James Welwood: Physician To The Glorious RevolutionDr. James Welwood (1652-1727) might have preferred a quiet life of medicine and Classical scholarship. Instead, he had the fortune, or misfortune, to be a talented political writer during the turbulent years of England's transition from the Stuart to the Hanoverian monarchy. Having to choose between Scottish and German claimants to the throne left many Englishmen with mixed feelings, and the contending factions needed skilled writers to turn out political pamphlets and newspapers, aimed at the increasingly literate British public. It was in this arena that Dr. Welwood was to find his true calling.Welwood was born into a Scottish family heavily involved in the convoluted religious debates of the day. Political, religious, and scientific issues of the time tended to overlap, and Welwood's early years in Scotland proved to be good training for a political career later in life. During the 1680s, the political situation in the British Isles finally became too hot for Welwood, forcing him to flee to the Continent, where he eventually got his medical degree. During the years of exile Welwood became acquainted with the Dutch prince William of Orange and his English wife Mary. When William and Mary were offered the throne of England as part of the so-called "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, Welwood returned to Britain with them. William and Mary's supporters in Parliament soon recognized Welwood's writing ability and drew him into the numerous controversies that plagued the rest of the reign. Welwood was given several official medical posts, but used his position, not for personal gain, but to advance the latest scientific discoveries against the entrenched English medical establishment. After the deaths of William and Mary and their successor Queen Anne, the nearest heir to the throne was Prince George of Hanover, staunchly Protestant, and thus acceptable to the majority of Englishmen. James Welwood's later years were devoted to his family, his private practice and his scholarly writing. However, the elderly court physician was to be drawn into one last intrigue shortly before his death. A potential scandal had developed between the Prince of Wales, his mistress, and the lady's husband. Due to his long personal acquaintance with all involved, Welwood was asked by court officials to discreetly negotiate a settlement in the case.Elizabeth Furdell's biography is a colorful evocation of England in the "Augustan" age, whose studied manners concealed a world of intrigue and discontent. This unique era produced the writings of Welwood's famous contemporaries Daniel Defoe, Alexander Pope, and Jonathan Swift. |
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Page 27
... Charles II . 1661 Witch - craze begins in Dumfries . 1663 Rev. Welwood is dismissed from his parish . 1664 Second Anglo - Dutch War begins . 1665 Plague in London . 1666 The Great Fire in London . 1668 James Welwood enrolls at St ...
... Charles II . 1661 Witch - craze begins in Dumfries . 1663 Rev. Welwood is dismissed from his parish . 1664 Second Anglo - Dutch War begins . 1665 Plague in London . 1666 The Great Fire in London . 1668 James Welwood enrolls at St ...
Page 86
... Charles II died in February 1685 , having smoothed the way for the accession of his Catholic brother to the throne . But not all of the monarch's subjects were sanguine about the succession . A sizable contingent , especially in the ...
... Charles II died in February 1685 , having smoothed the way for the accession of his Catholic brother to the throne . But not all of the monarch's subjects were sanguine about the succession . A sizable contingent , especially in the ...
Page 157
... Charles II as a man with harsh features , " difficult to trace with a pencil , " yet exhibiting a noble mien . Welwood did not condemn the king when he called him a " votary to love , " but revealed that Charles was not very fussy about ...
... Charles II as a man with harsh features , " difficult to trace with a pencil , " yet exhibiting a noble mien . Welwood did not condemn the king when he called him a " votary to love , " but revealed that Charles was not very fussy about ...
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Anderton Andrews Anglican apothecaries Archbishop Augustan Age Baston biography Bishop Burnet Britain British Calvinist Cambridge University Press Caroline Catholic Catholicism Charles Charles II Church coffee houses College of Physicians commissioners conspiracy court Covenanters Daniel Defoe daughter death doctors Duke Dutch Earl Edinburgh edition Elizabeth England English Englishmen Fellows Fifeshire foreign France French friends George Glorious Revolution Henrietta historian Howard Huguenot Jacobite James II James Welwood King James king's later Leiden letters liberty London Lord Louis XIV Manuscripts March medicine Memoirs Mercurius Reformatus ministers Molesworth monarchs nation Newcastle newspaper Oxford Parliament plot political Popish Plot Presbyterian Prince Protestant published Queen Anne readers Reformation reign Reims religious Richard Baldwin Robert Roman Royal College Scotland Scots Scotsmen Scottish seventeenth century Society Stuart surgeons throne tion Tories Welwood became Whigs William and Mary William of Orange Williamite witches writing wrote York