Sir Thomas was the son of Thomas Challoner, of Woodbridge, Suffolk. On 4th July, 1699, he was apprenticed to January Farmer (who was a Barber by trade), and was admitted to the freedom 4th March, 1707. He left the trade of a Barber and became a Wholesale Grocer and Merchant in Leadenhall Street, where he traded in partnership with Mr. Lethieullier. On the 2nd December, 1760, he was elected Alderman of the Ward of Aldgate, served the office of Sheriff in 1762 (when the celebrated William Beckford was Lord Mayor), and was knighted 4th October in the same year. In 1761, he was Master of the Barbers and living at Walthamstow, where dying 8th May, 1766, he was buried there.
By his Will dated 5th March, 1766, he gave his sister Rachel Challoner £20 per annum for life. To Mr. William Lethieullier and Rachel his wife £100 each, and to their daughters Rachael and Margaret £50 each. Residue to his wife Mary Challoner.
Arms. Ar. on a fesse betw. three fleur de lys gu. another fleur de lys or.
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.