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.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

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...

Read More

Medical Society and Lettsom

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

Read More

Other Subjects

Sir Stewart Duke-Elder

Sir Stewart Duke-Elder

Ophthalmologist. Born in Pitlochry, Scotland. Wrote a classic manual for eye surgeons, entitled "Textbook of Ophthalmology".

Person, Medicine, Scotland

1 memorial
Nightingale Badge - New

Nightingale Badge - New

The badge was introduced as a successor to the former Nightingale Badge. It is awarded to nurses who are deemed outstanding and who meet the definition of a ‘next generation Nightingale’, which is ...

Event, Medicine

1 memorial
Doctor Edith Whetnall

Doctor Edith Whetnall

Ear, nose and throat surgeon. Born Edith Aileen Maude Whetnall in Hull. She worked at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, and became the first director of the Nuffield Hearing and Spe...

Person, Medicine

1 memorial
Henry Gray

Henry Gray

Anatomist and surgeon. Born in Pimlico. In 1845 he became a student at St George's Hospital, and in 1852 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1858 he published the first edition of his 'An...

Person, Medicine

2 memorials
Councillor David Avery

Councillor David Avery

David James Avery was born on 2 December 1933, the third of the five children of Frederick Joseph Avery (1897-1988) and Ethel Maud Avery née Lambert (1901-1984) whose birth was registered in the St...

Person, Medicine, Politics & Administration

2 memorials

Previously viewed

T. H. Hammond

T. H. Hammond

Resident of Golders Green killed serving in WW2.

Person

War dead, WW2
1 memorial
Raleigh Memorial Chapel

Raleigh Memorial Chapel

N16, Albion Grove, Trinitarian Spiritual Baptist Church

Raleigh had died in the April preceding the laying of this stone.

3 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Count Zinzendorf

Count Zinzendorf

Religious and social reformer, German nobleman and Bishop of the Moravian Church. Born Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendork und Pottendorf in Dresden, Germany. As a student at the Halle Academy, he and o...

Person, Religion, Germany

1 memorial
Joyce Salter

Joyce Salter

Daughter of Doctor Alfred and Ada Salter. She contracted a virulent form of scarlet fever and died at the age of eight.

Person, Friend / family

2 memorials
C. M. Brown

C. M. Brown

Resident of Hendon who served and died in WW2.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW2
1 memorial