| | 1 | Name: | James Bringhurst | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1731 | | | Death Date: | 2/27/1810 | | | | |
| 2 | Name: | William Bryant | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 3 | Name: | Sharp Delany | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1736 | | | Death Date: | 5/13/1799 | | | | |
| 4 | Name: | Andrew Duncan | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 10/17/1744 | | | Death Date: | 7/5/1828 | | | | | | |
Andrew Duncan (17 October 1744–5 July 1828) was a physician and member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. Born in Pinkerton, Scotland to merchant and shipmaster Andrew Duncan and his wife Catherine, Duncan pursued an education at St. Andrews University, earning a MA degree in 1762. Later that year he went on to study medicine at Edinburgh University. He served as president of the Royal Medical Society in 1767 before traveling to China as a surgeon on the East India Trading Company ship, Asia. He turned down a lucrative offer to make a second journey to instead begin lecturing at St. Andrews. He earned his MD to that end in 1769, and became a licentiate of the Edinburgh College of Physicians the following year. That year he also published his first work, Elements of Therapeutics. In 1776, he began teaching a course on chronic diseases, leading him to found a public dispensary that provided free medicine and medical advice to the poor (later the Royal Public Dispensary). Meanwhile, he also founded the Aesculapian Club and later the Harveian Club in 1782, both of which provided him with the necessary connections to begin publishing his journal of medicine, Medical and Philosophical Commentaries. In 1790 he served as president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and two years later proposed the construction of a public mental asylum which was then built in 1807. The following year, he was decorated with the Freedom of Edinburgh for his work on the asylum as well as his dispensary. In 1821, he was made First Physician to the King in Scotland and was elected president of the Edinburgh Medical Chirurgical Society. He died a few years later and was buried in Buccleuch churchyard in Edinburgh. (DNB) | |
| 5 | Name: | Bryan Edwards | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 5/21/1743 | | | Death Date: | 7/16/1800 | | | | | | |
Bryan Edwards (21 May 1743–16 July 1800) was a historian, politician, plantation owner, and a member of the American Philosophical Society via his election in 1774. His early life was marked by hardship and disruption—his father, who worked diligently but unsuccessfully to increase his family’s wealth, died when Bryan was thirteen years old, leaving the family with little financial security—but his fortunes quickly changed. His widowed mother, Elizabeth Bayly, turned to her two wealthy brothers, Zachary and Nathaniel, for support. In 1759, Bryan moved to Jamaica to live with Zachary Bayly, who, upon his death in 1769, left his nephew five estates. Soon afterward, Bryan also inherited two plantations from a friend, Benjamin Hume. At least 1500 enslaved people worked on these properties, producing sugar and rum. Edwards’s wealth thus became dependent on the institution of slavery: unsurprisingly, he became a lifelong and public opponent of the abolitionist movement. Edwards’s political career in Jamaica began in 1765 when he joined the House of Assembly in the parish of St. George. He later ran three times for British Parliament; in 1795, he was elected to a seat for the county of Grampound. During his tenure as an elected official, he participated in heated debates in defense of slavery against the abolitionist leader William Wilberforce but was considered a moderate voice on the issue. Today, he is most well-remembered as a writer and historian of the West Indies. Between 1784 and 1797, Edwards published multiple works including pamphlets, poems, speeches, and multi-volume histories of the cultures and economies of the region. He spent the last eight years of his life in Southampton, where he worked as a merchant and established a bank. He became a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1797. Upon his death in 1880, he left his son, Zachary Hume Edwards, a great fortune. (DNB) | |
| 6 | Name: | John Ellis | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1710 | | | Death Date: | 10/5/1776 | | | | | | |
John Ellis (c.1710–c.5 October 1776) was a zoologist, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. Likely born in Ireland to a middle-class English family, Ellis apprenticed under a London clothworker, before later launching a successful linen business of his own. His income now steady, Ellis was free to pursue his true passion: natural history. Known as one of the earliest marine biologists, he studied invertebrates and had a penchant for zoophytes, publishing descriptions and engravings of these creatures alongside his Swedish collaborator, Daniel Solander. Most notably, the two discovered that sponges are animals. For this work he became a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1754 and was its Copely medallist in 1767. Many of his biological papers appear in the Transactions of the Royal Society from 1754 to 1776. He was one of the first to speculate that microorganisms cause putrefaction as well as disease, despite being credited for neither discovery. Going bankrupt in 1759, Ellis shifted careers and became an administrator in the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Commerce and Science, moving his focus towards tropical plants. He wrote extensively on this topic, notably his 1770 Directions for Bringing Over Seeds and Plants, Coffee (1774), and Mangosteen and Breadfruit (1775). Towards the end of his life he made several trips to the South-East coast of England to continue to study invertebrates before dying in Hampstead and being buried at St. Leonard’s in Bromley. (DNB) | |
| 7 | Name: | Jonathan Elmer | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 11/29/1745 | | | Death Date: | 9/3/1817 | | | | | | |
Jonathan Elmer (29 November 1745–3 September 1817) was a politician, public officeholder, doctor, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. Born in New Jersey, Elmer was physically frail from his youth, but showed early promise in his intellectual pursuits. He attended the medical school at the College of Philadelphia, earning a Bachelor’s degree in 1768 and an M.D. in 1771. He was recognized as an excellent student and held in high esteem by the faculty of the college. Shortly after the publication of his thesis, he was admitted to the New Jersey Medical Society, an organization that he would one day lead as its president. Though Elmer never let his medical training lag and continued training young doctors throughout his life, in 1772 he began moving towards a career as a jurist and public servant. He served in various positions throughout his political career, both local and national, including the sheriff of his local county, a delegate to the Continental Congress, and, from 1789-1791, a representative for the State of New Jersey to the new United States Senate. Elmer was respected by his fellow Senators, but was not re-elected, seemingly because of his vote to place the new nation’s capital further south than his constituents preferred. Not discouraged, Elmer continued in his course of public service on a local level, working as justice of the peace and a judge of the common pleas court for his home of Cumberland County. He retired in 1814 when the health problems that had plagued him throughout his life worsened. He died in Bridgeton, New Jersey three years later. (ANB) | |
| 8 | Name: | George Gauld | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 9 | Name: | John Jones | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 7/6/1747 | | | Death Date: | 7/18/1792 | | | | | | |
John Jones (6 July 1747–18 July 1792) was a naval officer and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. He was born John Paul Jones in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland and began his sailing career as a merchant’s apprentice when he was thirteen years old. By twenty-one, he was in charge of a vessel sailing to the West Indies, and by twenty-eight he was an officer in the U.S. Navy. The newly formed military branch lacked formal structures, and, as a result, Jones’s maneuvers were rarely well-planned in advance. On a 1777 voyage upon a ship called the Ranger, he intended to kidnap and hold hostage the Earl of Selkirk, but, finding the nobleman was not home, stole his household silver instead. He later sent a letter of apology to the Earl’s wife. By Jones’s own admission, his military feats did little to contribute to the war’s outcome, but they were sensational—humiliating to the British and rousing to the Americans. Jones’s colorful Navy career—characterized by acts of heroism and daring—contributed to his already controversial reputation. In 1770, on a voyage to Tobago, he was charged with murder for beating a sailor who then died, and, in a separate incident, he killed a mutinying crewmember in what he claimed was self-defense. After the American Revolution, Jones joined the Russian navy, and in 1789 was accused in St. Petersburg of raping a young girl. He managed to evade serious repercussions for his actions in each case. Jones thrived on the basis of his powerful connections: he joined the Freemasons as a young man in Scotland, and formed long-lasting and advantageous friendships with Robert Morris and Benjamin Franklin. He spent the last years of his life in Paris, living peacefully and largely ignoring the French Revolution. He is now buried in an ornate crypt, fit for his legendary stature, on the campus of the United States Naval Academy. (ANB, DNB) | |
| 10 | Name: | Walter Jones | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Death Date: | ? | | | | |
| 11 | Name: | James McClurg | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1746 | | | Death Date: | 7/9/1823 | | | | | | |
James McClurg (1746–9 July 1823) was a physician, delegate, mayor, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. He was born in Virginia to a British naval surgeon and his wife. His father is thought to have opened the first hospital for the inoculations against smallpox in North America. Following in his father’s footsteps, James McClurg studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating as a doctor of medicine in 1770. He furthered his studies in Paris and London, intermingling amongst the scientific elite of the Enlightenment. He earned a reputation for his 1772 Experiments upon the Human Bile and Reflections on the Biliary Excretion, which expanded upon knowledge of the human intestines. In 1779, he married the daughter of a prominent slave-owning planter back in Virginia and became the first Chair of Anatomy and Medicine at the College of William and Mary that same year. At this time, McClurg also entered into Virginia’s political sphere and in 1784 became a member of the Council of State. Three years later, the House of Delegates selected him for the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention, likely because fellow delegate James Madison was aware of his agreeable federalist-leanings. McClurg took the floor twice to advocate for strong executive powers, with little success. He left the convention to return to his medical practice in Virginia. His political career was not entirely over, however, and he served as Mayor of Richmond from 1801 to 1802. He was president of the State Medical Society from 1820 to 1821 and died in Richmond two years later. (ANB) | |
| 12 | Name: | Samuel More | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 11/30/1726 | | | Death Date: | 10/11/1799 | | | | | | |
Samuel More (30 November 1726–11 October 1799) was an apothecary, administrator, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. Born in Westminster, England to a schoolmaster and his wife, More was educated by his father in his early years. More went on to apprentice under an apothecary in Whitechapel and afterwards opened his own business with his family inheritance. Notably, he cured the incapacitated hands of a dyer’s apprentice thereby earning himself an election to the Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce in May of 1761. He served as chairman of the committee of chemistry, and in all other main committees, becoming very popular within the society. His popularity earned him the office of Secretary in 1769, which involved running in yearly elections against candidates who would often run smear campaigns in the newspaper. Nevertheless, through his tireless work ethic and popularity, More held down his office as secretary for the rest of his life. The office enabled him to develop relationships with many of his contemporaries in scientific and industrial fields and oftentimes his peers sought his advice on technical matters. His renowned expertise led him to be summoned as witness in various high-profile trials and committees, such as the Richard Akwright patent trials that persisted throughout the 1780’s. After years of good health, he began to suffer intense flare-ups of gout before dying at his home in London. (DNB) | |
| 13 | Name: | Benjamin Morgan | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 14 | Name: | Thomas Parke | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 15 | Name: | John Perkins | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 16 | Name: | Bernard Romans | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1720 | | | Death Date: | 1784 | | | | | | |
Bernard Romans (c. 1720–c. 1784) was a cartographer, naturalist, army officer, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. He was born in the Netherlands, and moved to England to study botany, mathematics, and engineering. Around 1757 the British government sent him to America as a junior surveyor. By 1768 he was Principal Deputy Surveyor of the Southern District of British North America. During this time, he produced maps detailing hitherto unrecorded Floridian waterways and what is perhaps the first chart of the Florida coastline. He relocated to New York in 1773 to promote his future publication, A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida. While in the city, the Marine Society elected him as a member and he made contributions to the Royal American Magazine. In 1775 he published the only volume of A Concise Natural History before setting off to build fortifications on the Hudson river for the war effort. His feud with the crown over his pension fueled his joining the revolutionary cause. He resigned from duty shortly thereafter over a dispute regarding whether he was actually a colonel (he insisted he was). The next year he joined the Pennsylvania Artillery and then served under General Horatio Gates. He resigned again in 1788, but not before being court-martialed but ultimately acquitted of some charges regarding his involvement in his men’s misconduct. He intended to return to battle two years later, departing for Charleston before being captured at sea by the British. It is disputed where he was held for the remainder of the war, but in 1784 he supposedly set sail for Philadelphia with a large sum of money and then vanished. It is thought someone robbed, murdered, and threw him overboard. (ANB, DNB) | |
| 17 | Name: | Lord Mahon Charles Stanhope | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 8/3/1753 | | | Death Date: | 12/15/1816 | | | | | | |
Charles Stanhope (3 August 1753– 15 December 1816) was a elected official, nobleman, inventor, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. Charles was the second son of an aristocratic family, and when his older brother Philip died of tuberculosis in 1763, Charles was next in line to inherit the Earldom of Stanhope. When Charles was eleven years old, he moved with his family to Geneva, where he was put in touch with some of the leading intellectuals, scientists, and philosophers of the age. Charles soon developed his own political opinions that made him unpopular in his social circles. He resisted the trappings of wealth that were common among the aristocracy, disdaining theatre and fashion. He served in the House of Commons beginning in 1780, and, after his father’s death in 1786, the House of Lords. He was considered a radical in political spheres: he was a devoted supporter of the early phases of the French Revolution, of abolition, and of universal toleration for people of all religious faiths. His positions were so extreme and his way of expressing himself so aggressive that he had little success as a member of Parliament; hardly any of the motions he put forth received support from his fellow members. All throughout his political career, Charles remained devoted to scientific pursuits. His notable inventions included a pyrometer, a type of printing press, and a design for steam ships. It was on the strength of his scientific contributions that he became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1773. Charles had a difficult family life: his first wife died shortly after the birth of his third child, he separated from his second wife, and he mentioned none of his living children in his will. He died of dropsy at his estate at Chevening. (DNB) | |
| 18 | Name: | Lord Mahon Philips Stanhope | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
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| 19 | Name: | William Wright | | | Year Elected: | 1774 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1735 | | | Death Date: | 9/19/1819 | | | | | | |
William Wright (March 1735–19 September 1819) was a naturalist, a physician, a slaveholder, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. He was born in Perthshire, Scotland, and he began his medical training as a young man, first as a surgeon’s apprentice and then by observing lectures at the University of Edinburgh. He joined the navy in 1758 and was posted as a surgeon’s mate in the West Indies during the Seven Years War. After the war ended, he briefly returned to Britain and managed to secure an MD through a personal connection without formally attending medical school. In 1764 he partnered with another doctor, Thomas Steel, in Jamaica and the two of them treated enslaved people and free people of color in the area. Despite these firsthand encounters with the institution of slavery, Wright was politically conservative and opposed to the abolitionist movement. Together, he and Steel owned as many as thirty-three enslaved people. Throughout his time in Jamaica, Wright began to explore an interest in naturalism. He diligently collected specimens of the island’s flora and wrote papers on their potential medicinal properties. He found a patron for this work in APS Member Sir Joseph Banks, a prominent scientific leader. They remained close for several decades, and some of the specimens that Wright sent to Banks may still be found at the Natural History Museum in London. Throughout his life, Wright sought social and academic recognition, and he achieved it through his participation in multiple well-regarded societies and prominence as a public official. He became the Surgeon General of Jamaica in 1774, a fellow of the Royal Society in 1778, a member of the Royal Medical Society and the president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1801. (DNB) | |
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