In the early months of 1760 he was commander of the Kingfisher sloop, and on 30 June was promoted to be captain of the Flamborough frigate. From her he was quickly moved into the Quebec, which he commanded in the Mediterranean, till the peace. He Afterwards commanded the Africa on the coast of Guinea and the West Indies; Aeolus frigate in the Mediterranean, 1766-7; the Pearl on the home and the Newfoundland stations in 1769-72; and the Albion guardship in Plymouth in 1774. In 1777 he was appointed to the Valiant for service in the channel, and in the action off Ushant on 17 July 1778 was one of the Admiral's seconds, the other being Captain Jeryis in the Foudroyant. On the subsequent court martial Gower's evidence was strongly in Keppel's favour, and on Keppels striking his flag after his aquittal, also resigned his command, nor did he serve again until after the change of ministry in March 1782, when he was appointed first captain of the Victory with Lord Howe, and served in that capacity both in the Channel, and later on at the relief of Gibraltar and the skirmish off Cape Spartel. From January to April 1783 and again from December 1783 to July 1788 Gower was one of the junior lords of the admiralty with Lord Howe, continuing at the admiralty with the Earl of Chatham til January 1790. During this time he hoisted a broad pennant in the Hebe frigate in 1785, for a summer cruise around Great Britain with Prince William Henry; and in the Edgar in 1787, in command of the Channel squadron. On 24 Sept. 1787 he was advanced to be rear-admiral, and in the following summer hoisted his flag again in the Edgar in the Channel. During the Spanish armament in 1790 he was again first captain to Lord Howe. He died of an apoplectic fit on 15 Aug. 1792. He married in 1773 Frances, daughter of Admiral the Hon. Edward Boscawen, by whom he left a son.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. vi. 394; Official Letters in the Public Record Office.]
LEVETT, HENRY, M.D. (1668–1725), physician, son of William Levett or Levet of Swindon, Wiltshire, was born in 1668. He was sent to the Charterhouse, which he left in 1686, entering 12 June at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. In the following month he was elected a demy of Magdalen College, and was present during the contest about the king's visitorial power in the autumn of 1687. He was probably expelled with most of the other demies during the winter, and on 30 June 1688 was elected a fellow of Exeter College. He graduated B.A. 24 Nov. 1692, M.A. 7 July 1694, M.B. 4 June 1695, and M.D. 22 April 1699. He settled in London, and was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians 23 Dec. 1708. On 29 April 1707 he was elected physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and on 5 Jan. 1712–13 became physician to the Charterhouse, where he lived till his death on 2 July 1725. He rebuilt, at his own cost, the physician's house by the great gate in Charterhouse Square. The house is still standing, and the beautiful oak carving and panelling which he put up remain in the rooms. It is now the residence of the surgeon-apothecary to the foundation. He was censor of the College of Physicians in 1717 and treasurer for five years. Among his friends were Dr. William Wagstaffe [q. v.] and Dr. John Freind [q. v.], and he was throughout life an adherent of the high church party. Hearne wrote of him at the time of his death as ‘a sweet-tempered man, a most excellent physician, well-beloved, very honest as a complyer, and had an excellent study of books.’ His tomb, with an elegant Latin inscription commemorating his love for the Charterhouse, is in the chapel of the brethren in the Charterhouse, London. His widow remarried in 1729 Andrew Tooke (1673–1731), head-master of Charterhouse.
On 10 June 1710 Levett wrote, at Dr. Freind's request, a letter on the treatment of small-pox. In this he relates two cases, and expresses an opinion in favour of the use of cathartics. The letter, which is in Latin, is printed in the Latin edition of Dr. Freind's collected works, published in 1733. It seems probable that he also wrote the short memoir of Dr. Wagstaffe, prefixed to the first edition of the latter's ‘Miscellaneous Works’ in 1725. In the second edition (1726) the author of Wagstaffe's ‘Character’ is described as an ‘eminent Physician, no less valued for his skill in his profession, which he shewed in several useful treatises, than admired for his Wit and Facetiousness in Conversation.’
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 22; Freind's Opera Medica, 1733; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ix. 167; Wagstaffe's Works; Bloxam's Reg. of Magdalen College, Oxford, vi. 53; Hearne's Coll. ed. Doble (Oxf. Hist. Soc.); Boase's Reg. Exeter Coll. pp. 82–3.]
LEVETT or LEVET, ROBERT (1701?–1782), ‘that odd old surgeon whom Johnson kept in his house to tend the out-pensioners,’ a native of Hull in Yorkshire, was born about 1701. Some part of his early life was spent in Paris. There he became a waiter in a coffee-house much frequented by French surgeons, who, pleased with Levett's inquisitive turn of mind, procured him instruction in pharmacy and anatomy. Settling in London he seems
