by Catherine Birch
Hello again! Sorry that the blog has gone a bit quiet in recent months – training took a pause while we supported all our busy readers through their exams and the end-of-year rush. We’ve all been working hard on the final stages of our projects, and we’ll soon have a couple of posts about our trainee showcase to share with you all! In the meantime, here’s a little local history lesson from the drafts to tide you over.
Since I moved to Oxford last year, it feels like I haven’t been able to escape the name Radcliffe. I work in the Radcliffe Camera, I get the bus to the John Radcliffe Hospital, I transfer books to the Radcliffe Science Library, and I walk past the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter on my lunch break strolls. It certainly seems like Radcliffe made the single greatest impact on Oxford since the city sprang up – but most people I ask just don’t know much about him. So, in true library fashion, I decided to start researching. Who exactly was Dr John Radcliffe, and why is half of Oxford dedicated to him?
John Radcliffe was born c. 1650 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. His origins weren’t humble: his father was an attorney, his mother’s family possessed “a considerable fortune”, and he had the benefit of being distantly related to the Earls of Derwentwater. However, it was Radcliffe’s brain that set him apart as a child. Local scholars, gentry, and clergy took note of his intelligence from a young age, advising his father to formally educate him rather than employing him in a trade or having him manage the estate. Radcliffe matriculated into University College in 1665, likely as a scholarship student, and immediately began making a name for himself.1 Records of his age vary, but it’s possible he started at Oxford when he was only 12!
Surrounded by other future scholars, reformers, and intellectual giants (think John Locke, Robert Boyle, and Christopher Wren), and with something to prove, he was all set to take Oxford by storm. He gained a series of degrees: a BA in 1669, an MA in 1672, an MB in 1675, and finally his MD in 1682. He was senior scholar at University College while attending and became a fellow at Lincoln College in 1670, lecturing in logic before he received license to practise medicine in 1675.
Despite lending his name to two current Oxford libraries, Radcliffe himself was not well-read. Preferring to learn through practical medicine and anatomisation, he rejected classical ideas he considered outdated and had little patience for theory. This reached the point that his peers accused him of illiteracy, and his tutors were genuinely surprised by how little he read. When Dr Bathurst (an academic at Trinity College) visited Radcliffe’s chambers, he reportedly stood in shock and had to ask Radcliffe where his study actually was. Never one to be outdone, Radcliffe pointed to a skeleton, a herbal, and some vials, and said “Sir, this is Radcliffe’s library”. Thankfully he changed his stance on books later in life, and our current Radcliffe libraries are a little better stocked.
Radcliffe gained much of his early notoriety in Oxford through his revolutionary approach to convalescence and healing. He shunned conventional practices like purging and resisted the use of invasive medicine where possible, encouraging patients to heal on their own. In 1675 Oxford was experiencing a devastating smallpox epidemic, and Radcliffe is credited with saving the lives of several patients who were viewed as beyond help. His unconventional methods also helped him attain his first patron, Lady Spencer of Yarnton, who was a well-connected society woman suffering from chronic pain. Several doctors had tried and failed to treat her, and she was losing any hope of recovery before her son-in-law recommended that she consult Radcliffe. Within weeks her treatment proved a resounding success – Spencer had not been able to walk in years, but with Radcliffe’s aid she was able to stand and move again. She was incredibly grateful for his help and repaid him by recommending him to anyone she could, starting him on the road to fame.
After Radcliffe was denied further leave from his studies to practice medicine, he left Oxford for London and began attending to the rich and famous of the capital. Some of his more illustrious patients included Samuel Pepys, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and Isaac Newton! His reputation as a physician preceded him, although it was not an entirely positive one. Radcliffe was recognised as a talented doctor and an intelligent conversationalist, but equally as a plain-spoken and opinionated man whose bedside manner left something to be desired. One account claims that a bootmaker’s wife visited Radcliffe with a vial of her husband’s urine, hoping that the doctor could diagnose an illness from it (as was commonly done at the time). Radcliffe responded by emptying the container, filling it with his own urine, and demanding that the patient make him a pair of boots based on that.
In further evidence of both his genius and tactlessness, Radcliffe was appointed physician-in-Ordinary to King William III and to Princess Anne of Denmark but managed (on two separate occasions) to insult both royals so badly they forever rejected his help. When treating the king for gout, Radcliffe assessed the situation by declaring “I would not have your majesty’s two legs for your three kingdoms”, and he dismissed Queen Anne as hysterical because he didn’t want to leave the pub to attend to her. It’s testament to his skill as a doctor that even after these incidents the royals’ attendants and friends continued to consult him on their behalf, and he was privately involved with the family up until the queen’s death in 1714. Radcliffe himself would die only a few months later.
With his death came Radcliffe’s true impact on Oxford, as his estate made provision for a great deal of investment in the university. His gifts included:
- £40,000 for the establishment of a library in his name (unsurprisingly, the Radcliffe Camera), and a further £150 a year for the librarian’s salary.
- £5000 to University College, for “the completion of college buildings”.
- £600 a year to provide improved care and diets for the Radcliffe Infirmary
- And a further £600 a year to fund two travelling fellowships for medical students at the university.
Today, Radcliffe’s legacy stands firm in Oxford, with his marks visible across the city. Some people remember his life and work, but most simply know his name and not much more. Memory has certainly smoothed over some of his flaws – he isn’t best remembered for his royal blunders, after all – but it has also removed some of his best qualities.
While Radcliffe himself may not have made much use of Oxford’s libraries in his day, I think the RadCam and the RSL are fitting tributes to the man. Radcliffe believed in research, practical knowledge, and independent learning – which is exactly what the Bodleian Libraries facilitate. More than a vanity project, his donations have enabled countless students to access information on their terms, direct their own studies, and learn in the ways which work for them. In a constantly changing world, a library is a powerful resource to have at your disposal – whether it’s full of books and journals or potions and skeletons.
So next time you walk through the Observatory Quarter, or pay a visit to University College, or need a book from the History Faculty Library, think about John Radcliffe (and maybe be grateful he’s not in charge of treating you).
- Note: While there isn’t concrete proof he was a scholarship student, his comparatively limited financial means and his dedication to funding fellowships make it highly plausible. ↩︎
- Wikipedia user ‘Camboxer’, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. See more details. ↩︎
- Photographed by the post author. ↩︎
- John Radcliffe by George Vertue, after Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt. Line engraving, published 1757 (1710).
NPG D31226 © National Portrait Gallery, London, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 ↩︎
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