Radcliffe, JOHN

Radcliffe, JOHN, physician, was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire, in 1650, and studied at Oxford, passing M.A. in 1672, and M.B. in 1675. Beginning practice, he immediately made himself conspicuous by the originality of his ideas, claiming to take nature for his guide, and in less than two years was on the high road to celebrity. In 1682 he became M.D., and in 1684 removed to London, where he soon became the most popular physician of his time. It is said that his conversational powers, ready wit, and pleasantry contributed to this result quite as much as his professional skill. In 1686 the Princess Anne of Denmark made him her physician; and after the Revolution he was sent for by King William. In 1694 he was called upon to attend Queen Mary, when attacked by the smallpox, and did what he could to save her, but in vain. In 1713 he was elected M.P. for Buckingham. He had a country-house at Carshalton, and here he was living in 1714 when Queen Anne was attacked with what proved to be her last illness. Dr Radcliffe was summoned to attend her; but he was ailing, and either would not or could not come. The queen died in August; and the populace were so enraged against Dr Radcliffe that he dared not again show his face in London. He must have been really ill when sent for to the queen; he died of apoplexy at Carshalton on 1st November 1714, and was buried at Oxford in St Mary's Church. He bequeathed the bulk of his large property to public uses, leaving £40,000 for the erection of the Radcliffe Library, whose books were mostly taken in 1861 to the University Museum; while the building now serves as a reading-room for the Bodleian (q.v.). Other bequests were made to University College and St Bartholomew's Hospital, London.