Some Famous Bristol Doctors

In 1696 an Act of Parliament established the Bristol Corporation of the Poor. This brought together the Poor Law arrangements of all the parishes in the City. It was hoped that-the inmates by their work would produce goods which would have a ready sale and thus defray the costs. For this purpose the Aldworth mansion was purchased from a group of merchants, one of whom was Edward Colston. This building after ceasing to be a private residence had first housed the Bristol Mint and more recently had been a sugar refinery. The 'union' opened in 1698 and Dr. Thomas Dover offered his services as a physician free of charge for two years. He insisted on the inmates having a diet better than that of the average employed labourer. The building situated near St. Peter's Church soon became known as St. Peter's Hospital (Figure 1). At first all went well, but the sale of products was not a success and conditions deteriorated, and before long the aged, infirm and lunatics preponderated. In 1786 a report by Sir Thomas Eden noted, apart from overcrowding, filth, bugs and vermin. The building survived as the headquarters of the Guardians of the Poor until destroyed by enemy action in 1940. Thomas Dover was born in 1662 near Moreton-inthe-Marsh. He graduated B.A. from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1684. After being a clinical assistant to Sydenham for two years he was admitted to Caius College, Cambridge, and graduated B.M. in 1687. He set up in Bristol in 1691. After his two years service to St. Peter's Hospital he apparently decided that trading with the West Indies, presumably with slaves, was more profitable than treating patients in Bristol. Between 1701 and 1707 he made several voyages to the Caribbean as a part owner of the ship and as a ship's doctor, and was often referred to as Captain Dover. In 1708 he set sail from Bristol with Woodes Rogers's privateering expedition to circumnavigate the world as one of the owners in the Duke and Duchess. This journey took nearly four years, the ships returning to the Thames in 1711. Throughout the health of the ships' crews was, for that time, surprisingly good, probably because of Dover's influence. He was not actually the ships' surgeon, but as he had subscribed the second largest sum to finance the expedition, he sailed to represent the owners and was entitled to preside over the council of the captains and navigators and to have two votes. The ships carried two official surgeons, a surgeon's mate, an assistant surgeon, and an apothecary. In his capacity as representing the owners Dover soon