Baron Thomas Dimsdale (29 May 1712 – 30 December 1800) was an English doctor, banker and politician who sat in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
from 1780 to 1790. He was created
Baron Dimsdale of the Russian Empire by
Catherine the Great
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...
.
Early life
He was born in
Theydon Garnon
Theydon Garnon is a village and civil parish in the Epping Forest district, in the county of Essex, England. The parish also includes the hamlet of Hobbs Cross.
History
Also recorded as Thoydon Garnon and Coopersale, "Theydon" is thought to mea ...
, Essex, the son of John Dimsdale, a surgeon, and his wife Susan. The family were Quakers. He was trained in medicine by his father before training further at
St Thomas’ Hospital, London, after which he began to practise medicine in Hertford in 1734.
Careers
Dimsdale developed a particular interest in the prevention of smallpox by inoculation (
variolation
Variolation was the method of inoculation first used to immunize individuals against smallpox (''Variola'') with material taken from a patient or a recently variolated individual, in the hope that a mild, but protective, infection would result. Var ...
), a deliberate infection of the patient via the skin with a mild form of the disease to give protection against more virulent strains. He published ''The present method of inoculating for the small-pox'' in 1767 which went into five editions by 1769. That year he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
.
In 1762, perhaps due to his reputation within London society, he was invited to Russia to variolate the Empress
Catherine the Great
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...
of Russia and her son,
Grand Duke Paul. In 1768, Dimsdale, accompanied by his second son
Nathaniel Dimsdale
Nathaniel Dimsdale, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (11 April 1748 – 3 July 1811), a British physician and MP who received a Barony of the Russian Empire for his work in Russia on smallpox vaccination.
He was the second son of the Quaker Thom ...
travelled to St Petersburg and inoculated the Empress, her son, and over 140 members of the Court. The results were a success and Catherine rewarded Dimsdale with £10,000, a pension of £500 per annum, £2000 expenses and a Barony of the Russian Empire. Nathaniel was also rewarded and he too received a Barony. In case the results had produced adverse effects, the Empress had arranged for a relay of fast horses to be available to speed the Dimsdales out of the country. During the long preparatory period before the variolations he wrote ''Tracts on inoculation written and published at St Petersburg in the year 1768''.
![Jenner and his two colleagues seeing off three anti-vaccinat Wellcome V0011075](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Jenner_and_his_two_colleagues_seeing_off_three_anti-vaccinat_Wellcome_V0011075.jpg)
On his return from Russia, Dimsdale became a banker, initially in the private banking partnership of Dimsdale, Archer & Byde in Cornhill, London and afterwards as a partner in Staples, Baron Dimsdale, Son & Co. He was elected as
MP for Hertford in two successive parliaments in 1780 and 1784. In 1781 he and Nathaniel returned to Russia to carry out further royal inoculations.
Family
He had married three times: firstly Mary, the daughter of Nathaniel Brassey of Roxford, Hertfordshire; secondly Anne, the daughter of John Iles, with whom he had seven sons and two daughters; and thirdly Elizabeth, the daughter of his cousin Joseph Dimsdale of Bishop's Stortford. He was succeeded in the Russian Barony by his eldest son John, from whom it descended within the family. The Barony of John's son Nathaniel lapsed when he died with no heir.
Death
He lived in
Bengeo
Bengeo is a suburb and former village and civil parish on the northwest edge of the county town of Hertford in Hertfordshire, England. It is an electoral ward of Hertford. In 1891 the parish had a population of 2586. In 1894 the parish was abol ...
a part of Hertford, the county town of
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
, where Dimsdale Street, which partly bounded his land, still bears his name. He died in 1800
[http://heritagearchives.rbs.com/wiki/Thomas_Dimsdale ] and was buried in the Quakers' burial-ground at
Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated po ...
,
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dimsdale, Thomas
1712 births
1800 deaths
People from Epping Forest District
18th-century English medical doctors
English bankers
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
British MPs 1780–1784
British MPs 1784–1790
Barons of the Russian Empire
Fellows of the Royal Society
People from Hertford