though the organization of medical services lagged behind that in Europe, the practice of medicine was dominated by European medical thought, though already America itself was beginning to play a part in the advancement of medical knowledge.

    Acknowledgements I am more than grateful to Mr. Richard J. Wolfe, who brought to my attention manuscript material in the collections of the Francis A. Countway Medical Library, Boston. This material was a potent stimulus to my interest in Massachusetts colonial medicine. Dr. Philip Cash of Emmanuel College, Boston, most kindly provided me with information which otherwise I would not have been able to obtain. My thanks are also due to Dr. Harry C. Porter of Cambridge University and Dr. Alan Smith of Glasgow University both for advice and for necessary corrections.

    APPENDIX

    A Biographical Register of Men and Women from and Immigrants to Massachusetts between 1620 and 1800 Who Received Some Medical Training in Europe

    by C. H. Brock and Eric H. Christianson

    We have attempted to compile an accurate and comprehensive list that will become a useful reference to researchers with many interests. Also, we have decided to include individuals whose primary purpose in traveling to Europe may not have been educational in nature. By not excluding these names, perhaps future researchers will be able to fill in the gaps in our knowledge about these people.

    references

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    BM. Sir Hans Sloane Papers, British Museum.

    BML. Boston Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston.

    BRC. Reports of the Boston Records Commission.

    DAB. Dictionary of American Biography, ed. Allen Johnson (London and New York, 1928).

    DNB. Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Leslie Stephen (London, 1885).

    MHS. Massachusetts Historical Society.

    NEHGR. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.

    PRBC. Probate Court Records of Bristol County.

    PREC. Probate Court Records of Essex County.

    PRHC. Probate Court Records Hampshire County.

    PRMC. Probate Court Records Middlesex County.

    PRPC. Probate Court Records Plymouth County.

    PRSC. Probate Court Records Suffolk County.

    RCP Edinburgh. Manuscript Collection, Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.

    SCF. Files, Superior Court of Suffolk County, Massachusetts. VR. Vital Records.

    Abbott, Morris W. Medical Men of Milford (Milford, Conn., 1965).

    Adams, Charles Francis, ed. The Life and Works of John Adams ..., 10 v. (Boston, 1856).

    Addison, W. I. Roll of Graduates of the University of Glasgow, 1727–1897 (Glasgow, 1898).

    Alden, Ebenezer. Early History of the Medical Profession in Norfolk County, Massachusetts (Boston, 1853).

    Allen, William. An Address Delivered at Northampton, Massachusetts ...1854 (Northampton, 1855).

    Ballou, Adin. History of the Town of Milford, Worcester County, Massachusetts (Boston, 1882).

    Blake, John B. Public Health in the Town of Boston, 1630–1822 (Cambridge, Mass., 1959).

    Bliss, Leonard, Jr. The History of Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts (1836).

    Bolton, E. S. “Immigrants to New England 1700–1775,” Essex Institute Historical Collections, vols. 63–67.

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    –––“The Surprising Career of Peter Laterriere, Bachelor of Medicine,” Annals of Medical History, 3rd ser., 3 (1941), 262–283, 395–417.

    Forster, Edward Jacob. “Medical Profession in Suffolk County, Massachusetts,” in Professional and Industrial History of Suffolk County, 3 v.(Boston, 1894), iii, 174–285.

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    Kingman, Bradford. Epitaphs from Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts (Brookline, 1892). Leake, John. Practical observations on the childbed fever (London, 1792).

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    Malloch, Archibald. Medical Interchange between the British Isles and America before 1801 (London, 1939).

    Morison, Samuel Eliot. “Dr. Amos Windship (1745–1813; h.c. 1771),” Colonial Society of Massachusetts Publications, 25 (1922–1924), 141–171.

    Muddy River and Brookline Records, 1634–1838 (Boston, 1875).

    Munk, William. Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 2nd ed., 3 v. (London, 1878).

    Munsell, George N. “The Medical Profession in Barnstable,” in History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, ed. S. L. Deyo (New York, 1890). Norton, Massachusetts, Vital Records (Boston, 1906).

    Packard, F. R. History of Medicine in the United States, 2 v. (New York, 1931).

    Paige, Lucius R. History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630–1877 (Boston, 1930). Phillips, James Duncan. Salem in the Eighteenth Century (Boston, 1937).

    Reading, Massachusetts, Vital Records (Boston, 1912).

    Rogers, Fred B. “Pioneer Inoculators on Cape Cod: Drs. Francis Wicks (1755–1836) and Hugh George Donaldson (1757–1812),” New England Journal of Medicine, 270 (1964), 664–666.

    Rutman, Darrett B. Winthrop’s Boston: A Portrait of a Puritan Town, 1630–1649 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1965).

    Salem, Massachusetts, Vital Records (Salem, 1925).

    Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England... 1692, 4 v. (Boston, 1860–1862).

    Sheldon, George. A History of Deerfield, Massachusetts, 2 v. (Deerfield, 1895).

    Sibley, J. L. (& Shipton, C. K.). Harvard Graduates (Boston, 1873–).

    Sonnedecker, Glenn. “Harward’s Electuarium . . . Earliest Drug Treatise Published by an American Colonist?,” Pharmacy in History, 19 (1977), 24–38.

    Tapley, Harriet S. Early Physicians of Danvers (Danvers, Mass., 1916).

    Teele, A. K., ed. The History of Milton, Massachusetts, 1640 to 1887 (Boston, 1887).

    Thacher, James. American Medical Biography, 2 v. in 1 (Boston, 1827).

    Tilden, William S., ed. History of the Town of Medfield, Massachusetts, 1650–1886 (Boston, 1887).

    Toner, J. M. The Medical Men of the Revolution (Philadelphia, 1876). Truro, Massachusetts, Vital Records (Boston, 1933).

    Venn, J. and J. A. Alumni Cantabrigicnses, part 1, the earliest times to 1751, v. (Cambridge, 1922).

    Viets, Henry R. A Brief History of Medicine in Massachusetts (Boston, 1930).

    Winslow, Ola Elizabeth. A Destroying Angel (Boston, 1974).

    Winthrop Papers. Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 6th ser., (1892), 143.

    Name Birth Death Education Comments References

    Addington, Isaac

    England

    Boston, 1715

    unknown

    “Bred for a surgeon”; in Boston by 1668

    Savage, I, 17–18

    Alcock, George

    England

    Roxbury, Mass., 1640

    unknown

    Winthrop fleet, 1630; “physician”; 2 sons became doctors

    Savage, I, 21; Alden, 35

    Allin, John

    England, 1623

    N.J.?

    Harvard, 1643; London

    Vicar of Rye, Sussex, England; worked in London during the Plague; returned to Massachusetts, 1680; interested in alchemy & astrology

    Sibley, I; Archaeologica, 37 (1856), 1–22

    Archibald, Francis

    Scotland

    Boston, 1746

    unknown

    To Boston, 1721: surgeon on English warship; son becomes a doctor; “late of Boston aforesaid Physitian”

    Fitz, 317; PRSC., 38, 217

    Avery, William

    England, 1622

    Boston, 1687

    unknown

    Arrived c. 1654 with family; physician and apothecary; at least one son into medicine

    Savage, 1, 83; Alden, 21

    Baker, John

    England

    1796

    M.D.?

    Immigrated to Boston, 1766; moved to New York, 1768; practiced dentistry

    Malloch, 44; Dental Items of Interest (1934), 56, 852–872

    Bellingham, Samuel

    England

    England

    Harvard, 1642; Leyden, M.D., 1661

    Did not return to Massachusetts

    Sibley, 1; Innes Smith

    Bertodi, François; or Bertody (Francis)

    Prussia

    Boston?

    Wrentham, after 1805

    unknown

    Arrived in Boston c. 1781; “naturalized” 19 June 1788; resided on Leverett St., Boston; “Physician”

    Forster, 258; BD 1796, 1800

    Binney, Barnabus

    Boston, 1751

    1787

    Brown University, 1774;

    Philadelphia;

    London

    No evidence that he practiced in Mass.; surgeon in Patriot Army during the siege of Boston; failing health precluded postwar practice

    Cash, 160; Toner, 31

    Bishop, John

    Ireland

    ?

    unknown

    1726–1727 on tax lists in Medford, then vanishes

    Brooks, 302

    Bolton,

    Ireland,

    Colrain, Mass.,

    physician

    Immigrated c. 1730

    Bolton

    Hugh

    Bossuet,

    Joseph

    c. 1697 Paris, Fr., 1746

    1772

    Boston,

    1827

    said to have studied at Hotel Dieu

    To U.S., 1777/8, as physician & surgeon in Continental Army; MMS member; practiced also in Hanover and Hingham, Mass.

    Hingham, II, 309; Dwelley, 109

    Boylston, Thomas

    Brookline, 1715

    Brookline, c. 1771

    apprenticed to father, Zabdiel Boylston; London, “to acquire further knowledge in the healing art”

    Sloane mss, BM; Muddy River

    Boylston, Zabdiel

    Brookline, 1679

    Brookline, 1766

    apprenticed to father, Thomas Boylston & Dr. John Cutler; London, 1726

    Pioneer inoculator, 1721; invited to London, 1725; lectured to R.C.P. and R.S.; skillful lithotomist; F.R.S., 1726

    DAB; Muddy River; PRSC, 65, 135–137

    Bradstreet, Samuel

    Mass.

    Jamaica, 1682

    Harvard, 1653; England, 1657

    Practiced in Boston

    Sibley, I

    Brown, Walter

    England

    ?

    unknown

    A “barber” warned out of Boston, October 1715

    SCF 12463

    Bulfinch, Thomas

    Boston, 1694

    Boston, 1759

    apprenticed to Zabdiel Boylston; London, with Wm. Cheselden, 1718; Paris, 1721

    Inoculated in Boston; “Practitioneer of physic”

    Forster, 259; Thacher; SCF, 43166; Bulfinch Papers, MHS

    Bulfinch, Thomas, Jr.

    Boston, 1728

    Boston, 1759

    Harvard, 1746; apprenticed to father; London, 1754, Wm. Hunter’s anatomy class; Cullen’s chemistry lectures; Edinburgh, M.D., 1757; hon. M.D., Harvard, 1790

    Thesis, De crisibus; inoculated in Boston, 1764; noted as successful lithotomist (Boston News-Letter, 27 May 1773)

    Sibley, XII; Bulfinch Papers, MHS;

    Edinburgh Class Lists;

    Edinburgh University

    Name Birth Death Education Comments References

    Burchsted, John Henry

    Silesia, Germany, 1657

    Lynn, Mass., 1721

    unknown

    Said to have been a physician of reknown in Germany; at least one son into medicine

    Jackson; Lynn, II, 444–445; PREC, 313, 420–421

    Calef, Joseph

    England, 1671

    Ipswich, Mass., 1707

    unknown

    Married, 1693; also licensed to run a mill

    Jackson

    Campbell, Rev. John

    Scotland, c. 1690

    Oxford, Mass., 1761

    unknown

    Owned a slave; Boston, 1717; Oxford minister-doctor 1721–; one son entered medicine

    Daniels, 44, 53, 255

    Chauncy, Ichabod

    England, c. 1635

    England, 1691

    Harvard, 1651; Leyden, M.D., 1684

    Army chaplain; licentiate, Royal College of Physicians, London, 1666; practiced in Bristol, England; did not return to Massachusetts

    Sibley, 1; Innes Smith; Munk; DNB

    Chauncy, Isaac

    England, 1632

    England, 1712

    Harvard, 1651; Oxford, M.A.? England?

    Minister in Wiltshire; licentiate, Royal College of Physicians, London, 1669; did not return to Massachusetts

    Sibley, 1; Munk; Foster does not record him as a graduate of Oxford; DNB

    Child, Robert

    England, 1612

    Ireland, 1654

    Cambridge, B.A., 1631, M.A., 1635; Leyden, 1635; Padua, M.D., 1638

    Immigrated to Massachusetts, 1644; imprisoned for sedition; returned to England, 1647

    Venn; Innes Smith

    Church, Benjamin

    Newport, R.I., 1734

    Lost at sea, 1778

    Harvard, 1754; service in navy; apprenticed to Dr. Pynchon; London hospitals 3 years

    Practiced in Boston; inoculator, 1764 epidemic; 1775, Director General of Hospitals, Continental Army; convicted traitor

    Sibley, xiii; R.T. Paine mss, MHS; DAB

    Clark, John

    England, 1598

    1664

    “earned a medical diploma in England especially for the cutting for stone”

    Immigrated to Massachusetts c. 1638; practiced in Newbury

    Kelly & Burrage

    Clark, John

    England, 1609

    R.I., 1676

    London-trained

    Driven out of Boston in 1638; moved to Newport

    Viets, 38

    Clark, John

    Wrentham, 1788

    Harvard, 1772. Apprenticed to James Lloyd; London

    Son, John, entered medicine

    Forster, 261; Harvard U. Quinquennial Catalogue, 1636–1925; ms, BML

    Clark, William

    Boston, 1709

    Boston, 1760

    Harvard, 1726; London, 1731

    Returned to Mass., 1733; 1744, commissioned Surgeon of Castle William; 1745, Louisburg; member, first Boston Medical Society, 1735

    Sibley, viii Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc, 6, 123, 184–185

    Coker, Theodore

    Newbury, 1707

    R.I., 1747

    Harvard, 1726

    One or more visits to Europe, purpose unknown; practiced medicine

    Sibley, viii

    Collins, Peaslee

    Boston, 1728

    Boston, 1755

    Harvard, 1747; “went to Europe to study medicine”

    Married daughter of Dr. John Avery

    Sibley, xii

    Crawford, Robert

    Ireland

    Worcester, Mass. c. 1730

    unknown

    Arrived in Worcester c. 1718; one of the first Ulster emigrants to Worcester; “trained”; military surgeon; son Dr. Wm. (A.B., 1755 Princeton & Harvard)

    Lincoln, 213; Sibley, xiii

    Creamer, Edward

    Ireland, 1756

    Jamaica, 1810

    unknown

    Arrived in Salem at 24 years of age, c. 1780; Mason, 1782, in Essex Lodge

    Jackson

    Crouch, Richard

    England

    Hadley, 1761

    unknown

    To Hadley, 1731; “physician” and “surgeon”; care of town poor; administered the estate of Dr. William Squire

    Judd, 283–284, 304, 352–353, 443; PRHC, 41–52

    Crowningshield, Jolm [John Rasper von Kronen-shelt]; von Cronenshilt

    Upper Saxony, Germany, 1644

    Boston, 1711

    M.D., Leipzig, 1677

    Arrived in Boston, 1688; married, 1694; “physician”

    Jackson; PRSC, 17, 360; 18, 2; 6, 414–415

    (n.s.)

    Cuming, John

    Concord, 1727

    Concord, 1788

    Harvard, 1747; Edinburgh?

    Father was Scottish emigrant who came to America in 1715; left Harvard, 1746, to study abroad; left money to Harvard towards founding professorship of medicine

    Sibley, xii

    Name Birth Death Education Comments References

    Cutler, John [originally Johanne de Mesmaker]

    Holland

    Boston

    Came to Massachusetts before 1674; Hingham & Boston after 1674; surgeon in King Phdip’s War; taught Zabdiel Boylston; son and grandson into medicine

    Forster, 261–262; NEHGR, 22, 223

    Cutler, John. Jr.

    Hingham, Mass., 1676

    Boston, 1761

    apprenticed to father, Dr. John Cutler, c. 1700; perhaps sent to Europe for medical training; no record of him in Holland

    Inherited his father’s house and clientele; in 1739 he and Drs. William Douglass and William Clark certified the health of a cargo of slaves

    Forster, 261

    Cutler, Peter

    Hingham, 1676

    Boston, 1721

    Harvard, 1698; apprenticed to father, Dr. John Cutler; shortly after graduation he went to sea as physician on the Swallow to Holland; no record of his attending lectures or schools there

    Returned to Boston in 1702, when he opened a shop, but did not practice

    Sibley, iv

    Cutler, Samuel

    Vermont, 1740

    Vermont, 1821

    Harvard, 1765; apprenticed to John Frink of Rutland, Mass.; London, “to walk the hospitals”

    Never practiced in Massachusetts

    Sibley, xvi

    Dalhonde, Lawrence

    France

    Boston, 1746

    Huguenot refugee; served in French army in Italy, c. 1694, and Flanders; practiced in Boston; 1721, anti-inoculation; son in medicine

    Forster, 262; Packard; SCF, 129, 14197; Winslow, 43, 50–51

    Dana, Edmund

    Charlestown, Mass., 15 Nov. 1739

    England, 1823

    Harvard, 1759; apprenticed to Dr. Joseph Pynchon; London; Edinburgh, Cullen’s chemistry lectures, 1764–1765; M.A., Cambridge, 1770

    Remained in England; did not practice medicine; took holy orders, 1770

    Sibley, xiv; Edinburgh Class Lists

    Dane, John

    England, c. 1612

    Ipswich, 1634

    surgeon

    Son a doctor in Ipswich

    Jackson

    Danforth, Samuel

    Cambridge, Mass., 1740

    Boston, 1827

    Harvard, 1758; apprenticed to Dr. Isaac Rand; London, 1769; hon. M.D., Harvard, 1790

    Corresponding member of Medical Society, London; opposed venesection and never practiced surgery; inoculator in Boston, 1769; member MMS, AAAS

    Sibley, xiv

    Danforth, Thomas

    Boston, 1817

    Harvard, 1792; apprenticed to father, Dr. Samuel Danforth; Alexander Hamilton’s midwifery lectures, Edinburgh, 1796

    Practiced in Dorchester and Boston; committed suicide

    Sibley, xiv; RCP Edinburgh; Alden

    Dastuge Richard Dunfort; Dasturge; Dusturge; Dastugne

    France

    unknown

    unknown

    “Physician & surgeon of France”; 1774, “treatment of venereal disorders”; in Boston by 1774; advertised 1775 in Gazette to form a “corps unanimously” of local physicians—to build amphitheater for courses in anatomy & physiology; N.Y., 1777. “oculist and dentist”

    Guerra, 533, 567, 647

    Davie, Edmund

    before 1700 in England

    Harvard, 1674; Leyden, 1677; Montpellier, 1680; Padua, M.D., 1681

    Sibley, II; Innes Smith

    de Bonischere,

    Francois

    Vergencs

    France, 1747

    Newburyport, 1830

    unknown

    To Guadeloupe; then Newburyport, MMS member; bequeathed library to MMS

    Jackson; Currier, 247

    Dinely, William

    England

    Boston, 1638/9

    unknown

    Barber surgeon on Arabella; froze to death on return from treating patient in Roxbury

    Viets, 47; Rutman, 92, 118

    Name Birth Death Education Comments References

    Dingham, George

    England

    Watertown, 1645

    unknown

    “Surgeon” and “physician”; married, 1640, widow of Dr. George Alcock

    Savage, I, 21; 11, 35–36

    Doubt, Nyott

    Boston, 1727

    Boston, 1764

    Harvard, 1747; Britain

    Attended to the medicinal needs of the Boston Alms House; 1764, inoculated gratis in Boston

    Sibley, XII

    Douglass, William

    Scotland, c. 1691

    Boston, 1752

    Edinburgh, M.A., 1705; Leyden 1711; Utrecht, M.D., 1712

    Immigrated first to Bermuda, then Boston; founded in 1735 first Boston Medical Society

    Innes Smith

    Eliot, Rev. John

    England, 1614

    England

    mat., Cambridge, 1629; also studied medicine

    Noted also for work with Indians; 1638, in Boston; 1647, to England

    Venn; Viets, 36–37

    Emery, George

    England

    ?

    unknown

    Fined by Salem selectmen 1657, 40s for defrauding patient; “Dr. Emery of Salem,” 1668

    Viets, 40, 47

    Endicott, John

    England, c. 1657

    London, c. 1694

    naval surgeon

    Practiced in Salem

    Jackson

    Erving, Shirley

    Boston, 1759

    Boston, 1813

    apprenticed to James Lloyd; hon. A.M., Harvard, 1810; “went to Europe to complete medical education”

    Member, Boston Medical Society, MMS; Maine District Medical Society; in Portland, Me., c. 1789–1811

    Burrage, 36

    Firmin, Giles, Sr.

    England

    Boston

    apothecary

    Immigrated, 1630; deacon of Boston church; father of Giles Firmin, Jr., physician

    Winthrop; NEHGR

    Firmin, Giles, [Jr.]

    England, 1615

    England, 1697

    Cambridge, M.A., 1629; London, 1634–1638, with Dr. John Clark, president of the Royal College of Physicians, 1645–1649

    Immigrated with father, 1630; lectured on anatomy in Mass.; returned to England, 1647

    Venn; Viets, 36–37

    Fiske, John

    England

    Mass., 1677

    Cambridge, B.A., 1628

    Immigrated to Massachusetts, 1637; preacher and schoolmaster, Salem; pastor, Wenham, 1644–1656; pastor, Chelmsford, 1656–1677; also practiced medicine

    Venn

    Guerra, 567, 647

    Tapley, 246

    Sibley, xiv

    Viets, 17; Bliss, 53

    Viets, 8–18, 28

    Viets, 15

    SCF, 243, 33865; Jackson

    Flugger, Dr.

    England

    ?

    unknown

    Surgeon and apothecary from London; in Boston c. 1775–1777

    Folkersamb, John Fitz

    ?

    ?

    unknown

    Danvers, 1783–1785

    Foster, Isaac

    Charlestown, 1740

    Charlestown, 1781

    Harvard, 1758; apprenticed to Dr. James Lloyd; London, c. 1761

    1763, opened apothecary shop in Charlestown; army surgeon, 1775; 1777, Deputy Director, Military Hospital, Eastern District; staunch patriot

    Fuller, Bridget

    England

    Plymouth, Mass., 1664

    unknown

    3rd wife of Dr. Samuel Fuller; she sailed on the Anne, arriving in Plymouth, 1623; accomplished midwife; 1663, town of Rehoboth invited her to settle with them as midwife; she refused

    Fuller, Samuel

    England, 1580

    Mass., 1663

    may have studied medicine while living in Leyden

    Immigrated with Pilgrims, 1620

    Gager, William

    England

    Boston

    unknown

    Mass. Bay Co. surgeon with Winthrop’s fleet; spoken of as a “right Godly man and skilful chyrurgeon”; died shortly after arrival in 1630

    Gahtman, Francis; Ghatman; Gathman

    Germany, 1670’s

    Salem, 1751

    unknown

    Salem by 1689; married, 1708/9; surgeon on privateer, 1700; 1732, “I Francis Gatham of Salem . . . Physitian”

    Name Birth Death Education Comments References

    Gardiner, Silvester

    R.I., 1707?

    R.I., 1786

    private education with brother-in-law, the Rev. James MacSparran; apprenticed to Dr. Gibbin, English physician, Boston; London, St. Thomas’ Hospital; William Cheselden; Paris-Charité, with Le Dran & J.L. Petit

    Gave lectures on anatomy with materials brought from Paris & London; skilled lithotomist

    DAB; Forster, 266–267; Papers, BML

    Gedney, Samuel

    England

    Salem, 1705

    unknown

    Married, 1701; left large estate, land, warehouse, medicines, “chirurgeon’s chest and tools,” 37-volume library with 17 medical titles, “studded head cane,” one slave

    Salem, III, 410; PREC, 308, 438

    Gee, Joshua

    Boston, 1725

    London, 1760

    Harvard, 1744; apprenticed to Dr. Wm. Clark, London

    Spectator at lithotomy performed by Dr. Silvester Gardiner in Boston, 1754

    Sibley, xi; Misc. Gardiner Papers in BML

    Gibbin

    ?

    ?

    ?

    English physician, mentor of Silvester Gardiner

    See under Gardiner, Silvester, above

    Glover, John

    England

    England, 1668

    Harvard, 1650; England; King’s College, Aberdeen, M.D., 1654

    First M.D. awarded by King’s College, Aberdeen; licentiate, Royal College of Physicians, London; practiced in England

    Sibley, I; Munk

    Gunn, Jasper

    England, 1606

    Milford, Ct., 1671

    unknown

    Embarked from London on the Defence, 1635; granted land in Roxbury and status of freeman, 1636; Milford, 1639; Hartford, 1646–1659; first doctor and schoolteacher of Milford; daybook, 1653–1659, recorded in a variety of Shelton’s techygraphy; mender of brass, too

    Abbott, 16–17

    Halkerston, James

    England / Scotland

    Boston, 1721

    unknown

    Might have attended St. Andrews; to Boston, c. 1715, after serving as master surgeon in Royal Navy; left a substantial estate, with £619 medicines; married; “chirurgeon”

    Blake; PRSC, 22, 240, 796; 16, 6, 8 (n.s.)

    Harward, Rev. Thomas

    England, 1700

    Boston, 1735

    University College, Oxford, A.B., 1721, M.A., 1724

    Extra-licentiate of Royal College of Physicians, London, 1728/9; to King’s Chapel, Boston, 1731; wrote first drug treatise in colonies

    Sonnedecker

    Hawkins, Mistress Jane

    England

    R.I.

    unknown

    She, not Anne Hutchinson, presided over the delivery of Mary Dyer’s celebrated “monstrosity,” 1637; exiled; herbal medicines quite strong

    Gordon, 70–71, 80

    Hay, William

    Scotland, c. 1683

    Reading, Mass., 1783

    said to have been educated in Scotland

    Married in Reading 1717; lived on Elm Street; schoolmaster, selectman, 1744; son Dr. John succeeded him

    Eaton, 91; Reading, 122, 248, 364

    Heale, Giles

    England

    England, 1653

    Guild of Barber-Surgeons of London granted him license to practice in 1619

    Surgeon on Mayflower; in Plymouth 1620 – April 1621

    Viets, 13

    Herbert, John

    England

    Maine

    unknown

    In Deerfield before 1760; chaplain and surgeon of British regiment

    Sheldon, 199

    Hoar, Leonard

    England, 1630

    Boston, 1675

    Harvard, 1650; Cambridge, M.D., 1671

    Returned to Boston in 1671; third president of Harvard College; attempted to introduce experimental science; “my medical writings to my wife’s custody, till some of my kindred addicted to those studies, shall desire them”

    Sibley, 1; DAB; Venn

    Name Birth Death Education Comments References

    Holbrook, Amos

    Bellingham, 1754

    Milton, 1842

    apprenticed to relative, Dr. Metcalf of Franklin; 1775, surgeon’s mate; 1776, comm. surgeon; c. 1780, walked London & Paris hospitals

    To Milton, 1777; granted permission to operate inoculation hospital; MMS member; large practice, Milton, Dorchester, and Quincy

    Teele, 527–528; Alden, 17

    Holker, Thomas

    England

    Wellfleet, Mass., before 1765

    unknown

    Englishman of “learning and ability . . . much respected”

    Munsell, 232

    Hooper, Henry

    Bristol, England

    Mass.

    unknown

    To Boston-Cambridge area, 1716; “chirurgeon”; 1722, submitted a bill for his services to Harvard College President John Leverett; friend of Dr. Zabdiel Boylston

    Paige, 400, 598; Bolton; BRC, 29, 233

    Hutchinson, Anne

    England

    N.Y., 1643

    unknown

    Antinomian and much-sought-after midwife; exiled 1637/8.

    Green, 28–29, 53–54

    Jackson, Hall

    Hampton, N.H., 1739

    Portsmouth, N.H., 1797

    apprenticed to father, Clement Jackson, Portsmouth; Middlesex Hospital? London; hon. M.D., Harvard, 1793

    Served in Massachusetts in 1764, 1773, and during Revolution; introduced digitalis to America; MMS member, honorary

    Sibley, xiv; Estcs

    Jackson, William

    Boston, 1765

    Boston, 1800

    Harvard, 1783; Prof. Walker’s natural history class, 1785–1786, Edinburgh

    Member, Natural History Society, Edinburgh; MMS member; “apothecary” & “physician”

    BD, 1796; Edinburgh Class Lists; Forster; Nat. Hist. Soc. Membership List

    Jarvis, Charles

    Boston, 1748

    Boston, 1807

    Harvard, 1766; apprenticed to Dr. Wm. Lee Perkins & Dr. Joseph Gardiner; France & London, Guy’s Hospital

    MMS member; AAAS member; 1774, inoculated in Boston; staunch patriot

    Sibley, xiv; Guy’s Hospital Register

    Jeffries, John

    Boston, 1745

    Boston, 1819

    Harvard, 1763; apprenticed to James Lloyd; London, C. MacKenzie’s midwifery lectures; Guy’s Hospital, 1776; Aberdeen, M.D., 1769; recommended by Dr. Saunders

    Well known for his surgical and obstetrical skills; loyalist; surgeon in British army; successful practice in London; 1789, returned to Boston; MMS member; Aberdeen degree taken in person with thesis; 1785, crossed English Channel in balloon with Jean Pierre Blanchard

    Sibley, xv; Fasti; Guy’s Hospital Reg.; Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard U. and MHS

    Jerauld, James

    Langucdoc, France, 1687

    Medfield, 1760

    might have studied at Charité Hospital, Paris

    Huguenot refugee; practiced in Medfield after 1718; sons James, Jr., and Dupee practiced medicine in Medfield and Rhode Island respectively

    VR, Medfield; Bolton; Alden, 26; Tilden, 398; Huntoon, 566

    Johnstone, Adam

    Scotland

    Vermont, 1806

    unknown

    1772, to Norton; surgeon in Revolution; kept public house in Norton, 1780–1787; moved to Pelham in 1787, then to Vermont

    Clark, 370

    Jones, Margaret

    England

    Charlestown, 1648

    unknown

    Practicing “physician” who employed medicines with extraordinarily violent effects; “she would make use to tell such as would not make use of her physic, that they would never be healed, and accordingly their diseases and hurts continued, with relapse against the ordinary course, and beyond the apprehension of all physicians and surgeons”; first person executed for witchcraft in New England

    Green, 55–56

    Kast, Philip Godfried

    Germany

    New Hampshire, c. 1780

    Father of Dr. Thomas Kast; apothecary in Boston & Salem; 1755, army surgeon at Nova Scotia; 1764, member of Salem Social Library

    Forster, 271; Phillips, 264

    Name Birth Death Education Comments References

    Kast, Thomas

    Boston, 1750

    Boston, 1820

    Harvard, 1769; apprenticed to father, Dr. Philip Godfried Kast; surgeon’s mate, H.M.S. Rose; London, Guy’s Hospital, dresser to Mr. Warner, 1772; St. Thomas’ Hospital; Colin MacKenzie’s midwifery lectures

    Accomplished obstetrician and vascular surgeon (ligation for aneurism of femoral artery); MMS member

    Sibley, xvii; Guy’s Hospital Reg.; Medical Certificates; Jones Library, Amherst, Mass.

    Kennedy, Hugh

    Scotland

    Boston, 1752

    unknown

    “Surgeon”; twice married; in Boston by 1720; mentor to several students including Ezekiel Hersey; a close friend and medical consultant of Dr. William Douglass, he favored and practiced inoculation during 1720’s; probably a member of the first Boston Medical Society in 1735

    Forster, 271–272; BRC, 28, 88; SCF, 276, 40523; 228, 30888

    Kittridge, John

    Germany

    Tewksbury, Mass.

    unknown

    Arrived in Tewksbury during the 1660’s and initiated a five-generation medical dynasty with strongholds in Tewksbury and Andover

    A. Abbott, Hist, of Andover (1829), 150–152

    Knopp, Nicholas

    unknown

    unknown

    unknown

    Boston, 1631, Court of Assistants fined Knopp £5 for his alleged cure for scurvy by water “of noe worth or value”

    Green, 35; Holmes, 328

    Lake, Lancelot

    England, 1652

    Boston, 1715

    B.A., 1664; M.A., 1670; St. Catherine’s, Cambridge

    Wife, Katherine, executrix of estate; probate records him as “physician deceased”

    PRSC, 7, 39 (n.s.); 18, 499–500; Venn, III; Bolton

    Laterriere, Peter le Sales

    France, 1747

    Canada

    18 months’ study with Dr. Rochambeau (phys. to the Queen), Hôtel Dieu and Saint-Côme hospitals in Paris; London hospitals

    To Canada, 1766, and practiced until going to Harvard for his M.B.; hon.

    M.D., 1810; MMS

    Fitz; Sibley, xvi

    Le Baron, Francis

    France, 1678

    Plymouth, 1704

    unknown

    Probably one of the first Catholic families to be tolerated in Puritan N.E.; “chirurgeon”; he was both father and grandfather of Plymouth doctors; estate included many surgical instruments, medicines, and books

    Thacher, 356; Kingman, 298; PRPC, 2, 55–56

    Leonard, William Bouchier

    England, 1737

    Ohio, 1806

    Apothecaries’ Hall

    In Newburyport as early as 1788; married, 1799; patents for machinery; noted for his gold-headed cane, periwigs, and scarlet cloak; ex-English navy surgeon; one of the first settlers of Marietta, Ohio

    Hildreth; Currier, 295–296; Jackson

    Leprilete, Lewis

    France, 1750

    W. Roxbury, 1804

    unknown

    To Norton in 1783; married, 1784; naturalized by act of General Court, 1790; many students including Peter Bryant (father of William Cullen Bryant); to Roxbury, 1792; MMS member; bequeathed his body to Dr. John Warren for anatomical purposes; 1792, submitted paper to MMS

    Norton, II, 575; Clark, 372

    Lincoln, Bela

    Hingham, 1733

    Hingham, 1774

    Harvard, 1754; apprenticed to Dr. Ezekiel Hersey; London hospitals, 1764; Marischal College, Aberdeen, M.D., 1765, by Drs. Aikenside and Russell

    Trained several apprentices, including Amos Windship, who later studied in Europe

    Sibley, xiii; Fasti

    Name Birth Death Education Comments References

    Lloyd, James

    Long Island, 1728

    Boston, 1810

    apprenticed to Silvester Gardiner & Dr. William Clark; London, William Smellie, midwifery, William Hunter, anatomy; Guy’s Hospital, dresser to Dr. Warner

    Surgeon & obstetrician of extraordinary skill; successful inoculator; mentor of many pupils including John Jeffries who would later study abroad; member of MMS and APS

    Sibley, xii; Guy’s Hospital Reg.; Lloyd Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University; Lloyd Papers, New-York Hist. Soc; Lloyd Papers, BML

    Lord, Joseph

    ?

    London; Leake’s midwifery lectures, 1770’s

    “Of Boston”

    Leake

    Louis, Dr.

    France

    unknown

    unknown

    C. 1770’s came to Salem “as a dentist, occtdist, quack and burglar”

    Phillips, 337

    Lowell, John

    Boston, 1734

    Marblehead, 1776

    Harvard, 1753; Edinburgh, 1752?

    Became a Mason at Edinburgh and introduced the rites to Marblehead where he settled upon his return

    Sibley, xiii; Harvard U. Archives; Corporation Records, 11, 39–40

    Lowthain, Thomas

    Scotland

    Medfield, 1749

    unknown

    Probably practiced in Medfield during 1740’s

    Tilden, 427; VR, Medfield, 221; Alden, 27

    Ludovick, Dr.

    Germany

    unknown

    unknown

    “Dr. Lodovick, a German, who was also accounted as an excellent Physician; and the most skillful Chymist that ever came to these Parts of America”; mentor of James Oliver (great-great-grandfather of Oliver Wendell Holmes) c. 1680

    Sibley, III; Holmes, 317

    Lunerus

    Germany or Poland

    unknown

    unknown

    Styled “Doctor” when married in 1652; around Boston in 1654

    Holmes, 317; Savage, III, 131

    Manning, John

    Ipswich, 1738

    Ipswich, 1824

    apprenticed to father, Dr. Joseph Manning; spent 1771 in London; Leake’s midwifery lectures at New Westminister Lying-in Hospital

    Returned c. 1772 and practiced in Ipswich; several times town representative to House of Representatives; inoculator

    Jackson; Leake

    Marshall, Samuel

    Boston, 1735

    Boston, 1771

    Harvard, 1754; London hospitals

    Colleague of Williams Smibert; Boston inoculator, 1764; “physician; surgeon and man mid-wife”

    W.B. McDaniel II, “A letter from Dr. Williams Smibert of Boston, to his Former Fellow-student at Edin. Dr. John Morgan of Philadelphia ... 1769,” Annals of Med. Hist., 3rd scr. 1 (1939), 194–196; Sibley, xiii; NEHGR, 84, 164

    McKinstry, William

    Ireland, 1722

    Southbridge,

    Taunton,

    1777

    unknown

    In 1771 John Adams visited him at Taunton and was impressed by his library and knowledge of mineral baths; married, 1760; Robert Treat Paine administrator of the estate of this “physician”; Ulster emigrant

    Adams, ii, 269–270; PRBC, 27, 71

    Morly, Robert

    England

    unknown

    unknown

    Surgeon sent to Massachusetts by the company for a plantation in Massachusetts Bay, 1628

    Packard

    Oliver, Peter

    Boston, 1741

    Shrewsbury,

    England,

    1822

    Harvard, 1761; apprenticed to Dr. Charles Stockbridge at Scituatc, Mass.; 1764, observed Dr. Samuel Gelston inoculate at Castle William; 1776, Hunter’s anatomy lectures in

    Set up practice in Middleborough, 1764; a loyalist who left Massachusetts in 1776 for London; Loyalist Claims Commission awarded him a pension of £100 per year for his Middleborough practice

    Sibley, xv

    London, also Orme & Lowder’s midwifery lectures; 1777, St. George’s Hosp.; M.D., Marischal College, Aberdeen, 1790 (? there remains doubt as to which Peter Oliver received the degree)

    Oliver, Peter

    Boston, 1749

    Marylebone,

    England,

    1795

    Harvard, 1769; apprenticed to Dr. James Lloyd; surgeon, H.M.S. Salisbury, 1771; London, Guy’s Hospital under Joseph Warner 1771–1772; British surgeon at N.Y., 1776–1779; surgeon, First Dragoons, 1780; M.D., Marischal College, Aberdeen, 1790 (?), recommended by Dr. Saunders

    Returned to Boston, 1773; presented wax-injected anatomical preparations to Harvard; opened apothecary shop in Salem; loyalist; left Massachusetts, 1776

    Sibley, xvn

    Oliver,

    England

    unknown

    unknown

    Elder of John Cotton’s church, 1632; 1644,

    Rutman, 105, 219, 241

    Thomas

    Osborne,

    Woodbury

    Boston, 1720

    died at sea, 1747

    Harvard, 1739; apprenticed to Thomas Berry, Ipswich; London

    paid by town for care of an ill servant Served with East India Company as surgeon; did not return to Massachusetts

    Sibley, x

    Oxenbridge, John

    England, 1608

    Boston, 1674

    Cambridge, 1625; Oxford, B.A., 1628, M.A.,

    Immigrated to Boston, 1670; pastor of First Church of Boston

    Venn; Innes Smith

    1631; Leyden medical student, 1631

    Paine (Payne), William

    Worcester, 1750

    Worcester, 1833

    Harvard, 1768; apprenticed to E. A. Holyoke 4 years and Joseph Orne; Aberdeen, Marischal College, M.D., 1775, recommended by Drs. Lowder and Saunders

    Began practice in Worcester, 1771; licentiate, Royal College of Physicians, London, 1781; apothecary, British forces during American Revolution; partnership with Drs. Levi Shepard and Ebenezer Hunt of Northampton in drug business; opened first apothecary shop in Worcester County; returned to Massachusetts after hostilities; Member of MMS, AAAS, Linnaean Society, AAS, Mass. Ag. Soc, and Essex Historical Institution

    Sibley, xvii; Fasti; in Munk, as Payne.

    Palgrave, Richard

    Cambridge, c. 1650

    unknown

    Physician from Stepney, London; part of Winthrop’s 1630 fleet; daughter married Dr. John Alcock, 1648; grandfather of Dr. Palgrave Wellington

    Viets, 40

    Partridge, Ralph

    England, c. 1579

    Mass., 1658

    Cambridge, B.A., 1600, M.A., 1603

    Immigrated to Massachusetts, 1637; pastor at Daxford and Sandwich; also acted as physician

    Venn

    Perkins, John

    Lynn, 1698

    Lynnfield, 1780/1

    apprenticed to Dr. William Davis, Boston, 1718; apprenticed to Dr. F. Archibald, Boston, 1719/20; London, visit in 1734

    Practiced in Boston until 1770’s; wrote and published tracts on earthquakes and atmospheric phenomena; member, APS, 1774; Société Royale de Médecine, 1779; corresponded with Franklin; treated his sister, Jane Mecom, in Boston

    PREC, 82, 425; 83, 1056, 1058; John Perkins Papers, Amer. Antiq. Soc, Worcester, Mass.

    Phillips, Mrs. Elizabeth

    Westminster, England, c. 1685

    Charlestown, 1761

    unknown

    “Commission’d by John Lord Bishop of London in ye year 1718 to ye office of a midwife, came to this country, in ye year 1719, and by ye blessing of God, has brought into this world about 3000 children”

    Phipps Street Burying Ground, quoted from Green

    Pighogg, Mr.

    unknown

    unknown

    unknown

    1652, Boston admitted him as townsman; “chirurgeon” or “churrergeon”

    Holmes, 317–318; Savage, III, 435

    Porée, ?

    France

    unknown

    unknown

    Advertisement in Boston Gazette, 1773, surgeon and dentist soliciting students

    Guerra, 533

    Pratt, John

    England

    Mass., 1645

    unknown

    Sent to Mass. by the New England Company for a Plantation in Mass. Bay, 1628; offered £400 to settle there; practiced in Hartford & Cambridge as surgeon

    Green, 16

    Roby, Ebenezer

    Boston, 1701

    Sudbury, 1772

    Harvard, 1719; apprenticed to Thomas Berry, Ipswich; Holland, 1726, but no evidence that he studied with Boerhaave; visited hospitals and whorehouses in Amsterdam and The Hague

    Practicing in Sudbury after 1727; son, Ebenezer, Jr., and grandson, Joseph Roby, also became doctors; brother of Thomas Roby, f.r.S.

    Sibley, vi; Journal, Wayland Public Library; John Perkins Papers, Amer. Antiq. Soc.

    Rodliff, John Frederick

    Germany, 1749

    Rehoboth, 1808

    unknown

    C. 1790’s in Rehoboth

    Bliss, 274

    Rogers, John

    Ipswich, Mass., 1708

    Newburyport, 1781

    Harvard, 1728; may have studied medicine

    Schoolmaster in Newbury

    Sibley, viii

    Russell, Charles

    Charlestown, 1739

    Antigua, 1780

    in London, c. 1730 Harvard, 1757; apprenticed to Dr. Ezekiel Hersey; London, 1763, St. Thomas’ Hospital, Colin Mackenzie’s midwifery lectures, William Hunter’s anatomy lectures; Aberdeen, Marischal College, M.D., 1765, recommended by Drs. Grieves and Russell

    Practiced in Lincoln, Mass.; removed to Antigua during Revolution; a loyalist

    Sibley, xiv

    Saltonstall, Henry

    England

    unknown

    Harvard, 1642; Leyden, 1646; Padua, M.D., 1649; incorporated at Oxford 1652

    Fellow, New College, Oxford, 1650; subwarden, 1653–1657; physician to Parliamentary forces, 1658; did not return to Massachusetts

    Sibley, 1; Innes Smith; Foster

    Scammell, Samuel Leslie

    England, 1708

    Milford, 1753

    unknown

    To Milford c. 1738; treated soldiers in 1748; several town offices; son and grandson into medicine

    Alden, 29; SCF, 65640; Ballou, 417

    Schweitzer,

    Sebastian

    Hendrick

    Germany

    unknown

    unknown

    In the Salem-Danvers area, 1716; Boston Weekly News-Letter of 14 january 1717 noted that he had cured a slave of an enormous tapeworm (128’!)

    Forster, 279

    Shepard, Levi

    unknown, 1743

    Northampton, 1805

    unknown

    Apothecary; retail store and drug business; 1782, went to London for drugs and curiosity; partner with Dr. Ebenezer Hunt of Northampton and Dr. William Paine of Worcester

    Allen, 24; PRHC, 131, 31, 32

    Smibert, Williams

    Boston, c. 1732

    Boston, 1774

    Edinburgh, Cullen’s chemistry and materia medica; Edinburgh, M.D., 1762

    Father Scottish emigrant & well-known portrait painter; member, Medical Society, Edinburgh, 1761; thesis, De menstruis rctensis

    Edinburgh Class Lists; General list of members of Medical Society of Edin., Edinburgh, 1823; Edinburgh University

    Spencer, Archibald

    Scotland?

    unknown

    Edinburgh male midwife

    Itinerant lectures on electricity in America; met Benjamin Franklin in Boston, 1743

    Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, ed. Leon W. Labarce et al. (Yale U. Press, 1964)

    Name Birth Death Education Comments References

    Spooner, William

    Boston, 1760

    Boston, 1836

    Harvard, A.B., 1778; apprenticed to Dr. Samuel Danforth; Alexander Hamilton’s midwifery lectures, 1784; Edinburgh, M.D., 1785

    Member, Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh; practicing in Boston after 1786; member, MMS, AAAS, MHS; Harvard overseer

    Forster, 278; Edinburgh University; RCP Edinburgh

    Sprague, John, Jr.

    Dedham, 1752

    Dedham, 1800

    Harvard, 1772; apprenticed to father, Dr. John Sprague; c. 1773, to London for further study

    Returned from London on the Minerva in in 1775 at age 23 as “surgeon”; practiced in Dedham, 1776–1788, Boston, 1788–1797 (listed in 1789 Boston Directory), and returned to Dedham

    BD; Teele, 529; Sibley, xvii; NEHGR

    Sprague, Laurence

    Boston, 1748

    London, c. 1785

    Harvard, 1768; apprenticed to father, Dr. John Sprague; London, 1772

    John Sprague, Jr.’s older brother

    Sibley, xvii; R.T. Paine mss, MHS; Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc, 19, 216

    Squire, William

    Scotland

    Hadley, 1731

    unknown

    In Hadley by 1730; bought land; styled “Chirurgcon” in probate records; among his wearing apparel we find a red coat, a great cloak, wig, gold-headed cane, a gold watch (first in town), silver-hiked sword, silver shoe buckles, and a plaid gown; Dr. Richard Crouch, a fellow immigrant, friend, and consultant, administered the estate

    Judd, 44; PRHC, 139–144.

    St. Medard, Peter

    France

    Boston, 1822

    unknown

    Noted in The Boston Directory of 1798 and 1800 as “Physician” on Back Street; MMS member, 1811

    BD

    Star, Comfort

    England

    1663

    unknown

    Immigrated, 1634; practiced in Newton, Duxbury, and Boston

    NEHGR, 15, 29

    Stewart, George

    Scotland

    Boston, after 1730

    unknown

    In Boston by 1714; perhaps some military experience as physician or surgeon; remarried, 1715; Episcopal Charitable Society, 1730; attended King’s Chapel

    Forster, 279; NEHGR

    Swett, John Bernard

    Marblehead, 1752

    Newburyport, 1796

    Harvard, 1771; Edinburgh, Cullen’s; London Paris;

    Returned to America, 1778; surgeon, Faulkland Islands expedition; surgeon at Marblehead with Continental Army, perhaps on privateer also; member, MMS, A A AS; Mason

    Sibley, xvii; Samuel Curwen, Journal (Cambridge, Mass., 1792); Gordon, 103; Currier, 293–294

    Thayer, William

    England

    Truro, Cape Cod, c. 1801

    unknown

    Ex-British navy surgeon on man-of-war; arrived & married, 1772

    Truro, 121, 134, 138

    Tidmarsh, Richard

    England

    Stockbridge, 1790

    unknown

    Settled in Richmond 1778; invited to Stockbridge; built home there; became embroiled in controversy with Dr. Erastus Sergeant over competence; died insolvent but styled “Doctor”

    Jones, 237; MHS; PRBC, 1537

    Tilly,

    Alice

    England

    Boston

    unknown

    Midwife on board Arabella; 1630’s, women of Boston defended her after she had been accused of the “miscarrying of many wimen and children under hir hand”

    Rutman, 136, 231

    Touton, John

    Rochelle, France

    unknown

    unknown

    1662, appealed to General Court to allow him and fellow Huguenots to settle

    Toner, 19; Holmes, 317

    Turner, Henry

    England, 1689

    Quincy, 1773

    as apothecary in England

    Court records indicate that he was in Quincy as early as 1748; one son also practiced

    SCF, 65640, 37–40; Alden, 10

    Tytler, James

    Scotland, c. 1747

    1804

    apprenticed to surgeon in Forfar; Edinburgh medical lectures

    Surgeon on voyages to Greenland; became a literary hack; immigrated to Salem

    Malloch, 40–41

    Ward, James

    England

    England

    Harvard, 1645; Oxford, M.A., 1648, B.Med., 1649

    Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford; did not return to Massachusetts

    Sibley, 1; Foster

    Watcrhouse, Benjamin

    R.I., 1754

    Cambridge, 1846

    apprenticed to John Haliburton, Scots emigrant doctor, R.I.; London, 1775, lived with Dr. John Fothergill, a relative; John Hunter; Guy’s Hospital, 6 months, 1775–1776; Edinburgh, 9 months, 1776; London, 1777–1778; Leyden,

    1778–1780, M.D. 1780

    First professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic, Harvard, 1783; introduced Jennerian vaccination; member of MMS and Middlesex Medical Association; author of The Rise, Progress and Present State of Medicine (1792)

    DAB

    Wilkinson, Thomas

    England

    Billerica, 1692

    unknown

    Censured, 1676, for “practising physic & chirurgery contrary to law”; still in Billerica in 1679 and on tax list

    Savage, iv, 552; Holmes, 317

    Wilson, John

    England, prob. Mass.

    Quincy, 1727

    unknown

    Son of Dr. Edmund Wilson of London and grandson of the Rev. John Wilson, first pastor of first church in Boston; not the Harvard graduate of 1705

    Alden, 9–10

    Wilson, Lambert

    England

    England

    unknown

    Sent to Salem by New England Co. for Plantation in Massachusetts Bay, 1629, to give medical training to local young men; “chirurgeon”; returned to England, 1630

    Gordon, 61, 75; Packard

    Windship, Amos

    Holliston, 1745

    Wellfleet, 1811

    Harvard, 1771 (but left because of stealing); apprenticed to Dr. Bela Lincoln; obtained A.M. & M.B. from Harvard, 1790; Harvard, M.D., 1811

    Senior naval surgeon during Revolution; 1780’s, several visits to Paris and London. Dr. J. C. Lettsom, London, lent him money to set up as apothecary in Boston, recommended him as member of Medical Society of London and helped him acquire M.B. from Harvard to qualify him to become a member

    Sibley, xvii; Morison

    Windship, Charles W.

    Boston, 1773

    Roxbury, 1852

    Boston Latin School; Harvard, 1793; apprenticed to Dr. Samuel Danforth; Glasgow, M.D., 1797

    Practiced in Roxbury

    Alden, 38; Morison; Addison

    Winslow Gov. Edward

    England, 1595

    England, 1655

    Mayflower passenger; married Dr. Samuel Fuller’s sister; 1623, befriended by Massasoit

    Green, 15; Viets, 19

    Wyer, Edward

    England

    unknown

    attended lectures by Cullen and William Hunter, 1771–1772 and 1776; William Saunders 33 lectures at Guy’s Hospital, London, 1776; witnessed in London, a “lythotomy”

    Held in high esteem as Boston physician; 1787, he, his wife, and two children were naturalized; probably in Boston by 1781; of Cambridge, 1787; Halifax, 1784(?); two papers to MMS on hydrocephalus and healing, vol. 1, Med. Com., MMS

    Burrage, 53, 351, 393; BML

    (York), Jeorku

    Germany

    unknown

    unknown

    C. 1780, dresser in British military hospital in Quebec; good dresser; to Boston; no operation recorded; according to Dr. Eliot, in Boston, Jeorku “got some business among the Dutch inhabitants and their posterity”

    Forster, 270; Eliot, 180