William Shippen Jr.
William Shippen, Jr. | |
---|---|
3rd Surgeon General of the United States Army | |
In office 1775–1777 | |
Preceded by | John Morgan |
Succeeded by | John Cochran |
Personal details | |
Born | October 21, 1736 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Died | July 11, 1808 Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | (aged 71)
Spouse | Alice Lee |
Relations | Samuel Blair (brother-in-law) Thomas Lee (father-in-law) |
Children | Anne Hume Shippen |
Parent(s) | William Shippen Sr. Susannah Harrison |
William Shippen Jr. (October 21, 1736 – July 11, 1808), was the first systematic teacher of anatomy, surgery and obstetrics in Colonial America and founded the first maternity hospital in America.[1] He was the 3rd Director General of Hospitals of the Continental Army.[2]
Early life
He was born on October 21, 1736 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1] He was the son of William Shippen Sr. (1712–1801), also a doctor, and Susannah (née Harrison) Shippen. His sister, Susan Shippen, was married to Samuel Blair, the second Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives.[3][4]
He studied at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), graduating in 1754. He studied medicine first with his father, then went to England and Scotland and in 1761 earned his medical degree at the University of Edinburgh Medical School.[2]
Career
Shippen followed his father William Shippen Sr. into a medical career. At his father's encouragement, William Jr. commenced America's first series of anatomy lectures in 1762. He became one of the first professors (of anatomy, surgery, and midwifery) of America's first medical school (the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania), which he co-founded in 1765 with Dr. John Morgan. At the time, male midwifery was considered "offensive" and people threw stones through the windows of his dissecting rooms and occasionally burst into his rooms in mobs.[2]
American Revolution
During the American Revolutionary War, Shippen served as Chief Physician & Director General of the Hospital of the Continental Army in New Jersey (1776) and as Director General of the Hospitals West of the Hudson River (October 1776). Ultimately, he served (April 11, 1777 – January 1781) as Director of Hospitals for the Continental Army, a precursor of the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army. Shippen had connived to replace Dr. Morgan, his predecessor in that position. Later Morgan, with the assistance of Dr. Benjamin Rush, brought about his forced resignation. He was subsequently court martialed for misappropriating supplies intended for recovering soldiers and underreporting deaths, but was acquitted on a technicality.[2]
Shippen was among the founders of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and served as its president 1805-1808.[1] He was also a member of the original board of trustees of Old Pine Street Church.[5]
Personal life
Shippen was married to Alice Lee (1736–1817), the daughter of Thomas Lee and Hannah Harrison Ludwell. Together, they were the parents of:
- Anne Hume Shippen (1763–1841), who married Henry Beekman Livingston (1750–1831), who commanded the 4th New York Regiment at the Battles of Saratoga and Monmouth and during the winter at Valley Forge.[6] He was the son of Robert Livingston (1718–1775) and great-grandson of Robert Livingston the Elder, 1st Lord of Livingston Manor.[7]
Shippen died on July 11, 1808 in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
References
- Notes
- ^ a b c Kelly, Howard A.; Burrage, Walter L. (eds.). . . Baltimore: The Norman, Remington Company.
- ^ a b c d "William Shippen Jr. (1736–1808)". Penn Biographies. University of Pennsylvania, University Archives and Records Center. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
- ^ The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Vol. 16. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society. October 1862. p. 360. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ Sprague, William Buell (1858). Annals of the American Pulpit: Presbyterian. Rober Carter & Brothers. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ Gibbons, Hughes Oliphant (1905). A History of Old Pine Street. Philadelphia: John C. Winston Company.
- ^ "Friends of Clermont Historic Site". friendsofclermont.org. Friends of Clermont Historic Site. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
- ^ Livingston, Edwin Brockholst (1910). The Livingstons of Livingston Manor: Being the History of that Branch of the Scottish House of Callendar which Settled in the English Province of New York During the Reign of Charles the Second; and Also Including an Account of Robert Livingston of Albany, "The Nephew," a Settler in the Same Province and His Principal Descendants. Knickerbocker Press. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
- Sources
- Randolph Shipley Klein, Portrait of an Early American Family: The Shippens of Pennsylvania Across Five Generations. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975.
- Columbia Encyclopedia article
External links
- 1736 births
- 1808 deaths
- Educators from Philadelphia
- Continental Army staff officers
- American military doctors
- People of colonial Pennsylvania
- People of Pennsylvania in the American Revolution
- Physicians in the American Revolution
- Princeton University alumni
- Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
- University of Pennsylvania faculty
- American people of English descent
- Shippen family
- Surgeons General of the United States Army
- 18th-century American physicians
- Physicians from Philadelphia