James Hutchinson (1752-1793, APS 1779), physician and surgeon, Surgeon General of Pennsylvania, 1778-1784, was born in Makefield Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Hutchinson was the son of Quaker farmer and stonemason Randall Hutchinson and his wife Katherine Milnor. In 1771 at the age of fifteen, Hutchinson was apprenticed to the apothecaries Moses Bartram (1732-1809, APS 1766) and Isaac Bartram (1725-1801, APS 1759). He became the pupil of Philadelphia physician Cadwalader Evans. He served as apothecary of the Pennsylvania Hospital (1773-1775) and earned a bachelor's degree in Medicine from the College of Philadelphia. In 1776 he completed a twelve-month residency in London under John Fothergill at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, preparing for a surgical career. After the outbreak of the American War of Independence, Hutchinson returned home in early 1777 via France, carrying dispatches from Benjamin Franklin to the Continental Congress. He was elected a physician at the Pennsylvania Hospital in May 1777. Hutchinson tended the wounded soldiers from the battle of Germantown and inoculated more than 3,000 soldiers at Valley Forge against smallpox. He was an original member of the Philadelphia Medical Society and a trustee of the University of the State of Pennsylvania after 1779. Hutchinson was a founder the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1787. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1779, and served as Secretary from 1782-1793.

Although a member of the Society of Friends, the American War of Independence caused Hutchinson to question Quaker pacifist convictions. The twenty-three year old medical student wrote in December 1775, "I have too great an affection for my Country not to feel its distresses." For his efforts caring for Continental troops, Hutchinson was named senior surgeon of the Flying Camp of the Middle Department of the Continental Army on December 1, 1777 and appointed surgeon of the Pennsylania State Navy in 1778. He was disowned by the Society of Friends on February 26, 1779 for quasi-military service.

Hutchinson's sense of civic duty advanced in tandem with his professional stature. In 1779 he was reappointed to the staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he specialized in surgery and obstetrics. He was also appointed one of the Port of Philadelphia's quarantine physicians. After establishing the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1787, he served first as secretary, then as censor, responsible for maintaining ethical standards and professional conduct among the city's doctors. As a trustee of the University of the State of Pennsylvania, he worked to revive medical education, and taught chemistry and materia medica there after 1789. Later he became professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, created by the union of the old College of Philadelphia and the University of the State of Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Hutchinson, motivated by a sense of civic responsibility and revolutionary fervor, became increasing active in politics. In 1780, he served briefly in the Pennsylvania Assembly, although he soon decided that he was not interested in being an elected official. An anti-Federalist, Hutchinson was a strong supporter of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1825, APS 1780) and the founder of the Pennsylvania Democratic Society in 1793. He wrote lampoons and letters for the press, corresponded with other Democrats and kept abreast of Federalist schemes. He also served on a committee that received the French ambassador Edmond Charles Genet, who sought to galvanize American opinion in support of the French revolutionary government and against Great Britain.

Ultimately, Hutchinson's sense for responsibility for his fellow citizens was manifest as Hutchinson moved among his patients during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793. He caught the contagion on August 30, and died one week later. His death focused public debate, led by Benjamin Rush, on the cause and treatment of Yellow fever.

Hutchinson was twice married, first to Lydia Biddle in 1779 and then to Sydney Howell in 1786. He and Howell had two sons, and a daughter, who died in infancy.

The collection of James Hutchinson's papers consists primarily but not exclusively of correspondence, between the late eighteenth-century Philadelphia physician and a number of family members, political friends, and professional associates.

The largest and earliest series of letters (seventeen) is between Hutchinson and his uncle Israel Pemberton, written while Hutchinson was a student of medicine in London. Other momentos of his student years are twelve tickets of admission to medical lectures in Philadelphia and London, including one given by William Hunter. There are also three unused cards of admission to Hutchinson's own lectures on chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. Another series of nine letters from Hutchinson's friend, the Philadelphia lawyer/Pennsylvania legislator Charles Pettit, date from 1785-1786 and reflect concerns of the early Republic, especially mechanisms to handle the national debt.

In addition to these several groups of letters, there are individual pieces of correspondence, spanning the period from Hutchinson's student days through the end of his career. These include letters of reference and professional certifications signed by his mentors American physicians Benjamin Rush (April 9, 1773), Cadwalder Evans (April 19, 1772) and English physician John Fothergill (December 9, 1776). Individual items of professional correspondence include a February 7, 1793 request from the War Department to examine a Revolutionary veteran to "certify the nature of his disability;" and a August 24, 1793 report from Dr. Rush "On [a] malignant fever [that ] has lately appeared in Water Street of our city." There is also ample evidence of Hutchinson's radical democratic and abolitionist politics. These include a November 6, 1792 certificate of membership in the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, as well as an August 1, 1793 letter from Charles Caldwell, requesting that Hutchinson, the founder of the Pennsylvania Democratic Society, recommend him for membership.

Other miscellaneous items include Hutchinson's marriage certificates to Lydia Biddle and Sydney Howell, genealogical data on the Hutchinson, Hare, and Pemberton families and stock certificates, 1857-1872, of the McKean and Elk Land and Improvement Company. Materials dated post-1793 are to and from Hutchinson family members. One twentieth-century family letter from S. Pemberton Hutchinson to James P. Hutchinson also sheds light on the provenance of the collection, suggesting that the papers be donated to the American Philosophical Society of which Hutchinson was the Secretary from 1782-1793.

Physical description

106 items.

Provenance

Presented by S. Pemberton Hutchinson and accessioned, 1962. See in-house shelf list for additional accession sources and dates.

Related material

APS also possesses the James Hutchinson's diary from 1777 (Mss.B.H97d.1), which chronicles Hutchinson's trans-Atlantic passage during the American Revolution.

Early American History Note

The James Hutchinson Papers detail this prominent Philadelphian's medical education and life. The collection includes records of Hutchinson's formal education, lectures he either attended or delivered, and his travels throughout London to advance his career. The documents from the American Revolution provide interesting commentary on events happening in Philadelphia and how the Revolution affected Quakers.

His letters from London often summarize the lectures he attended. Hutchinson's letters to his uncle, Israel Pemberton, often provide additional commentary on life and current events. One letter, for instance, gives details on his voyage crossing the Atlantic, including information on catching fish and encountering an iceberg.

The collection also contains letters sent to Israel Pemberton from other individuals who had sent their letters in the same packet as James Hutchinson. Some of the letters were written in the midst of the American Revolution as James sought a way to return to Pennsylvania from London. Physician John Fothergill was among those who helped Hutchinson return to America.

Hutchinson's Revolutionary War correspondence is extensive and often discusses the controversies of the revolutionary Pennsylvania government, especially as it affected Quakers, such as the suspension of habeas corpus and the exile of a group of pacifist Quakers, including Israel Pemberton, to Winchester, Virginia. Hutchinson also interacted with the military and served as a volunteer to treat wounded soldiers. There is a letter sent by Mary Pemberton to Israel in this collection as well.

Additional documents chronicle Hutchinson's life, including a marriage certificate, land dealings (including a tract of land granted to him by James Wilkinson), letters on politics and medicine, and various receipts. Hutchinson was a regular correspondent with Charles Pettit when Pettit represented New York in the Continental Congress.

• McKean and Elk Land and Improvement Co.

• Hare family.
• Hutchinson family.
• Pemberton family.

• Educational Material
• Family Correspondence
• Genealogies.
• General Correspondence
• Marriage certificates.
• Miscellaneous
• Stock certificates.

• Bache, Benjamin Franklin, 1769-1798
• Banks, Joseph, 1743-1820
• Bartram, Isaac, 1725-1801
• Biddle, Clement, 1740-1814
• Caldwell, Charles, 1772-1853
• Corbyn, Thomas
• Ellicott, Andrew, 1754-1820
• Ewing, John, 1732-1802
• Fothergill, John, 1712-1780
• Greene, Nathanael, 1742-1786
• Hiester, Joseph, 1752-1832
• Hunter, William, 1718-1783
• Hutchinson, Charles Hare, 1833-1902
• Hutchinson, James, 1752-1793
• Lettsom, John Coakley, 1744-1815
• Paulmier, Charles Francois Adr
• Pemberton, Israel, 1715-1779
• Pettit, Charles, 1736-1806
• Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813
• Townsend, John, 1759-1826

• American Revolution
• Americans Abroad
• Education
• Marriage and Family Life
• Medicine
• Medicine -- Study and teaching -- England -- London -- 18th century.
• Medicine -- Study and teaching -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- 18th century.
• Philadelphia History
• Religion