Jonathan Goddard (1617–1675) was an English physician, known both as army surgeon to the forces of Oliver Cromwell, and as an active member of the Royal Society. He is known for "Goddard's Drops," a popular medicine whose ingredients included dried viper and human skulls. Users of the drops included the MP Edward Walpole, who died after consuming them, and Charles II.
Life
The son of a wealthy shipbuilder, Goddard was a student at the Magdalen Hall, Oxford, he qualified in medicine at the University of Cambridge. He joined the College of Physicians in 1643, and became physician to Charles I of England when he was held captive by Parliament. In the 1650s he was made Warden of Merton College, Oxford (1651), and was one of the 'Oxford club' group around John Wilkins. He was also a Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire in the Barebone's Parliament of 1653. He became Professor of Physic at Gresham College in 1655. He performed some experiments here with chemist Johannes Banfi Hunyades that constitute the first extant example of temperature measurement in distillation.
He was one of five doctors attending Cromwell when he died (the others being George Bate, John Bathurst, Thomas Trapham and Laurence Wright).
On the English Restoration of 1660, he lost his position at Merton. But his early position in the Royal Society was solid (he became a founding Fellow in November, 1660), and indeed at the beginning of 1661, when the Society was homeless and moved to Gresham College, it met in his lodgings.
He was buried in the chancel of Great St Helens church, London.
Notes
- Goddard, Jonathan Charles (2015). "Goddard's Dropps: A Paradox of the C17th" (PDF). History of Urology. 19 (6): 2.
- "The Kings Drops – When King Charles II of England became a cannibal for good health & eternal life". Stephen Liddell. 16 February 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
- "Goddard, Jonathan (GDRT637J2)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- "Inspiring Physicians | RCP Museum".
- "Homepage".
- Austin Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate (1982), p. 186.
- Josten, C. H.; Taylor, F. Sherwood (1953b). "Early Record of Temperature-Control in Distillation". Nature. 172 (4385): 920. Bibcode:1953Natur.172..920T. doi:10.1038/172920b0. S2CID 4144591.
- "George Bate—Cromwell's Devious Physician".
- "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
- Margery Purvey, The Royal Society: Concept and Creation (1967), pp. 133.
External links
- Hutchinson, John (1892). "Jonathan Goddard" . Men of Kent and Kentishmen (Subscription ed.). Canterbury: Cross & Jackman. p. 55.
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded byNathaniel Brent | Warden of Merton College, Oxford 1651–1660 |
Succeeded byEdward Reynolds |
| Parliament of England | ||
| Preceded by(1640–1648) James Fiennes Thomas Wenman |
Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire 1653–1653 With: Sir Charles Wolseley William Draper |
Succeeded byCharles Fleetwood Nathaniel Fiennes William Lenthall Sir Robert Jenkinson James Whitelocke |