LETTSOM (John Coakley, 1744-1815, Physician, Philanthropist and Abolitionist, Founder of the Medical Society of London and friend of Benjamin Franklin)

Fine Autograph Letter Signed to Mr Nichols, John NICHOLS (1745-1826, Owner of the Gentleman’s Magazine) saying that he has “left no room for addition to your recording... of the trial at Grove hill. If not too troublesome a few copies struck off for me will gratify my wishes. I saw a piece of poetry on the subject, by Mr Dawson of Bath but I requested Dr Harris not to print it (in your Magazine) as it did not appear to me, intended to raise the magazine, or suitably celebrate the rural trial at Grove hill. I consider that yr next letter on prisons, will prove more interesting than any preceding one, and such as might atttract attenntino if there be any moral feeling in the Community...”, 2 sides 4to., Camberwell, 28th May Unevenly torn on left hand edge without loss of text

Lettsom was the son of a West Indian planter and an Irish mother and he was born on Little Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands into an early Quaker settlement., he grew up to be an abolitionist. He founded the Medical Society of London in 1773, convinced that a combined membership of physicians, surgeons and apothecaries would prove productive. As the oldest such in the United Kingdom, it is housed in London's medical community at Lettsome House, Chandos Street, near Cavendish Square.
By the age of 30 Lettsom's reputation as a physician, author and Fellow of the Royal Society was established. Furthermore, he had founded the General Dispensary in Aldersgate Street and the Medical Society of London. He was a founder member of the Royal Humane Society in 1774, initiated the Sea-bathing Infirmary at Margate (1791), became a pillar of the Royal Jennerian Society (for vaccination), and gave his support to the Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men, the Society for the Relief of Debtors, and the Philanthropic Society for homeless children. Numerous other clubs, societies, hospitals, dispensaries, and charitable institutions in the United Kingdom and North America benefited from Lettsom's patronage, while from his pen there flowed a stream of "Hints", pamphlets, diatribes, and letters promoting Sunday schools, female industry, provision for the blind, a bee society, soup kitchens and the mangel-wurzel, while condemning quackery, card parties, and intemperance. He financed botanical expeditions and cultivated American plants in his garden at Camberwell. Lettsom was also a noted abolitionist. In 1767 he had returned to the British Virgin Islands after the death of his father, and found himself the owner of a share of his father's slaves, whom he promptly manumitted. Lettsom then set up a medical practice on Tortola, and as the only physician on the island amassed a small fortune of £2,000 in a mere six months, whereupon he gave half to his mother (who had remarried) and returned to London.
John Nichols was an English printer, author and antiquary. He is remembered as an influential editor of the Gentleman's Magazine for nearly 40 years; author of a monumental county history of Leicestershire; author of two compendia of biographical material relating to his literary contemporaries; and as one of the agents behind the first complete publication of Domesday Book in 1783.

Item Date:  1804

Stock No:  42033      £1750

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