Record

Authorised form of nameFreind; John (1675 - 1728)
Other forms of surnameFriend
Dates1675 - 1728
NationalityBritish
Place of birthCroughton, near Brackley, Northamptonshire, England
Date of birth1675
Place of deathLondon
Date of death26 July 1728
DatesAndPlacesBurial:
Hitcham, near Maidenhead, Buckinghamshire
OccupationPhysician, chemist
Research fieldChemistry
Medicine
ActivityEducation:
Westminster School; Christ Church, Oxford. BA (1698), MA (1701), BMed (1703), DMed (by diploma 1707)
Career:
First involvement with Royal Societycame with publication of an account of his dissection of a hydrocephalic child in 'Philosophical Transactions' (1699). Early renown based on his 'Emmenologia', a treatise on menstruation (1703). Friend of Voltaire. Lecturer on Chemistry at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1704); Physician to the English forces in Spain accompnying the Earl of Peterborough (1705-1707); travelled to Italy, where he met Giorgio Baglivi (FRS 1698) and Giovanni Maria Lancisi (FRS 1706); Physician to the Duke of Ormonde in his campaign in Flanders (1712); practised in London (1713-death); MP for Launceston (1722-1724, 1725-1727); a Jacobite, he became involved in the plot of his friend, Francis Atterbury, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London on a charge of high treason (1723) but was released at the insistence of Richard Mead (FRS 1703) who is said to have refused to treat Sir Robert Walpole until he agreed to free Friend; Physician to George II when Prince of Wales (1724) and to Queen Caroline (1727); Governor of the Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals; died of a violent fever
Memberships:
FRCP (1716)
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election20/03/1712
RelationshipsSon of William Friend, Rector of Croughton; married Anne, daughter of Thomas Morice, Paymaster of the Forces in Portugal
PublishedWorks'Emmenologia' (1703); 'Praelectiones chymicae' (1709); The History of Physick' (1723); all three are incorporated in 'Opera Omnia Medica' which was donated to the Royal Society Library by Sir John Rowlinson to mark his retirement as Chair of the Library Committee in November 2005
SourceSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; DSB; Foster; Thomas; Sedgwick
Notes:
Proposed by John Keill
Freind's 'Opera Omnia Medica' contains a comprehensive background to Freind's life and times
References:
J S Rowlinson, 'John Freind: physician, chemist, Jacobite, and friend of Voltaire's' in NR 2007 vol 61 pp 109-127
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org/viaf/22209566
CodeNA5680
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
M/070Freind, John
IM/001559Freind, John1730
EL/F2/4Letter, from John Freind to Hans Sloanec 1700
MS/390/148Bond of John Freind to the Treasurer of the Royal Society3 April 1712
CLP/11i/48Paper, ['Prælectionum chymicarum vindiciæ, in quibus objectiones'] by John Freind[1711]
CLP/22i/76aPaper, Account of the book 'Praelectiones chymicae' by John Freind[1708]
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