Author: Wallis, George
Biography:
WALLIS, George (1738-1802: findmypast.com)
The life of Wallis divided into two parts, the first set in York, Yorkshire, and the second in London. He was baptised at St. Michael le Belfrey, York, on 26 Sept. 1738, one of four sons of Edward Wallis, MD (1709-82). The mother’s name does not appear in any of the records; one of the family histories in ancestry.com gives her name as Ann or Anna Maria Rowley (1716-56) but that has not been confirmed and the marriage record given clearly dates from 1847. Wallis followed his father into practice as an MD in York, where he married Ann Perritt (1742-1819) at St. Michael le Belfrey on 28 Jan. 1762. The couple had at least five children, all baptised at York. Wallis had literary interests, as demonstrated in the two verse satires listed here. But those interests put an end to his medical practice in York. The GM obituary relates with relish the story of his “dramatic satire” The Mercantile Lovers (1775), performed at York, that gave such offence that Wallis lost all his patients. He landed on his feet, however: moved the family to London, lectured on the theory and practice of medicine at the Medical Society where he was elected a Fellow, and published many useful professional works both on his own account and as a translator and editor. He translated a treatise on diseases of the eyes from the French of Sauvages (1785), updated Motherby’s medical dictionary and Buchan’s Domestic Medicine (1802), edited the classic works of Thomas Sydenham with notes, and wrote on the improper use of bleeding in pregnancy (1778) and on gout (1798). His most successful work was The Art of Preventing Diseases (1793), which went into multiple editions. Wallis died at his home in Red Lion Square, London, on 29 Jan. 1802, and was buried at St. Andrew’s, Holborn, on 4 Feb. His wife survived him and may have remarried: an Ann Wallis married Thomas Hurley in London on 23 Dec. 1803. (findmypast.com 14 Apr. 2024; ancestry.com 14 Apr. 2024; ODNB 14 Apr. 2024; GM Feb. 1802, 186) HJ