Person    | Male  Born 1744  Died 1815

Dr John Lettsom

Categories: Medicine, Philanthropy, Race Issues

Countries: Virgin Islands

Physician, philanthropist, abolitionist and entomologist. Born British Virgin Islands into a Quaker family. Aged 6 was sent to England to be educated. Came to London in 1766 to train at St Thomas' Hospital. Founder of the Medical Society of London of which he was president on and off, 1775 - 1815.

He signed his prescriptions “I” which prompted this rhyme (of which there are some variant versions):

When patients ill, they comes to I,
I physicks, bleeds and sweats ‘em:
Sometimes they live, sometimes they die,
What’s that to I? I Lettsom.

A noted abolitionist, on the death of his father he returned to the Virgin Islands where he freed the slaves he had inherited. But later, his son, through a wealthy marriage back in the Virgin Islands, brought slaves back into the family and Lettsom inherited them shortly before he died. Thus he died with 1,000 slaves in his estate. He had some explaining to do at the pearly gates.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Dr John Lettsom

Commemorated ati

Dr John Lettsom's house

{On a modern information plaque at the foot of this edifice:} Stonework from...

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Medical Society and Lettsom

Site of the Medical Society of London 1787 - 1850 gifted by a founder, John C...

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Other Subjects

German Hospital

German Hospital

Opened with 12 beds in 1845. The local German community was very large at this time and nurses were recruited from Germany from the Kaiserworth Institute. Florence Nightingale was so inspired by th...

Building, Medicine

2 memorials
Guy's John Fry Group

Guy's John Fry Group

This is possibly the same group of Guy's alumni who gather each October for a lunch to celebrate the life and work of Doctor John Fry.

Group, Community / Clubs, History, Medicine

1 memorial
St John's House

St John's House

From the National Archives : "St John House was founded in 1848 as a 'Training Institution for Nurses for Hospitals, Families and the Poor'. It was a religious community run by a Master, who was a ...

Group, Education, Medicine, Religion

1 memorial