Samuel Wathen

Samuel Wathen, M.D. (c. 1720–1787) was an English physician who practiced in London during the Georgian era. He was the personal physician for Rev. John Wesley and Queen Charlotte of England.

Life and career

Dr. Samuel Wathen with his wife and children
by George Knapton, 1755.

Samuel Wathen was born in 1719 or 1720, most likely in Stroud, Gloucestershire, to Jonathan Wathen, a wealthy clothier of Stroud, and his wife Sarah Watkins.^[1] He became a physician, and as a young man in Bristol in 1737 he met the Rev. John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism. He ultimately became Wesley's personal physician, and there are several mentions of Samuel Wathen in Wesley's journal.^[2] He was also the older brother of Jonathan Wathen (c.1728-1808), a well-known London surgeon.^[3]

Wathen was admitted to the King's College in Aberdeen, Scotland on the recommendation of Dr. Nicholas Munckley (c.1721-1770), a physician at Guy's Hospital in London and a member of the Royal Society. Samuel graduated a doctor of Medicine on 28 September 1752, and he was subsequently admitted to the Royal College of Physicians on 30 September 1756, going on to become one of London's best-known physicians.^[4] In addition to being a surgeon and John Wesley's personal physician, he was also one of the physicians of the City of London Lying-in Hospital on City Road where he was a man-midwife extraordinary.^[5] He was also listed on the Royal Kalendar of 1766 as man-midwife to the Queen, which must have been Charlotte, wife of George III, and makes it likely that he attended the Queen when her sons, the future George IV and William IV were born.^[6]

Wathen was married three times, his third wife being Elizabeth Malthus, whom he married on 19 March 1750 at St Mary-at-Hill, London.^[7] Elizabeth was the daughter of Sydenham Malthus (c.1678-1757), a barrister, but she is best known as the aunt of the economist Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), who was one of the first to write on the dangers of mankind overpopulating the earth. Samuel had one daughter from his second marriage, and at least five children from his third marriage, including the actor George Wathen (1762-1849), who was well known on the London stage as "Captain Wathen".^[8] Samuel and Elizabeth were also the grandparents of the poet Marianne Baillie.^[9]

Wathen ultimately retired from London to Dorking, Surrey where his son-in-law John Eckersall owned Burford Hall, and later he removed to Wrington, Somersetshire, where another son-in-law Rev. William Leeves was rector of All Saints Church.^[10] He died on 26 July 1787 at Wrington.^[11] There is a painting of Samuel Wathen with his family by the artist George Knapton in the collections of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.^[12]

References

1. The parish records for Stroud, Gloucestershire show that Samuel Wathen was baptized there on 21 June 1720, which makes it likely he was born within a few weeks of this date.
2. Wesley Historical Society Proceedings, Printed for the Society bb B.Moore, London, v. 3, p. 31 & 40 (1902); v. 4 (1904), p. 96; and v. 5 (1906), p. 251.
   Also several entries in the Journal of John Wesley.
3. Their baptismal records from the Stroud, Gloucestershire parish show that both were born to parents Jonathan and Sarah Wathen.
4. Munk, William (1861), The roll of the Royal College of Physicians, London, Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, London, v. 2, p. 183 & 194; and
   Anderson, Peter John (1860), Officers and graduates of University and King's College, Aberdeen, New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, p. 129.
5. Wilson, Adrian (1995), The making of man midwifery: childbirth in England, 1660-1770, University College London Press, London, p. 150.
6. Yale University, 1950, 'Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences': Yale University, Dept. of the History of Science and Medicine, v. 5, p. 299.
7. The London Magazine or Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer,, R. Baldwin, London, v. 20 (1751), p. 141.;
   and The Malthus Family on Rootsweb. accessed 17 November 2012.
8. "Wathen (Mr.)" in The thespian dictionary or dramatic biography of the present age, (1805), James Cundee, London, p. 212.
9. Bury St. Edminds, St. James parish records, baptisms 1558-1800, (1915), Suffolk Green Books, Paul & Matthew, London, p. 403.
10. Pullen, John and Trevor Hughes Parry, editors (1997), T.R. Malthus: The unpublished papers in the collection of Kanto Gakuen University, Cambridge University Press, London, p. 58.
11. The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, John Nichols, London, v. 57 (1787), p. 639.
12. see "Dr Samuel Wathen with His Wife and Children by George Knapton" on BBC your paintings. accessed 17 November 2012.