Queen Mary and Westfield College London University PhD Thesis ...

estates to comfortably bring in an annual profit of well over £500'.
Far from all medical officers profited greatly from the mad trade of course. Richard Black-
stone 'dyed much in debt', leaving his widow 'unprovided for' 158, and both his will, and ti at
of John Adams, underwent administrations after their deaths. John Pelling bequeathed only
£20 on his death in cash. Overall, however, these men were the exceptions that proved the
rule. Prosperity did not automatically bring respectability to medical officers, however, partic-
ularly those who dealt with the insane, nor did it all arise from their trade in lunacy, of course.
William Elderton had been befriended by Richard Steele and was wealthy enough to repeatedly
bail the author out of debt, years before he had even been elected at Bethiem, but as the son of
a yeoman, he was still jibed at by The Examiner as one of Steele's low companions'59.
Like the Physicians, only a minority of Surgeons and Apothecaries gave legacies (or, indeed,
benefactions) to the hospitals, or mentioned their public offices in their wills. Out of twelve
Surgeons and Apothecaries whose wills I have found filed at P.C.C., during 1634-1789, only
James, Dickenson, John Wheeler and Bryan Crowther, made posthumous signs of their regard
for Dethlem or 'for the benefit of the poor patients in [it]' and left legacies to the hospital, its
staff or its governors'60.
157 It was out of these profits that the Monro sons were required to allow their mother a £soo annuity. John
had also been a good friend of Jonathan Miles and his family, the proprietors of Hoxton madhouse, as were his
son Thomas & John Haslam, the Bethiem Apothecary, after him, a large number of patients being passed from
one institution to the other. Miles bequeathed both John Monro & William Kinleside (Treasurer of Bridewell
& Bethlem, 1768-74) a I guinea gold ring in his will. See F.C.C. Proh.II/984, fol. 193; Medhorsses Comraillee
Report, 1st Report, 1815, 30; 3rd Report, 171-4.
158 BCGM, 4 Feb. 1715, fol. 106.
159 See Steele, Correspondence (ad.), R. A. E. Blanchard, 247-8, 254, 266 & 269; The Examiner, iv, 2 Oct.
1713, 37.
160 01 the Apothecaries:-despite a very detailed & rather wealthy list of bequests, including considerable land
and property in Middlesex, London & Surrey, Yardley's only charity was 40s to the poor of the parish in which
he resided. Indeed, his interests consisted solely in doing right by his family & in providing for the future of a
his apprentice, to whom he largely bequeathed his business & shop. James left £20 to Bethlem, out of a very
respectable set of bequests, but evidently felt a commensurate relation to the Company of Apothecaries, of which
he had been Master, leaving it the same amount. He also left 1/ p1w to the parish of his birth. Dickenson, in an
impressive list of bequests totalling £2,690 in cash, left £60 to Bethlem & £ io each to the poor of 2 parishes.
Elderton's will reveals well over £2000 in stock, lands & property in Essex (where the Apothecary had plainly
put his hand to 'husbandry'), & a dwelling house in Fenchurch St., London. Of the Surgeons:- Meredith's will
says little about the nature of hi. estate. Talman's will, likewise, tells little but details £800 in cash. John
Wheeler's highly detailed will, in which he bequeaths 20/ gold rings 'to the preeident...'freasurer...Physician
and...Clerk' of Bridewell & Bethiem, lists a considerable personal estate, consisting largely of London properties,
& over £450 in cash. Richard Crowther seems to have died in the most prosperons circumstances & left the
largest legacy—.C100—to 'the poor patients of Bethiem hospital'. He had clearly been on intimate terms with
John Winder, the deceased Bethiem Apothecary, whom he calls 'my friend', & from whose will Crowther appear.
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