Allen, Benjamin (1663-1738)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0036
Held at	: Royal College of Surgeons of England   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/archives/ ›
Full title	: Allen, Benjamin (1663-1738)
Date(s)	: 1710-1723
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 2 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Allen | Benjamin | 1663-1738 | physician and naturalist

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Benjamin Allen was born in Somerset in 1663. He was educated at St Pauls School and then Queen's College, Cambridge. He established a medical practice in Braintree, Essex in c 1688. He was a friend of John Ray (1627-1705), an eminent naturalist in Essex. Allen's first paper On the Manner of Generation of Eels was published by the Royal Society in 1698. He eventually published several naturalist and scientific papers. He died in 1738.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Benjamin Allen, 1710-1723, comprising two manuscript volumes with their original vellum bindings, titled Praxis Medica. Medical observations towards a knowledge and cure of diseases (1710) and Conclusions in several subjects as Anatomy Medicin, Nature, Problems of the State and Accidents of the World (1723). Both contain medical notes; descriptions of diseases; cases notes; natural history information; and astronomical information.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

As outlined in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

Access available by appointment only.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No photocopying permitted.

Finding aids:

Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1928) by Victor G Plarr.

Card catalogue.

Archival Information

Archival history:

The commonplace book titled Conclusions in several subjects as Anatomy Medicin, Nature, Problems of the State and Accidents of the World (1723) was once in the possession of the Reverend J W Kenworthy, vicar of Braintree and member of the Essex Field Club, who had purchased it from Mr Golding of Colchester in 1887. The commonplace book titled Praxis Medica. Medical observations towards a knowledge and cure of diseases (1710) was purchased by Mr John Avery, Vice-President of the Essex Field Club, from Mssrs Hodgson and Co of Chancery Lane in Jul 1911.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Mr John Avery must have acquired Conclusions in several subjects as Anatomy Medicin, Nature, Problems of the State and Accidents of the World (1723) from Reverend Kenworthy. In 1935 the Royal College of Surgeons of England received a letter from Avery's solicitors, after his death, offering the College the two medical notebooks of Benjamin Allen. The correspondence concerning this gift is contained in Conclusions in several subjects as Anatomy Medicin, Nature, Problems of the State and Accidents of the World (1723).

Allied Materials

Related material:

Allen, Benjamin The Natural History of the Chalybeat and Purging Waters of England with their particular essays and uses; among which are treated at large the apoplexy and hyperchondriacism: to which are added some observations on the Bath Waters in Somersetshire.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.
Sources: Christy, Miller 'Dr Benjamin Allen (1663-1738) of Braintree: a forgotten Essex Naturalist' Essex Naturalist (Journal of the Essex Field Club), Feb 1911.

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:
Aug 2008