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

Mary Seacole

Mary Seacole

Jamaican nurse, heroine of the Crimean War. That's the standard depiction of her but some people, as reported in a Guardian article, feel that Seacole has been promoted to the detriment of Florence...

Person, Medicine, Jamaica

5 memorials
Edward Gustave Slesinger, OBE, BSc, MS, FRCS

Edward Gustave Slesinger, OBE, BSc, MS, FRCS

Chairman of the Board of Guy's Hospital in 1964. Born London. Edward Gustave Slesinger was born on 17 March 1888, the son of Gustave Schlesinger (1852-1903) and Louise Agnes Schlesinger née Sueski...

Person, Armed Forces, Medicine, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Col. Sir James Cantlie, KBE, MA, MB, FRCS, RAMC (T)

Col. Sir James Cantlie, KBE, MA, MB, FRCS, RAMC (T)

Sir James Cantlie was a British physician. He was a pioneer of first aid, which in 1875 was unknown. He was also influential in the study of tropical diseases and in the debates concerning degenera...

Person, Armed Forces, Emergency Services, Medicine, Politics & Administration, China/Hong Kong, Egypt, Scotland

1 memorial
Joseph Merrick / John Merrick

Joseph Merrick / John Merrick

"The Elephant Man". Born Leicester. Began to develop severe abnormalities within a few years. By aged 17 his mother had died, his father and step-mother had rejected him, and failing to find a job,...

Person, Medicine

1 memorial
Edward Meryon

Edward Meryon

MD, FRCP. First to describe muscular dystrophy.

Person, Medicine

1 memorial