FOART

[Samuel Foart Simmons, one of the 'mad doctors' of George III.] Autograph case notes for six women, made as physician to St Luke's Hospital, London.

Author: 
Samuel Foart Simmons (1750-1813), physician, one of the 'mad doctors' of George III [St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, Old Street, London]
Publication details: 
[St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, Old Street, London.] Case notes for three of the patients only dated (date of admission?) July, September and December 1789. Others no year given. Notes (of examination?) dated to 8 and 15 January [1790].
£280.00

St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics was founded in 1750 by City of London philanthropists to treat mental illness among the poor of London. In 1786 it moved from Moorfields to Old Street, where it remained until 1916. Simmons was appointed physician to the hospital in 1781. 6pp, 16mo. A piece of laid watermarked paper has been neatly torn into three 16 x 10 cm leaves: a bifolium, with the single leaf loosely inserted. In good condition, lightly aged. A poignant artefact. Simple, brief notes, giving age, name, date [of admission], address, some with follow-up notes. The six women are 'Eliz.

[William Heberden, Physician-in-Ordinary to George III.] Autograph Letter Signed ('W. Heberden') on putting 'Dr Halloran's proposal' on administering arsenic to the king to the mad-doctors Robert Darling Willis, Thomas Monro and Samuel Foart Simmons.

Author: 
William Heberden the younger (1767-1845) [the madness of King George III; Robert Darling Willis; Thomas Monro; Samuel Foart Simmons; William Saunders Hallaran]
Publication details: 
Pall Mall [London]. 7 November [no year, but between 1810 and 1820].
£350.00

The present item dates from the final period of the king's mental instability, 1810-1820. Heberden – the son of the 'father of rheumatology' William Heberden the elder (1710-1801) – had been appointed Physician-Extraordinary to the queen in 1795, and by 1809 was Physician-in-Ordinary to both queen and king.

Manuscript 'Blue Paper' certificate addressed to George, Earl of Leicester, proposing Edward Wedlake Brayley for election to the Society of Antiquaries of London, signed by Maxwell Garthshore, J. P. Malcolm, Rev. Mark Noble and Samuel Foart Simmon.

Author: 
Maxwell Garthshore; James Peller Malcolm; Rev. Mark Noble; Samuel Foart Simmons, all four Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London [Edward Wedlake Brayley, English topographer]
Publication details: 
[Undated, watermark 1806]
£65.00

1p., foolscap 8vo. On wove paper watermarked 'G R | 1806'. Aged, and with fraying to extremities, with closed tears through three of the signatures, unobtrusively repaired on the reverse with archival tape. Presumably a draft or second copy, as the original must be among the papers of the Society of Antiquaries. The document reads: 'To the Right Hon. George Earl of Leicester, | President of the Society of Antiquaries. | My Lord, | We whose names are hereunto subscribed request leave to signify to your lordship that Edward-Wedlake [sic] Brayley, Esq.

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