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

Medical officers were also preoccupied with a whole host of anterior responsibilities, within
medical colleges and societies. In many ways this (as well as their prosperous private practices)
was a mark of the success of the practitioners of Bethiem. There is a contradiction in historians'
refusal to give them credit for such activities, even if it was considerably hospital office which
placed them in a position to attain both clients and the higher medical honours, and they were
detained, in consequence, from their hospital duties. Bridewell and Bethiem Physicians were
especially prominent at the College of Physicians, only Nurse, Tyson and James Monro, failing
to assume the more demanding responsibilities of higher office there' 61 . In addition, Allen,
Tyson and Hale, were all active in the Royal Society, Allen and Tyson, in particular. Allen was
especially busy during the late 1660s, 70s and early 80s, being elected to Council in 1678-9.
Tyson, serving on the Council ten times (1681, 1683, 1685, 1687-8, 1690, 1692, 1694, 1696 &
1698); presiding over and conducting countless anatomical experiments; producing or delivering
a remarkable number and range of studies in comparative anatomy; and serving on numerous
committees, seems to have spent more time and energy at Society meetings than at Bethlem
and Bridewell162.
Amongst the Apothecaries, Ralph Yardley, James James, & William Elderton, were partic-
ularly active in the Society of Apothecaries, before or after being elected at Bridewell. Yardley
served as Assistant from 1628, Renter Warden (1635-6), Upper (1637-8) and Master (1642-3);
James, as Upper (1650-1) & Master (1655-6); Elderton, as Renter Warden (1745-6), Upper
(1748-9 and Master (1750-51); but James appears to have freed himself from such offices after
to have been a beneficiary. In cash & stock alone, Crowther's will disposes of over £5000; & mentions lands in
Crowther's native Co. Radnor (worth c.1700) & Co. Hereford; property in Surrey & Hackney, Middlesex, & a
dwelling house in Newport Street, London.
161 Crooke was Censor 5 times (1627-31) and Anatomy Reader (1629); Meverall was Censor 8 times (1624,
1626-7, 1632, 1637-40), Elect (1639), Registrar (1638 & 1640), Anatomy Reader (1628), President (1641-4),
Treasurer (1645), & Consilariu (1645-7); Allen was Censor thrice (1674, 1679 & 1682); Tyson was Censor only
once, in 1694, being penalised as one of a minority of physicians and Fellows who supported the apothecaries in
their battle against the College's plans for a dispensary. Hale was Censor thrice (1718-19 & 1724) & Harveian
Orator (1724); James Monro was merely Harveian Orator (1737), & John Monro was Censor 7 times (1754, 1759,
1763, 1768, 1772, 1778 & 1785) & Harveian Orator (1757).
162 For the involvement of Bethlem Physicians with the Royal Society, see Thomas Birch, The History of the
Royal Society (London, '756A' vol ii, 246, 252-254, 260, 317, 321, 328-9, 333, 335-8, 346-7, 356, 374-5, 392; vol.
iii, 381, 387, 390, 439-40, 442, 478, 510; 515; vol. iv, 40, 55, 71-2, 90, 96, 101, 106, 134, 137, 161, 164, 166,
169-70, 172-3, 176-8, 185, 188, 194, 197, 204, 206, 210, 214, 221, 226, 231, 236, 245, 255, 284, 340, 382, 387, 402,
404-5, 443,, 449, 451, 455, 460, 471,546-7, 549, 555.7; vol. v, 117; Montagu, Edward Tyson; Hooke, Philosophical
Transactions, e g. vol. 2, 624; vol. 12, 1035-40 vol. 16, 332; RSCJB, ix, 261, 308, 314-5; xii, 71-2, 73-7,
155-6; The Correspondence of Henry Olden&vrg (ad.), A. Rupert Hall & Marie Boa. Hall (Madison, Milwaukee
& London, University of Wisconsin Press, 1967), vol. iv, 78, 81, 271, 377, & vol. vi, 26 (note 2); RSCJB, vol.
iii, 44, 46, 48, 50; Hunter, The Royal Society & ,t. Fellows, 204 & 220; Andrews, 'A respectable mad-doctor'.
282