| Authorised form of name | Mapletoft; John (1631 - 1721); physician and clergyman |
| Dates | 1631 - 1721 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Margaretting, Essex, England, Europe |
| Date of birth | 15 June 1631 |
| Place of death | Westminster, London, England, Europe |
| Date of death | 10 November 1721 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Burial:
Chancel of the church of St Lawrence Jewry, London, England, Europe (15 November 1721) |
| Occupation | Clergyman, Church of England; Physician |
| Activity | Education:
Westminster School; Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1652; MA 1655; MD 1667), DD (Lit. Reg. 1690); Incorporated at Oxford (1654 and 1669); Gray's Inn (admitted 1652)
Career:
Fellow of Trinity (1653-1662); Tutor to Jocelyne Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland (1658-1660); travelled abroad to study physic; attended Lord Essex on his embassy to Denmark (1670); original member of the Company of Adventurers to the Bahamas (1672), but transferred his shares to his friend John Locke (FRS 1668); travelled to France with the Dowager Countess of Northumberland (1672); Professor of Physic at Gresham College, London (1675-1679); practised medicine in London with Thomas Sydenham for seven years; retired from medical practice (1679) to prepare himself for ordination; ordained deacon and priest (1683); Rector of Braybrooke, Northamptonshire (1683-1686); founded charity there; Lecturer at Ipswich (1684); Lecturer at St Christopher's, London (1685); vicar of St Lawrence Jewry and St Mary Magdalen (1686-1721); member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (1699); assistant, senior dean, and later president of Sion College (1688-89; 1694; 1707) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 10/02/1676 |
| Proposer | Robert Hooke |
| RSActivity | Royal Society roles:
Council 1676, 1678, 1689, 1691 |
| Other Royal Society activity | Admitted on the same day he was elected |
| Relationships | Parents: Joshua Mapletoft and Susanna Collett
Married: Rebecca Knightley
Children: Robert Mapletoft; John Mapletoft; Elizabeth Mapletoft
Additional relatives: uncle Robert Mapletoft, dean of Ely; great-uncle Nicholas Ferrar; kinsman Thomas Firmin (FRS 1680); son-in-law Francis Gastrell, Bishop of Chester |
| OtherInfo | Mapletoft was a successful physician in London and several aristocratic families were among his patients. Through Thomas Firmin, with whom he was distantly related, he became acquainted with the circle of natural philosophers, including Robert Hooke (FRS 1663); John Tillotson (FRS 1672), and Thomas Sydenham. Mapletoft also worked to translate the latter's works into Latin, e.g. Sydenham's 'Observationes medicae' (1676). Mapletoft himself also published 'Principles and Duties of the Christian Religion' (1710) about his parishioners' faith.
Mapletoft was a member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). SPG was formed in 1701 and was a Church of England missionary organisation aiming to establish new churches in colonised regions, limiting the influence of, for example, Quakers and converting Native Americans and free and enslaved Africans and African Americans to Christianity. As part of its activity in Barbados, the Society later became owners of a slave labour sugar plantation. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Venn; Hunter; Hunter; Ward; LI; ODNB
References:
Glasson, T. 2012. 'The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts', in Atlantic History [DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0067; last accessed 26/08/22] |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/45717380 |
| Code | NA8410 |