WILLIAM CHESELDEN, F.R.S.
This eminent Surgeon was the son of George Cheselden, and born 19th October, 1688, at Somerby, near Burrow-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire. He was at an early age studying anatomy with William Cowper, the celebrated anatomist, but appears to have left him when fifteen years old, for on the 7th December, 1703, he was bound apprentice for seven years to James Ferne, the Surgeon to St. Thomas’ Hospital, under which distinguished man he made rapid advance in his profession. On 5th December, 1710, he was admitted to the freedom and livery of the Barber-Surgeons, on the 29th January following he had a full certificate to practise as a Surgeon, and he then (being but twenty-two years of age) began his lectures on anatomy, and the following year was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
By a minute in our books of 25th March, 1714, it seems that Mr. Cheselden had often procured the bodies of malefactors and privately dissected them at his own house, and that at times when lectures and dissections were proceeding at the Hall, whereby the attendance at the Hall was diminished, and moreover contrary to the express laws of the Company; whereupon he was summoned before the Court and reproved, when he promised not to offend again in like manner. A less influential man would probably have been fined.
In 1719 he was elected Surgeon to St. Thomas’ Hospital, where he highly distinguished himself in his operations for the stone. He was also consulting Surgeon to St. George’s and the Westminster Infirmary. In 1727 he was appointed principal Surgeon to Queen Caroline, and ten years later was chosen Head Surgeon to Chelsea Hospital, which post he held till his death. He married Miss Deborah Knight of London, by whom he had an only daughter. His practice was both extensive and lucrative, and his works on Surgery are numerous, besides which he was a frequent contributor to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Mr. Cheselden died at Bath on the 10th April, 1752.
Dr. J. F. Payne says that he will always be regarded as, beyond dispute, one of the greatest of British surgeons, being one of the most brilliant operators whose achievements are upon record; he was a keen patron of athletic sports, especially boxing; his disposition was gay and genial, he was fond of society, and evidently popular, while to his patients he was always kind and tender-hearted.
On the separation of the Surgeons from the Barbers in 1745, Mr. Cheselden was named in the Act of Parliament one of the Wardens of the new Company of Surgeons, he having been Junior Warden of the Barber-Surgeons that year. His will is a remarkable specimen of brevity and absence of formality:—
Being in perfect health I write this with my own hand and declare it to be my last Will and Testament. I give to my daughter W. J. Cotes five hundred pounds and all the rest and residue of my estate of what kind soever to my wife and make her full and sole Executrix administratrix and assign Witness my hand and seal. Willm Cheselden (L.S.) 24th March 1749/50.
Arms. Quarterly 1 and 4 Ar a chev. betw. three crosses moline gu. (Cheselden). 2. Ar. on a fesse indented sa. three bezants (Brough). 3. Or. an eagle displayed az. beaked and feet gu. (Mongomery).