John Coakley Lettsom

Virgin Islands, in 1744. John and his brother were the

sole survivors of seven sets of male twins, sons of Edward and Mary Lettsom. John alone was sent to England
at the age of six to be educated.
At school in Lancashire the antics of the young Lettsom
attracted the attention of the Quaker preacher Samuel
Fothergill, who introduced his protg to his brother, the
London physician, Dr John Fothergill. Having completed
an apprenticeship to a Yorkshire apothecary, Lettsom
came to London in 1766 when, through the inuence of
Dr Fothergill, he commenced his medical training at St
Thomas Hospital. His studies were interrupted by the
death of his father, prompting his return to Tortola 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. John Coakley Lettsom matriculated at the Leyden University 8 June 1769 [1] [2] He received his Medical Doctor degree 20 Juni 1769.[3] [4] His
thesis concerns the natural history of the tea-tree. The
title description of his thesis is: Dissertatio inauguralis
medica, sistens Observationes ad vires theae pertinentes.
Quam pro gradu Doctoratus summisque in Medicina
Honoribus & Privilegiis, rit ac legitim consequendis,
eruditorum examini submittit Joannes Coakley Lettsom,
Tortola Americanus. Ad diem XX. Junii MDCCLXIX.
H.L.Q.S. - Lugduni Batavorum : apud Theodorum Haak,
1769. - 24 p. (interleaved) [3] l. ; 24 cm. [5] [6] [7]

Dr. John Coakley Lettsom (17441815)

John Coakley Lettsom (17441815) was an English

physician and philanthropist. He was born on Little Jost
Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands, into one of the
early Quaker settlements in the territory, and he grew up
to be an abolitionist. His surname is sometimes spelled
Lettsome.

Lettsom was also a close friend of Benjamin Franklin and

William Thornton.

Lettsom founded the Medical Society of London 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 Londons medical community at Lettsome
House, Chandos Street, near Cavendish Square, this is
the oldest medical society in the United Kingdom.

2 Career
Lettsoms career accelerated with the LRCP 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. He was a founder-member of the Royal
Humane Society in 1774, he initiated the Sea-bathing Inrmary at Margate (1791), became a pillar of the Royal
Jennerian 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 (for homeless children).
Numerous clubs, societies, hospitals, dispensaries, and

As founder, president (177576, 178485, 180811,

181315), and benefactor Lettsom was the mainstay of
the Society from 1773 until his death in 1815.

Life

John Coakley Lettsom was born into the Quaker community on the island of Little Jost Van Dyke in the British
1

6 SEE ALSO

charitable institutions in the United Kingdom and North

America beneted from Lettsoms patronage, while from
his pen there owed a stream of Hints, pamphlets, diatribes, and letters promoting Sunday schools, female
industry, provision for the blind, a bee society, soup
kitchens and the mangel-wurzel, and condemning quackery, card parties, and intemperance. In the diversity of
his interests, as physician, philanthropist, botanist, mineralogist and collector, Lettsom was in the mould of that
giant of the previous generation of London physicians,
Sir Hans Sloane.
As founder, President (177576, 178485, 180811,
181315) and benefactor of the London Medical Society, Lettsom was the mainstay of the society from 1773
until his death in 1815. His inuence remained strong
and his example inspired the next generation of Fellows
men such as Dr Thomas Pettigrew, his biographer, and
Dr Henry Clutterbuck, who followed in Lettsoms footsteps as President of the Society and physician to the
General Dispensary. In 1791 Lettsom won the societys
Fothergillian prize for a treatise entitled Diseases of Great
Towns and the Best Means of Preventing them.[8]

When his good friend, William Thornton, sought his advice about setting up a colony for freed slaves on the west
coast of Africa, Lettsom 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. Lettsoms son, Pickering Lettsom, 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 Lettsom 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 Lettsom. By a
twist of fate, shortly before his own death, Lettsom, 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.

He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1788.[9]

5 Entomology

For at least a portion of his years working in London, he

lived in Newington Green, a village full of English Dissenters clustered around a green and its Unitarian church.
There he met the young Mary Wollstonecraft[10] and others intent on social reform.

Lettsom was an entomologist. He wrote The naturalists

and travelers 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.

Humor

Lettsom is reported[11] 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 attributes similar words to the ctional naval surgeon Mr. Lettsom in The Bomb Vessel:[12]
When peoples ill, they come to I, I physics, bleeds and
sweats 'em; Sometime they live, sometimes they die, Whats
that to I? I lets 'em.

Abolitionism
The naturalists and travelers companion, 1774

Lettsom was also a noted abolitionist. 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
fathers slaves, whom he promptly manumitted. Lettsom
then set up a medical practice on Tortola, 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.

6 See also
William Cullen

Notes

[1] Album Studiosorum Academiae Lugduno Batavae

MDLXXV-MDCCCLXXV, kol. 1097.
[2] Naamlijst van West-Indische studenten te Leiden,
Utrecht, Groningen en Harderwijk 1701-1813 / door
L. Knappert. - In: Bijdragen voor Vaderlandsche
geschiedenis en oudheidkunde, zesde reeks, tiende deel,
1930, p. 294, no. XIII.2.
[3] Bronnen tot de geschiedenis der Leidsche Universiteit,
zesde deel, 10 Febr. 1765-21 Febr. 1795 : Catalogus promotorum ex die 14. Februarii anni 1765 / P.C. Molhuysen. - 's-Gravenhage : Martinus Nijho, 1923, p. 81*.
[4] English-speaking students of medicine at the University of
Leyden / R.W. Innes Smith. - Edinburgh/London : Oliver
and Boyd, 1932, p. 140.
[5] Bibliotheca Medica Neerlandica, vol. I, p. 418; UBA:
1392 C 4 5).
[6] Koninklijke Bibliotheek Centrale Catalogus: UBL: 239 D
3 17.
[7] National Union Catalogue: NL 0302108; NcD-Mc; PPC;
DNLM; TU; MH-A.
[8] Transactions & studies of the College of Physicians of
Philadelphia. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
[9] Book of Members, 17802010: Chapter L (PDF).
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 28
July 2014.
[10] Her Own Woman: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft by DIANE JACOBS. Simon & Schuster, ch. 2
[11] The 2009-2011 Cruising Guide to the Virgin Islands, 14th
Edition by Nancy and Simon Scott. Cruising Guide Publications, Inc., 2008 p. 94.
[12] The Bomb Vessel by Richard Woodman. Sheridan House,
Inc., 2000, p. 30.

Further reading
ODNB article by J.F. Payne Lettsom, John Coakley (17441815), rev. Roy Porter, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University
Press, 2004 accessed 27 Oct 2015
Hunting, Penelope (2004) [2003]. History Of
Medicine: The Medical Society of London. London:
Postgraduate Medical Journal.
Florence Lewisohn, Tales of Tortola and the British
Virgin Islands (1966)

9 External links
Lettsom, John Coakley. The Naturalists and Travellers Companion, rst published in 1772
Postgraduate Medical Journal 2004;80:350-354
A quaker viewpoint on John Lettsom

10

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10.1

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Text

John Coakley Lettsom Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Coakley_Lettsom?oldid=716116640 Contributors: Charles Matthews,

Polylerus, Carbon Caryatid, Dexpenn, Number 57, Mais oui!, SmackBot, Notay, Gilliam, Hmains, Sadads, Legis, RobotG, Felix116,
Vernon39, Waacstats, GcSwRhIc, BOTijo, AdRock, Mild Bill Hiccup, RogDel, Good Olfactory, Lightbot, Chasethesky, Omnipaedista,
Plucas58, RjwilmsiBot, Assayer, Woody832, Curaao1634, Dennis3333, KasparBot and Anonymous: 5

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pj17319.f1.jpeg Original artist: Johann Zoany
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