John C. Lettsome
Encyclopedia
Little Jost Van Dyke
Little Jost Van Dyke is one of the British Virgin Islands. It is a small island on the east end of the island of Jost Van Dyke. Like Jost Van Dyke, it takes its name from the Dutch privateer Joost van Dyk...
in the British Virgin Islands
British Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...
. He was born into one of the early Quaker settlements in the territory, and grew up to be an abolitionist
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
. His surname is sometimes spelled Lettsom, particularly during the period of his life during which he resided in the British Virgin Islands.
Dr. Lettsome founded the Medical Society of London
Medical Society of London
The Medical Society of London is one of the oldest surviving medical societies in the United Kingdom ....
in 1773, convinced that a combined membership of physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries would prove productive. His revolutionary idea met with success and the Society has provided a forum for all branches of the medical profession from its inception to the present. Situated at the heart of London's medical community at Lettsome House, Chandos Street, near Cavendish Square
Cavendish Square
Cavendish Square is a public square in the West End of London, very close to Oxford Circus, where the two main shopping thoroughfares of Oxford Street and Regent Street meet. It is located at the eastern end of Wigmore Street, which connects it to Portman Square, part of the Portman Estate, to its...
, this is the oldest medical society in the United Kingdom.
As founder, president (1775–76, 1784–85, 1808–11, 1813–15), and benefactor Lettsome was the mainstay of the Society from 1773 until his death in 1815.
Life
John Coakley Lettsome was born into the Quaker community on the island of Little Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin IslandsBritish Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...
, in 1744. John and his brother were the sole survivors of seven sets of male twins, sons of Edward and Mary Lettsome. John alone was sent to England at the age of six to be educated; perhaps he was the strongest twin, he certainly proved to be resilient.
At school in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
the antics of the young Lettsome attracted the attention of the Quaker preacher Samuel Fothergill, who introduced his protégé to his brother, the London physician, Dr John Fothergill
John Fothergill (physician)
John Fothergill FRS was an English physician, plant collector, philanthropist and Quaker.- Life and work :...
. Having completed an apprenticeship to a Yorkshire apothecary, Lettsome came to London in 1766 when, through the influence of Dr Fothergill, he commenced his medical training at St Thomas' Hospital
St Thomas' Hospital
St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS hospital in London, England. It is administratively a part of Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. It has provided health care freely or under charitable auspices since the 12th century and was originally located in Southwark.St Thomas' Hospital is accessible...
. His studies were interrupted by the death of his father, prompting his return to Tortola
Tortola
Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local tradition recounts that Christopher Columbus named it Tortola, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove". Columbus named the island Santa Ana...
in the British Virgin Islands where he freed the slaves he had inherited and provided medical care for the local population. As the only doctor in the islands at that time, he was able to earn a considerable sum. Diligence and industry earned him a fortune, enabling him to resume his studies in Europe and culminating in the submission of his MD thesis on the natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
of the tea-tree to Leyden University
Leiden University
Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...
in 1769.
Lettsome was also a close friend of two other enormously influential North Americans, Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
and William Thornton
William Thornton
Dr. William Thornton was a British-American physician, inventor, painter and architect who designed the United States Capitol, an authentic polymath...
.
Career
Lettsome's career accelerated with the LRCPRoyal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...
and marriage to an heiress. By the age of 30 his reputation as a physician, author, and Fellow of the Royal Society was established. Furthermore, he had founded the General Dispensary in Aldersgate Street and the Medical Society of London
Medical Society of London
The Medical Society of London is one of the oldest surviving medical societies in the United Kingdom ....
. He was a founder-member of the Royal Humane Society
Royal Humane Society
The Royal Humane Society is a British charity which promotes lifesaving intervention. It was founded in England in 1774 as the Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Drowned, for the purpose of rendering first aid in cases of near drowning....
in 1774, he initiated the Sea-bathing
Sea bathing
Sea bathing is swimming in the sea or in sea water and a sea bath is a protective enclosure for sea bathing. Unlike bathing in a swimming pool, which is generally done for pleasure or exercise purposes, sea bathing was once thought to have curative or therapeutic value. It arose from the medieval...
Infirmary at Margate
Margate
-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....
(1791), became a pillar of the Royal Jennerian
Edward Jenner
Edward Anthony Jenner was an English scientist who studied his natural surroundings in Berkeley, Gloucestershire...
Society (for vaccination) and gave his support to the Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men, the Society for the Relief of Debtors, and the Philanthropic Society
Royal Philanthropic Society
The Royal Philanthropic Society had its origins in the St Paul's Coffee House in London in 1788 where a group of men met to discuss the problems of homeless children who were to be found begging and stealing on the streets. The Society began by opening homes where children were trained in cottage...
(for homeless children). Numerous clubs, societies, hospitals, dispensaries, and charitable institutions in the United Kingdom and North America benefited from Lettsome's patronage, while from his pen there flowed a stream of "Hints", pamphlets, diatribes, and letters promoting Sunday schools, female industry, provision for the blind, a bee society, soup kitchen
Soup kitchen
A soup kitchen, a bread line, or a meal center is a place where food is offered to the hungry for free or at a reasonably low price. Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoods, they are often staffed by volunteer organizations, such as church groups or community groups...
s and the mangel-wurzel, and condemning quackery, card parties, and intemperance. In the diversity of his interests, as physician, philanthropist, botanist, mineralogist and collector, Lettsome was in the mould of that giant of the previous generation of London physicians, Sir Hans Sloane
Hans Sloane
Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS was an Ulster-Scot physician and collector, notable for bequeathing his collection to the British nation which became the foundation of the British Museum...
.
As founder, President (1775–76, 1784–85, 1808–11, 1813–15), and benefactor, Lettsome was the mainstay of the Society from 1773 until his death in 1815. His influence remained strong and his example inspired the next generation of Fellows—men such as Dr Thomas Pettigrew
Thomas Pettigrew
Thomas Joseph Pettigrew , sometimes known as "Mummy" Pettigrew, was a surgeon and antiquarian who became an expert on Ancient Egyptian mummies...
, his biographer, and Dr Henry Clutterbuck
Henry Clutterbuck
Henry Clutterbuck M.D. was a medical writer.Clutterbuck was the fifth child of Thomas Clutterbuck, attorney, who died at Marazion in Cornwall 6 November 1781, by his wife, Mary, a daughter of Christopher Masterman, merchant, Truro...
, who followed in Lettsome's footsteps as President of the Society and physician to the General Dispensary.
For at least a portion of his years working in London, he lived in Newington Green
Newington Green
Newington Green is an open space in north London which straddles the border between Islington and Hackney. It gives its name to the surrounding area, roughly bounded by Ball's Pond Road to the south, Petherton Road to the west, the southern section of Stoke Newington with Green Lanes-Matthias Road...
, a village full of English Dissenters
English Dissenters
English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.They originally agitated for a wide reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell....
clustered around a green and its Unitarian church
Newington Green Unitarian Church
Newington Green Unitarian Church in north London is one of England's oldest Unitarian churches. It has had strong ties to political radicalism for over 300 years, and is London's oldest Nonconformist place of worship still in use...
. There he met the young Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...
and others intent on social reform.
Humor
Lettsome is reported to have written about himself:I, John Lettsome,
Blisters, bleeds and sweats 'em.
If, after that, they please to die,
I, John Lettsome.
Richard Woodman
Richard Woodman
Richard Woodman is an English novelist and naval historian who retired in 1997 from a 37 year nautical career, mainly working for Trinity House, to write full time. His main work is 14 volumes about the career of Nathaniel Drinkwater, and shorter series about James Dunbar and William Kite, but he...
attributes similar words to the fictional naval surgeon Mr. Lettsom in The Bomb Vessel:
When people's ill, they come to I,
I physics, bleeds and sweats 'em;
Sometime they live, sometimes they die,
What's that to I? I let's 'em.
Abolitionism
Lettsome was also a noted abolitionistAbolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
. In 1767 he had returned to the British Virgin Islands after the death of his father, and found himself the owner of a share of his father's slaves, whom he promptly manumitted
Manumission
Manumission is the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. In the United States before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished most slavery, this often happened upon the death of the owner, under conditions in his will.-Motivations:The...
. Lettsome then set up a medical practice on Tortola
Tortola
Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local tradition recounts that Christopher Columbus named it Tortola, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove". Columbus named the island Santa Ana...
, and as the only physician on the island amassed a veritable small fortune of £2,000 in a mere six months, whereupon he gave half to his mother (who had remarried) and returned to London.
When his good friend, William Thornton, sought his advice about setting up a colony for freed slaves on the west coast of Africa, Lettsome counseled against it, and suggested that spending the money acquiring and manumitting the slaves in North America would be a better use of funds.
However, towards the end of his life, something ironic happened. Lettsome's son, Pickering Lettsome, returned to Tortola to practice law, and there he married a wealthy widow, who had inherited some 1,000 slaves from her grandfather, Benzaliel Hodge. Pickering Lettsome died about a month after the marriage, and his new wife (some 16 years his senior) died two months later, and left all of her property to her father-in-law, John Lettsome. By a twist of fate, shortly before his own death, Lettsome, who had freed all the slaves he had ever owned, found himself as the owner of another 1,000 slaves. However, Lettsome himself died before he had a chance to decide what to do with the slaves, and they were inherited by his grandson.
Entomology
Lettsome was an entomologist. He wrote The naturalist's and traveler's companion, containing instructions for collecting and preserving objects of natural history and for promoting inquiries after human knowledge in general. London: E. and C. Dilly (1774)a much used work.
External links
- Postgraduate Medical Journal 2004;80:350-354
- Lettsom, John Coakley. The Naturalist's and Traveller's Companion, first published in 1772