The Medical Society of London: John Coakley Lettsom presenting to the society the deeds of 3 Bolt Court, City of London. Stipple engraving by N.C. Branwhite, 1801, after S. Medley, 1800.

Previous title, replaced April 2023 : The inaugural meeting of the Medical Society of London in the Society's Council Chamber, 1788. Engraving by N.C. Branwhite, 1801, after S. Medley, 1800.

Standing in foreground: John Coakley Lettsom. Group seated on left (left to right): Joseph Hart Myers (Physician to the Portuguese Hospital and a colleague of Lettsom on the staff of the General Dispensary, Aldersgate Street); William Woodville (the inoculator, Physician to the Smallpox Hospital, a Quaker, a friend of Lettsom and one of Jenner's earliest supporters); Nathaniel Hulme (Physician to the Charter House, first Physician to the General Dispensary, a colleague of Lettsom, also on the City of London Lying In Hospital and President of the Medical Society immediately after Lettsom in 1776); Sayer Walker (another colleague of Lettsom on the staff of the City of London Lying In Hospital and obstetrician); Sir John M'Namara Hayes (a distinguished army surgeon, Physician Extraordinary to the Prince of Wales 1791, Physician to the Westminster Hospital 1790- 1794, baronet 1797, Inspector General of the Medical Department in the Ordnance at the time of his death in 1809)--Abraham, loc. cit.

Group standing in back left (left to right): Edward Bancroft (a distinguished chemist as well as a physician); James Ware (the most distinguished ophthalmic surgeon of his time, founder of the School for the Indigent Blind); Thomas Bradley (Physician to the Westminster Hospital 1794-1811 succeeding Sir John M'Namara Hayes the courtier physician: this was truly a piquant contrast for Bradley was deaf and diffident, more fitted for the study than the ward. He was editor of the Medical and physical journal when Lettsom became involved in the Brodum episode, and there was no love lost between them); James Sims (President of the Medical Society for the unprecedented number of twenty-two years, 1786 to 1808: he is here shown wearing his hat as President. He was a friend of Medley and was so pleased with the portrait he painted of him that he commissioned this one for the Society); Edward Jenner. Seated in centre: Robert Hooper (born the year the Society was founded, he was Secretary when Medley painted this picture, and is remembered by his various Vade Mecums which enjoyed great popularity with students for many years); Edward Ford (one of the founders and a lifelong supporter of the Society, Secretary for many years)--Abraham, loc. cit.

Group seated in front on right (left to right): Charles Combe (one of the founders of the Society, successor to the practice of William Hunter, a learned numismatist); John Relph (Physician to Guy's Hospital, one of the original members of the Athletae, President of the Medical Society in 1785, a quiet man who never made an enemy); William Saunders (Physician to Guy's Hospital and first President of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London formed by the seceding members of the Medical Society in 1805 when they found they could not dislodge Sims from the chair he had occupied so long. It was this society which afterwards became the Royal Society of Medicine in 1907)--Abraham, loc. cit.

Group seated behind on right (left to right): John Haighton (Lecturer on Physiology and Midwifery at the Borough Hospitals); Robert John Thornton (Lecturer on Botany at Guy's Hospital, now best remembered by his 'Temple of Flora', a work so well illustrated and on such an elaborate scale that it proved a great financial failure and crippled the author for the rest of his life); John Shadwell (a corresponding member of whom practically nothing is known: why he appears in the picture is a mystery); John Aikin (a militant Unitarian, much more of a literary man than a doctor, wrote a life of Howard whom he knew well, a friend of Priestley and Darwin, brother of Mrs Barbauld and father of Lucy Aiken who wrote historical memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, James I and Charles I)--Abraham, loc. cit.

Standing in back right (left to right): William Blair (Surgeon to the Lock Hospital who quarrelled with Lettsom because he would not support his contention that a surgeon should be made president of the Medical Society occasionally and that it was unjust that this honour should be restricted to the physicians); William Babington (one of the most loved men of his generation, apothecary and afterwards physician to Guy's Hospital, a prominent member of the Athletae and a lifelong friend of Lettsom whom he attended on his death bed)--Abraham, loc. cit.

In the background is a bookcase containing a large library, surmounted by three portrait busts

London (No. 58 Cornhill) : R. Wilkinson, 10 November 1801.

1 print : stipple engraving ; image 47 x 57 cm

Select images of this work were taken by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum: WT/D/1/20/1/90/56

To the President, Fellows, and corresponding members of the Medical Society of London, this print of its principal institutors is inscribed, by their obliged humble servant Samuel Medley. Painted by S. Medley. Engraved by N. Branwhite.

James Johnston Abraham, Lettsom, his life, times, friends and descendants, London 1933, pp. 336-338

Wellcome Collection 545991i