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Colonial American Doctors

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Profiles

  • Dr. Edward Saunders Jr. (1626 - 1672)
    Children of EDWARD SAUNDERS and UNKNOWN are: EDWARD (SANDERS)2 SAUNDERS I, b. August 10, 1625, England; d. 1672, Wicomica Parish, Lancaster Co.,VA. EDWARD (SANDERS)2 SAUNDERS I (EDWARD1) was born Augu...
  • Dr. Mark Brown Sappington (1746 - 1803)
    A Patriot of the American Revolution for MARYLAND. DAR Ancestor # A100223
  • Dr. Robert Williamson (1622 - 1689)
    Biography Robert Williamson was a physician. He served in the Virginia House of Burgress representing Isle of Wight County from September 1663 through October 1666. He was the 6th largest patentee of l...
  • Dr. Friend Sturtevant (1767 - 1830)
    Friend Sturtevant was the son of Dr Josiah Sturtevant. Dr Josiah Sturtevant was a loyalist and during the Revolutionary war he fled to Boston and was given a position in the British army as surgeon whi...
  • Dr. Edward Jones, Jr. (1656 - bef.1730)
    Edward Jones II BIRTH 1656 Isle of Wight County, Virginia, USA DEATH 15 Jul 1730 (aged 73–74) Isle of Wight County, Virginia, USA BURIAL Burial Details Unknown. Specifically: Lost to time MEMOR...

Please add the profiles of the chirurgeons, physicans, midwives, apothecaries and bonesetters who were our earliest doctors. Collaborators, feel free to update the page and add resource materials.


Please note:

40% of the physicians in the early colonies were women. Midwives at this time were considered doctors.

18th Century American Medicine

From: http://www.aaofoundation.org/what/heritage/exhibits/online/18Cent.cfm

In 18th Century England, there were three main classes of medical men: physicians, surgeons and apothecaries. Physicians were considered the elite among the three groups, holding medical degrees from universities and serving mainly the upper classes. In contrast, English surgeons and apothecaries rarely held medical degrees and often gained their training through apprenticeship. By and large the doctors of early colonial America were not English physicians but “ship’s surgeons”. They had learned their trade through apprenticeship or hospitals and often took on their own apprentices in America, which became the chief means of medical education at the time. While referred to as physicians or doctors, most colonists practicing medicine did not qualify as such back in England.

Colonial “physicians” practiced medicine, surgery and apothecary together as needed. As the colonies grew and prospered, some could afford to be trained at the universities abroad and earn their medical degree. Upon their return, however, colonists expected even European trained physicians to open the same general practices as their untrained countrymen. As might be expected, colonial physicians with formal degrees were often more prosperous and enjoyed greater prestige, but these were few and far between.

On the eve of the Revolutionary War it has been estimated that the colonies contained 3,500 physicians, only 400 of whom had undergone some sort of training, and about 200 of these actually held medical degrees.

notables

doctors of interest

Resources

in Philadelphia, a list

The Freeman's Journal or The North-American Intelligencer
Wed, Aug 05, 1789 ·Page 3
https://www.newspapers.com/image/39958432/?match=1&terms=Heimberger