Archer, John (05 May 1741–28 September 1810), physician, patriot, and public official, was born in Maryland, either near Brinckley’s Mills, Cecil County, or near the present town of Churchville, Harford County, the son of Thomas Archer, a farmer and ironworks agent, and Elizabeth Stevenson. Archer attended the West Nottingham Academy in Cecil County and the College of New Jersey (Princeton), from which he received the A.B. degree in 1760 and the M.A. in 1763. Thereafter he taught school in Baltimore and studied theology. However, after a second examination by the Presbytery of New Castle, in 1764, the presbytery decided that it “cannot encourage him to prosecute his tryals for the Gospel ministry any further,” and he turned his attention to medicine. He became a pupil of Dr. ...
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Archer, John (1741-1810), physician, patriot, and public official
David L. Cowen
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Bartlett, Josiah (1729-1795), physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence
Frank C. Mevers
Bartlett, Josiah (21 November 1729–19 May 1795), physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts, the son of Stephen Bartlett, a shoemaker, and Hannah Webster. Josiah Bartlett attended common school and at the age of sixteen was apprenticed to study medicine under Dr. Nehemiah Ordway of Amesbury. In 1750, seeking to set up his own practice, Bartlett settled in Kingston, New Hampshire, where he won quick acceptance for his fever treatments and his personal manner and demeanor. There, he married Mary Bartlett, a cousin from Newton, New Hampshire. Eight of the couple’s twelve children lived into adulthood....
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Brownson, Nathan (1742-1796), physician and politician
Edward J. Cashin
Brownson, Nathan (14 May 1742–18 October 1796), physician and politician, was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, the son of Timothy Brownson and Abigail Jenner. He graduated from Yale College in 1761 and practiced medicine in his hometown. In 1769 he married Elizabeth Lewis. The couple moved to St. John Parish, Georgia, in 1774 and began working a 500-acre plantation. Brownson’s wife died in 1775, and the following year he married Elizabeth McLean, with whom he had two children....
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Burnet, William (1730-1791), physician, judge, and member of the Continental Congress
Maxine N. Lurie
Burnet, William (02 December 1730–07 October 1791), physician, judge, and member of the Continental Congress, was born in Lyon’s Farms, a town located between Newark and Elizabethtown, New Jersey, the son of Ichabod Burnet, a physician who emigrated from Scotland, and Hannah (maiden name unknown). He was educated at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) when it was located in Newark under Rev. ...
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Colden, Cadwallader (1689-1776), physician, natural scientist, and lieutenant governor of New York
Mary Lou Lustig
Colden, Cadwallader (07 February 1689–20 September 1776), physician, natural scientist, and lieutenant governor of New York, was born of Scottish parents in Ireland, where his mother (name unknown) was visiting. His father was the Reverend Alexander Colden of Duns, Scotland. Colden graduated in 1705 from the University of Edinburgh. He then studied medicine in London but, lacking the money to establish a medical practice in Great Britain, migrated to Philadelphia in 1710. Welcomed by his mother’s sister Elizabeth Hill, Colden established himself as a merchant and physician. He returned to Scotland briefly in 1715, where in November of that year he married Alice Chrystie of Kelso, Scotland. After their marriage they returned to Philadelphia; the couple had eleven children. During a 1717 visit to New York, Colden was persuaded by Governor ...
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Colden, Cadwallader (1689-1776)
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Gardiner, Silvester (29 June 1708–08 August 1786), physician and land magnate
Peter R. Virgadamo
Gardiner, Silvester (29 June 1708–08 August 1786), physician and land magnate, was born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, the son of William Gardiner and Abigail Remington, members of a prominent New England family. Frail and bookish as a child, he roamed the nearby fields and learned the medicinal value of local plants. His brother-in-law, the Anglican missionary Rev. ...
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Gardiner, Silvester (29 June 1708–08 August 1786)
Maker: John Singleton Copley
In
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Holten, Samuel (1738-1816), physician and public official
Eric Howard Christianson
Holten, Samuel (09 June 1738–02 January 1816), physician and public official, was born in Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts, the son of Samuel Holten and Hannah Gardner, farmers. Several sources claim that his parents intended to send the youth to college. According to these accounts, as he was tutored for entrance exams his health declined and his parents decided to fit him for a career that would not require collegiate education. Subsequently, at about seventeen years of age, he served an apprenticeship of about a year’s duration with physician Jonathan Prince. By 1756 he seems to have started practicing medicine in Gloucester, where he married Mary Warner in March 1758; the couple had three children. Sometime in 1758 they moved to Danvers, where he may have entered a joint practice with his brother-in-law, Jonathan Prince, Jr. With the death of his partner in 1759, Holten became the town’s only resident physician, yet his business was modest. Unfortunately, the records are rather ambiguous on whether or not he encountered stiff competition from already established practitioners in the area, or merely inclined toward another calling, politics. Nothing for certain is known about his medical practice, which may have ended entirely by 1775....
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Jones, Noble (1702-1775), carpenter, doctor, and political official
Carol S. Ebel
Jones, Noble (1702–02 November 1775), carpenter, doctor, and political official, was born in Lambeth, County Surrey, England. The names of his parents are unknown. Jones married Sarah Hack before 1723. They had four children, one of whom died in infancy. The extent of Jones’s education remains unknown, but he acquired some skills as a physician, carpenter, architect, and surveyor by the early 1730s. He came to Georgia in 1733 as one of its first settlers. He worked diligently to succeed at his venture, and his many skills provided opportunities for profit and prominence. Jones helped construct the first buildings in Savannah, Georgia’s colonial capital. He assumed greater responsibilities upon the death of the colony’s two leading carpenters and physician in the summer of 1733. From 1748 to 1755 Jones formed a medical partnership with his eldest son, ...
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Mazzei, Philip (1730-1816), physician, merchant, and agent of Virginia during the American Revolution
Stanley J. Idzerda
Mazzei, Philip (25 December 1730–19 March 1816), physician, merchant, and agent of Virginia during the American Revolution, was born Filippo Mazzei in Poggio-a-Caiano, Italy, the son of Domenico Mazzei, a tradesman, and Maria Elisabetta di Guissepe del Conte. He studied medicine in nearby Florence, and in 1755 he joined the practice of a Dr. Salinas in Smyrna, Turkey. By year’s end he took passage for England as a ship’s doctor. Shortly after his arrival in London in 1756, he began an import-export business that enjoyed moderate success for the next sixteen years....
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McClurg, James (1746-1823), physician and delegate to the Federal Convention of 1787
Norman K. Risjord
McClurg, James (1746–09 July 1823), physician and delegate to the Federal Convention of 1787, was born in Elizabeth City County, Virginia, the son of Walter McClurg, a British naval surgeon (mother’s name unknown). His father had been sent to Hampton, Virginia, to open a hospital for inoculation against smallpox. Since the practice of inoculation had been introduced into the American colonies only a few years earlier, this was probably the first hospital of its kind in America....
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McClurg, James (1746-1823)
Maker: Gilbert Stuart
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Pott, John (1591–1642?), physician and governor of Virginia
David R. Ransome
Pott, John (1591–1642?), physician and governor of Virginia, was the son of Roger Pott of Harrop, a hamlet of Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, where John was christened on 19 December 1591. (His mother’s name is unknown.) Information on his early years is scant. Sometime before 1621 he married Elizabeth (maiden name unknown); there is no record of any children....
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Rush, Benjamin (04 January 1746–19 April 1813), physician, professor of chemistry and of medicine, and social reformer
Robert B. Sullivan
Rush, Benjamin (04 January 1746–19 April 1813), physician, professor of chemistry and of medicine, and social reformer, was born in Byberry Township, Pennsylvania, thirteen miles northeast of Philadelphia, the son of John Rush, a farmer and gunsmith, and Susanna Hall Harvey. John Rush died when Benjamin was five years old. His mother ran a grocery store to support the family. She sent Benjamin at age eight to live with an uncle by marriage, the Reverend Dr. ...
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Rush, Benjamin (04 January 1746–19 April 1813)
Maker: James Barton Longacre and Thomas Sully
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Thompson, Ebenezer (1737-1802), physician and public servant
Frank C. Mevers
Thompson, Ebenezer (05 March 1737–14 August 1802), physician and public servant, was born in Durham, New Hampshire, the son of Robert Thompson, a yeoman, and Abigail Emerson. He attended local schools. Upon his father’s death in 1752 he shared with his mother, brothers, and sister the ample estate and began the study of medicine with Joseph Atkinson, a well-respected physician in the region....
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Thornton, Matthew (1714-1803), physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence
Gregory C. Colati
Thornton, Matthew (1714–24 June 1803), physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born in Ireland, the son of James Thornton and Elizabeth Jenkins. His family immigrated to America in 1717, settling first in Wiscasset, Maine, and soon after moving to the area around Worcester, Massachussetts. Both Wiscasset and Worcester had large Scotch-Irish populations....
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Warren, Joseph (1741-1775), physician and patriot leader
Ethan S. Rafuse
Warren, Joseph (30 May 1741–17 June 1775), physician and patriot leader, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the son of Joseph Warren and Mary Stevens, farmers. Upon completing his studies at Roxbury Latin School in 1755, the same year his father died, Joseph entered Harvard College. He graduated twenty-fifth in a class of thirty-five. After serving a term as master of Roxbury Latin and arguing his thesis in the field of medicine, Warren entered into an apprenticeship with Dr. ...
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Winthrop, John, Jr. (1606-1676), colonial governor of Connecticut and fellow of the Royal Society
Francis J. Bremer
Winthrop, John, Jr. (12 February 1606–05 April 1676), colonial governor of Connecticut and fellow of the Royal Society, was born at Groton Manor in Suffolk, England, the son of John Winthrop (1588–1649), the founder and governor of Massachusetts, and Mary Forth. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin (1622–1624) and at the Inns of Court (1625–1627) but received no degree. After serving in the English attack on La Rochelle and traveling to the Levant, he assisted his father in plans to move the family to the New World. Having supervised the family affairs for a year in his father’s absence, Winthrop migrated to America with his new wife, Martha Fones, in 1631. During the next year he joined the Boston church. Though a Puritan, he was never noted for the expression of strong religious feelings. Winthrop was also admitted to freemanship in 1631 and was elected to the colony’s Court of Assistants. He was one of the first settlers of Agawam (later Ipswich), and there his wife and infant daughter died in 1634. In 1634 he returned to England on family and public business. While there he agreed to settle a town at the mouth of the Connecticut River on behalf of the Puritan Lords Brook and Say and Seale. During this stay in England he married Elizabeth Reade, stepdaughter of the Reverend ...
