BURGES, John (1745-1807)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0113 MS-BURGJ
Held at	: Royal College of Physicians   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/archive-and-historical-library-collections ›
Full title	: BURGES, John (1745-1807)
Date(s)	: 1769-c.1790s
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 8 volumes; 2 files
Name of creator(s)	: Burges | John | 1745-1807 | physician

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

John Burges was born in London in 1745. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church College, Oxford. He graduated BA in 1764, MA in 1767, MB in 1770, and MD in 1774. In 1774 he became physician to St George's Hospital, London. Burges became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1775.

Burges' health was delicate and he did not attempt general practice. He lived a quiet life with his two maiden sisters in Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square. It has been said that he was `a man of strict principle, acknowledged erudition, and classical attainments, and devoted to the love of his profession' (Brande, 1855).

His chief occupations were the study and collection of materia medica, which, while his health allowed him, he pursued avidly. He received much assistance with the forming of his collection from his relative Sir James Bland Burges, sometime under-secretary in the Foreign Office. His collection was extensive and thorough, and became well known. He gave a number of gratuitous lectures, public and private, on particular scientific subjects.

At the Royal College of Physicians he was censor six times between 1776 and 1797. In 1787 he retired from the staff of St George's, whereupon Matthew Baillie succeeded him. He was named an elect at the College in 1797.

Burges died at his house in Mortimer Street, on 2 April 1807. He left his collection to Everard Augustus Brande, a former pupil and the son of a close friend, who in turn presented it to the Royal College of Physicians in 1809.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Burges' papers, 1767-c.1790s, include records of his medical cases, 1769-75; Printed copy of the St George's Hospital Pharmacopoeia, with annotations by Burges, mid-late 18th century (c.1770s-80s); his lecture notes on various subjects, such as materia medica, Boerhaave's institutes, and the hydraulic and chemical systems, mid-late 18th century (c.1770s-90s); Notes on diseases, and on chemistry and materia medica, mid-late 18th century (c.1770s-90s).

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
Latin and English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted

Conditions governing reproduction:

All requests should be referred to the Archivist

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Although there are no details about the acquisition of the collection, it is likely that it was donated to the Royal College of Physicians with Burges' collection of materia medica objects, which was presented by Everard Augustus Brande in 1809.

Allied Materials

Related material:

There is material relating to Burges held elsewhere in the College archives, including a biographical memoir of Burges by Everard Augustus Brande (1776-1868), 1855 (MS174); Information regarding the presentation to the College of his materia medica collection by Brande, within a catalogue of materia medica collections belonging to the College, 1858 (MS2143);

Most of Burge's collection of materia medica objects, originally presented to the Royal College of Physicians in 1809, is now held at the Centre for Economic Botany in Kew, part remains at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, where it was deposited by the College in 1926; Engraving of Burges by James Gillray (1756-1815), 1795, is held at the Guildhall Library. See the Collage (Corporation of London Library & Art Gallery Electronic) website for details.

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Sources: Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. VII, Leslie Stephen (ed.) (London, 1886) [DNB, pp.306-7]; The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1701-1800, William Munk (London, 1878) [Munk's Roll, 1878, pp.306-308]; `A Memoir of the Late Dr John Burgess and His Collection of the Materia Medica, which was Presented in the Year 1809 to the Royal College of Physicians by Everard A. Brande Esq., Apothecary to their Majesties the King George the Third and the Queen Charlotte, and also to the King William the Fourth', Everard Augustus Brande (1855); Collage (Corporation of London Library & Art Gallery Electronic) website.
Compiled by Katharine Williams

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Compiled June 2003; Modified September 2003