Holdings of Lambeth Palace Library

Directory of medical licences issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury 1535-1775

Sample entries

982 DORCHESTER (William), of Etchilhampton, Wilts.
Letters testimonial certifying that for several years Dorchester had been ‘instructed and imployed in the art of physick under his father Roger Dorchester, an allowed, skilfull & successful physitian’, who had recently died, whereupon they recommended Dorchester ‘as a person fitly qualifyed for a licence publickly to practice and administer physick, by which means … he may become very beneficial both in this and other countreys', signed by William Pynsent (sen., and jun.), Walter Ernle, and the Rev. James Cobham, 29 April 1700, countersigned by Robert Woodward, dean of Salisbury 'I knew this gentleman's father very well, who was a very carefull good man, & did a great deal of good in this countrey, my wife haveing been [his] patient, and haveing good grounds to believe that his son will bee usefull among us’, 1 May 1700; annotated with fiat for a commission by Sir Charles Hedges, master of the faculties, 25 May 1700. Commission, 25 May 1700, executed and returned, with oaths and subscription, by James Cobham, rector of Patney, Wilts., 31 May 1700. FII/41/14a-b.
Licensed to practise medicine and surgery throughout the whole kingdom of England, 10 June 1700:  F1/E, f.112.

636 PELL (Thomas), of Cirencester, Glos. 
Licensed to practise medicine in the dioceses of Bath and Wells, Norwich and Salisbury, 21 July 1629:  Abbot 3, f.98.
Raach.

637 PEMELL (PENNELL) (Jane), of St. Saviour, Southwark, Surrey.
Three local letters testimonial for Jane, wife of John Pemel of St. Saviour, Southwark, 30 June 1685, signed by  1) Thomas Barker of same parish, surgeon, certifying that she was 'fitly qualified to practice the artes of physicke & chyrurgery';  2) William Breton certifying that: 'I have known Mr. and Mrs Pennell for 12 or 14 years, but never hard any ill of them, but have lived quietly and fairely amongst their neighbours'; 3) William Hoare, minister, and churchwardens of St. Saviour, Southwark noting that she was 'in all things conformable to the Church of England haveing lived fouerteene yeares in the said parish, paying all the dutyes of the parish'. 
14 page booklet of evidence of cures of 'scrophulus humours commonly called the Kings Evill & noli-me-tangere', with numerous patients in the city of London, Shoreditch, Southwark, Wapping, and Whitechapel, and some from St. Bart's Hospital and Christ's Hospital.  Notable among these were Sir James Langhame 'who was perfectly cured & also Sir Gilbert Lort grandchild to the Earl of Clare', and Captain Hastings son 'with a leaden plug in his backe, which was put by chyrurgions to let the corruption run out for a long  continuance, I plukt it out & serringed it with a walter that went through his body & by God's blessing cured it'. Also included is a note by Jane Pemell that 'her first husband was a Dr. of Phisicke and a man midwife; her second husband, Mr. Henry Tyrrell, a chyrurgion, a freeman of London, & his father was chyrurgion of Christ's Hospital'; that she had practised above twenty years, '& have bine very successfull in cures haveing nothing else to mayntayne my family, haveing lost all & fyred out of the citty, & my husband being taken in the Dutch wares had lost all hee had goten in seven yeares & both ancient, I weare willing to put myselfe foreward to doe good, and to get an honest mayntenace'. VX 1A/10/223/1-4.
Subscription, 10 July 1685:  VG 1/3, f.88v.
Licensed to practise surgery in the province of Canterbury, 10 July 1685:  Sancroft, f.257v.
 

Abbreviations used in index entries above
 

B.M.	Bachelor of medicine.
Bloom	J.H. Bloom and R.R. James, Medical practitioners licensed under the Act of 3 Henry VIII, in the diocese of London (1935).
D.N.B.	Dictionary of National Biography.
F.C.P.	Fellow of the College of Physicians.
Foster	Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses. 1500-1886. (1888-1892) (8 vols.)
L.C.P.	Licentiate of the College of Physicians.
L.M.	Licentiate in medicine or medical licentiate.
M.D.	Doctor of Medicine.
Munk	William Munk, The roll of the Royal College of Physicians. Vol. 1 (1878); vol. 2 (1878).
M.P.	Medical practitioner.
Raach	John H. Raach, A directory of English country physicians, 1603-1643 (1962).
Venn	John Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses: part 1: From the earliest times to 1751 (1922-4) (4 vols.).

 

Directory introduction - surname index - placename index - list of cures and complaints