Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Thompson, Gilbert
THOMPSON, GILBERT (1728–1803), physician, was born in Lancashire in 1728, and for many years kept a well-frequented school near Lancaster, on retiring from which he went to Edinburgh, and graduated doctor of medicine on 8 June 1753. He then went to London, but, meeting with little encouragement as a practitioner, he for a time served as writing-master in a boarding-school at Tottenham, and subsequently became a dispensing assistant to Timothy Bevan, the druggist. About 1765 his uncle, Gilbert Thompson of Penketh, died and left him 4,000l. He then commenced work as a physician in the city, and eventually attained to a fair practice. He was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 25 June 1770. He died at his house in Salter's Court, Cannon Street, 1 Jan. 1803. He was a quaker, and is represented as a man of great integrity, of mild and unassuming manners, and possessed of considerable learning and professional skill. He was an intimate friend of the physician, John Fothergill [q. v.] He is said to have been secretary to the Medical Society of London for several years, but there is no entry to this effect in the books of the society; he was a member, and was present at the first meeting in May 1773.
His works were:
- ‘Disputatio Medica Inauguralis de Exercitatione,’ Edinburgh, 1753, 4to.
- ‘A Biographical Memoir of the Life and a View of the Character of the late Dr. Fothergill,’ London, 1782, 8vo.
- ‘Select Translations from Homer and Horace, with original Poems,’ London, 1801, 8vo.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 290; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Gent. Mag. 1803, i. 89; Records of the Medical Society of London.]