Ralph or Raphael Schomberg (1714–1792) was a British doctor of the 18th century. His father,

Meyer Löw Schomberg Meyer Löw Schomberg (1690 – 4 March 1761) was a German physician who moved to London and had a successful business there. Life His father, Löw Schomberg, was a physician in Meyer's birthplace and Meyer (probably Löw's eldest son) followed ...

, was a Jewish doctor who settled in England, but he became alienated from Judaism and had Ralph and his brothers, who had initially been brought up as Jews, attend St Paul's School, London, and then renounce the Jewish faith by publicly receiving the

sacrament A sacrament is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments ...

according to the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

rites. This made the brothers able to enter on public careers without impediment from the

Test Act The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and nonconformists. The underlying principle was that only people taking communion in t ...

. Ralph had a twin brother, Isaac, who was a physician and public notary. Ralph was left 1s. in his father's will in 1761.http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24827/?back=,24817,24826&_fromAuth=1 Ralph moved to

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

in around 1761, and settled there until at least 1771, occasionally attending on Gainsborough and his family (including – in 1771 – his elder daughter Mary, whom Thomas hoped Ralph had cured to a recurring illness which all other doctors had told him was hereditary). He later moved to

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

. His son was captain Isaac Schomberg.

References

External links

DNB entry

National Gallery portrait

Ralph Schomberg
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
1714 births 1792 deaths English Jews 18th-century English medical doctors Converts to Anglicanism from Judaism People educated at St Paul's School, London English people of German-Jewish descent Schomberg family {{Judaism-bio-stub