Author: Renwick, William
Biography:
RENWICK, William (1740-1814: ODNB)
He was baptised at Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland, on 2 Mar. 1740, the son of Andrew Renwick and his wife Elizabeth Johnson; they had married at Berwick on 15 Nov. 1735. Most of what is known about his life comes from his own publications. Renwick’s father had a small inheritance but he spent freely and died when Renwick was thirteen. His mother remarried and Renwick was apprenticed to a Henry Hodgson, surgeon. At the expiry of the apprenticeship, Hodgson appealed on Renwick’s behalf to General John Craufurd who was MP for Berwick 1761-65. In Nov. 1760 Renwick was ordered to join a regiment at Plymouth and in 1761 he embarked for Belle Îsle, off the French coast and then under siege. By 1763 he was in London where, hoping for further assistance from Craufurd, he found temporary employment at a journeyman apothecary. When Craufurd died in 1764 Renwick returned to Berwick, believing that his support for Sir John Hussey Delaval in the 1765 general election would result in patronage. On the strength of that belief he married Abigail Hindmarsh (b 1740) on 1 May 1765 at Mordington, Berwickshire; they do not seem to have had children. Renwick was badly let down by Sir John and his three autobiographical works—The Genuine Distresses of Damon and Celia (1771), Misplaced Confidence (1776), and The Solicitudes of Absence (1788)—reflect his sense of betrayal. From 1778 to 1802 Renwick served as naval surgeon on various ships before being retired in 1804 on the grounds of infirmity. His campaign to address the unequal treatment of naval surgeons—who, not being commissioned officers, were denied half-pay—began with his An Address to Parliament on the Situation of the Naval Surgeons (1785) and continued for many years. He also wrote on medical issues, particularly those arising from conditions on board ship, and published Memorials on the Medical Department of Naval Service (1800) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of Sickness in Ships of War (1792). His wife is probably the Abigail Renwick who died at Portsea in 1801 and was buried there on18 Nov. Renwick spent his final years in Berwick where he died in 1814 and was buried on 25 Oct. (ODNB 22 Nov. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 22 Nov. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 22 Nov. 2024; historyofparliamentonline.org; W. Renwick, The Genuine Distresses of Damon and Celia [1771]; EN1)