Dr. Gerardus Clarkson

From Penn Biographies:

http://www.archives.upenn.edu/people/1700s/clarkson_gerardus.html

Gerardus Clarkson (1737-1790)

University Affiliation:

• Academy student 1751-1753
• Trustee 1780-1790

Biographical Summary:

• Physician

Gerardus Clarkson was born in 1737 in New York City, the son of Matthew Clarkson and Cornelia Depeyster. He was a student in the Academy of Philadelphia from 1751 to 1753, and later became a physician. Gerardus Clarkson, M.D. was elected in 1780 as a trustee of the University of the State of Pennsylvania and served until his death in 1790. He served on the Floating Battery "Putnam" in the Pennsylvania State Navy and was Surgeon for Board of War in the Revolution from 1776-1777. He was a prominent Philadelphia physician and became a leading advocate for modernizing medicine.

Clarkson married Mary Flower in 1761; their large family of at least ten children included Joseph Clarkson (1765-1830) A.B. 1782, William Clarkson (1763-1812) A.B. 1781 and M.D. 1785, and Gerardus Clarkson (1765-1793), A.B. 1790. Both Joseph and William were born in Philadelphia; surviving tuition books also indicate that Joseph was educated at the Philadelphia Academy in 1778-1779 before attending college.

Founder of The Pennsylvania Prison Society, Philadelphia College Physicians