John Morris (September 27, 1759- 8 September 1793) was an American physician. Born to a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

family in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, his father, William Morris Jr, was a dry goods merchant who died in 1766. His mother, Margaret Hill Morris, moved John and his three younger siblings to Burlington, New Jersey, to be with her sister’s family. Also a Quaker, Margaret used her knowledge of medicine to treat soldiers during the Revolutionary War and kept journals of her experiences during that time. He married Abigail Dorsey in 1783. Together, they had six children: Sarah (1784-1794), William Stanton (1785-1819), Benedict (1787-1790), Martha Milcah (1788-1826), Mary (1790-1790), and Margaret (1792-1832). Morris went on to pursue a career in medicine, receiving a medical degree from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1783 and practiced under his uncle, Dr. Charles Moore, in Montgomery, Pennsylvania before establishing a solo practice in Philadelphia in 1785. He was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1785. Morris participated in the founding of the Physicians College of Philadelphia with Benjamin Rush, which held its first official meeting on January 2, 1787. During the

Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793 During the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, 5,000 or more people were listed in the official register of deaths between August 1 and November 9. The vast majority of them died of yellow fever, making the epidemic in the city of 50,000 ...

, Morris treated the citizens of Philadelphia before falling victim to the disease himself, dying in the care of his mother who was also treating the ill. His wife tragically succumbed to the disease only 8 days after her husband's passing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, John 1759 births 1793 deaths Quakers from Pennsylvania Members of the American Philosophical Society