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Trade, knowledge and networks: the activities of the Society of Apothecaries and its members in London, c.1670–c.1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 June 2019

ANNA SIMMONS*
Affiliation:
Department of Science and Technology Studies, UCL, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. Email: [email protected].

Abstract

This article explores the activities of the Society of Apothecaries and its members following the foundation of a laboratory for manufacturing chemical medicines in 1672. In response to political pressures, the guild created an institutional framework for production which in time served its members both functionally and financially and established a physical site within which the endorsement of practical knowledge could take place. Demand from state and institutional customers for drugs produced under corporate oversight affirmed and supported the society's trading role, with chemical and pharmaceutical knowledge utilized to fulfil collective and individual goals. The society benefited from the mercantile interests, political connections and practical expertise of its members, with contributions to its trading activities part of a much wider participation in London's medical, scientific and commercial milieu. Yet, as apothecaries became increasingly engaged in the practice of medicine rather than the preparation and sale of drugs, the society struggled to reconcile the changing priorities of those it represented, and tensions emerged between its corporate and commercial activities.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2019 

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Footnotes

I am very grateful to the anonymous referees and to Rebekah Higgitt and Jim Bennett for their comments and suggestions, which greatly improved this paper. I am particularly indebted to Joe Cain and the UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies for continuing to support me as an honorary research associate. The Society of Apothecaries has been most generous in giving permission to use and cite its archives, and Janet Payne, archive officer, has been particularly helpful with my research.

References

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27 Memoranda Book, 4 January 1672. For example, Nicholas Staphorst was not a member.

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43 CM 10 March 1698.

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47 CM 1 July, 13 July 1703. Articles of Agreement for the Setting Up and Governance of a Stock, to Provide the Royal Navy with Medicines …, 3 August 1703, AHA, MS 8213, Box 225.

48 Copy of Case Laid before Counsel by the General Committee of the Navy Stock, March 1767, AHA, Box 64, E7/3. Ninety-nine subscribed fifty pounds and thirteen subscribed forty pounds.

49 CM 13 July 1703; anon., The Names of the Present Subscribers to the Elaboratory January 1703, London: Society of Apothecaries, 1703Google Scholar, British Library.

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57 Sick and Wounded Board Out-Letters, vol. 1, folio 46, letter to Thomas Corbett, 13 October 1742, National Archives, ADM 98/1; Hunting, op. cit. (2), p. 181.

58 East India Company Court of Directors Minutes, B/47, 18 October 1704, p. 328, and B/82, 29 October 1766, pp. 238–239, British Library, India Office Records.

59 It was not until 1842 that the society jointly took over army supply. Neil Cantlie, A History of the Army Medical Department, vol. 1, London and Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1974, pp. 61, 449–450.

60 EIC Court of Directors Minutes, B/82, 29 October 1766, pp. 238–239.

61 CM 21 September, 17, 30 October 1721.

62 Greenwich Hospital, General Court and Directors Minutes, 29 June, 19 October 1717, National Archives, ADM 67/5; Hunting, op. cit. (2), p. 172; Navy Board In-Letters, Complaint against Apothecaries’ Hall, 5 June 1736, National Archives, ADM 106/878/16; Cauty Application, National Maritime Museum, Caird Library, ADM 354/141/114. Supply to Greenwich resumed at a later date.

63 Anon., The Origin, Progress, and Present State of the Various Establishments for Conducting Chemical Processes, and Other Medicinal Preparations, at Apothecaries’ Hall, London: R. Gilbert, 1823, pp. 89Google Scholar.

64 CM 21 March 1748. Financial data on profit levels in the stocks’ early years is patchy. In 1741 they stood at £3,614 (Navy) and £3,749 (Laboratory) but is unclear over how long this accrued. CM 13 January 1741.

65 Myers, Robin, The Stationers’ Company Archive: An Account of the Records, 1554–1984, Winchester: St Paul's Bibliographies, 1990, p. 5Google Scholar.

66 CM 17 March 1791; CM 14 March 1798. Share value was now £200.

67 Simmons, Anna, ‘Wholesale pharmaceutical manufacturing in London, c.1760–c.1840: sites, production and networks’, in Roberts, Lissa and Werrett, Simon (eds.), Compound Histories: Materials, Production, and Governance, 1760–1840, Leiden: Brill, 2017, pp. 289310CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the society see 296–297, 299–303.

68 Hunting, op. cit. (2), pp. 93–97.

69 For guild searches and collective decision making see Wallis and Wright, op. cit. (24).

70 For outside scrutiny see Physician General Hutton's comments quoted in Cook, op. cit. (55), p. 12.

71 Memoranda Book, 4 January 1672; anon., The Names of the Present Subscribers …, 1703.

72 Minute Book of the Committee of Managers and the Court of Proprietors of the Laboratory Stock, 1741–1751, 6 April 1748, AHA, MS 8220, B5/1/3 (subsequently Laboratory Stock Minute Book); Rough Minute Book of the Laboratory Stock Committee of Managers, vol. 3, 1765–1767, 27 December 1765, AHA, MS 8221, Box 92.

73 Laboratory Stock Rough Minute Book, 27 December 1765; Laboratory Stock Minute Book, 5 February 1746, 21 December 1747.

74 Laboratory Stock Minute Book, 1 October 1746, 3 March 1742, 4 August 1742.

75 CM 26 March 1767.

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80 CM 11 February 1692. Both ‘Lee’ and ‘Leigh’ and ‘Gelsthorp’ and ‘Gelsthorpe’ are used in the society's records.

81 CM 2 February 1699.

82 CM 9 January 1705, 3 January 1706.

83 Volume 43: 1 January–15 March 1697’, Redington, Joseph (ed.), Calendar of Treasury Papers, vol. 2: 1697–1702, London, 1871, pp. 118, item 74, at 16–17Google Scholar, British History Online, at www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-treasury-papers/vol2/pp1-18, accessed 24 January 2019

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89 CM 20 August 1741.

90 CM 14 March, 22 May 1745.

91 CM 13 October 1748.

92 CM 23 February 1749.

93 CM 15 June 1749, 22 February, 14 June 1753, 15 October 1794, 20 June, 12 August, 16 September 1803. For lecturing see Lawrence, Susan C., ‘Entrepreneurs and private enterprise: the development of medical lecturing in London, 1775–1820’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine (1988) 62, pp. 171192Google Scholar.

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95 Data from Printed Membership Lists of the Society of Apothecaries, M3, AHA.

96 CM 21 August, 18 December 1746. Papers Relating to the Petition by the Society of Apothecaries to Parliament to Confirm and Strengthen the Charter of 1617, 1747, AHA, MS 8284, Box 223.

97 Berlin, op. cit. (11), p. 322.

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99 Copy of Co-partnership of Navy Stock, 1766, AHA, Box 64, E7/3; CM 26 March 1767.

100 CM 15 March 1774.

101 Memoranda Book, 6 March 1678.

102 The society, along with other guilds, had its charter revoked, but the effect of Charles II's purge of the assistants was minimal. See Wall, op. cit. (3), pp. 100–106.

103 Matthews, Leslie, The Royal Apothecaries, London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1967, pp. 104107, 118–122, 175, 178–179Google Scholar; Connor, Henry, ‘By royal appointment: the Chase family of apothecaries’, Journal of Medical Biography (2018) 26, pp. 147155CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. James Chase's father John played a similarly influential role.

104 Minute Books of the Court and General Meeting of the Proprietors of the United Stock …, AHA, MS 8223, vol. 1, 1823–1838, Box 114, 1 January 1834; Nussey, John T.M., ‘Walker and Nussey: Royal Apothecaries, 1784–1860’, Medical History (1970) 14, pp. 8189CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

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106 Sloane's circle included the apothecaries and botanists Samuel Doody, James Petiver and Issac Rand; the chemical operator Nicholas Staphorst; and the clerk John Meres. Rand and James St Amand were apothecaries to some of Sloane's patients. For the collecting networks of James Petiver, see Delbourgo, James, ‘Listing people’, Isis (2012) 103, pp. 735742CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. For the Apothecaries and Sloane see Hunting, op. cit. (2), pp. 118–135, 281.

107 See also Winterbottom, Anna, Hybrid Knowledge in the Early East India Company World, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 112139CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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109 Crawford, D.G., A History of the Indian Medical Service, 1600–1913, vol. 1, London: Thacker, 1914, pp. 2223Google Scholar; CM 3 January 1706. For the title of ‘expert’ suggesting an adjudicatory role see Ash, op. cit. (15), p. 4.

110 Records of Visitations to Apothecaries Shops made by the Censors of the Royal College of Physicians, 1724–1856, Royal College of Physicians Archive (subsequently RCP Archive), MS 2151–2183.

111 See, for example, MS 2153, 1748–1754, First and Second Visitations, 21 January and 24 April 1751, RCP Archive, when twenty-five and forty-five shops were inspected.

112 Clark dates the ‘last disagreements with the apothecaries’ as covering 1742 to 1752. Clark, George, A History of the Royal College of Physicians of London, vol. 2, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966, pp. x, 497499Google Scholar.

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114 CM 12 March 1752.

115 Rough Court of Assistants Minutes, 22 June 1779, AHA, MS 8201/13, Box B/14.

116 Chaldecott, J.A., ‘Wedgwood's ceramic wares for chemical use, production and supply from 1779 to 1794’, Ambix (1981) 2, pp. 184205, 187CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the broader context see Golinski, Jan, Science as Public Culture: Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760–1820, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 236287Google Scholar.

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118 Burnby, op. cit. (20).

119 Ford, op. cit. (84), pp. 24–25; Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Will of Peter Gelsthorp, Apothecary of London, 19 June 1719, PROB 11/569/139; Munk's Roll entry for Peter Gelsthorp Jnr, at http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/1732, accessed 24 January 2019; Annals of the Royal College of Physicians, 25 June 1697, RCP Archive.

120 EIC Court of Directors Minutes, B/47, 18 October 1704, p. 328.

121 CM 22 March, 25 June 1711, 14 October, 4 December 1712, 12 February, 1 April 1713.

122 CM 12 February 1713. For Dandridge see Cecil Wall Index, AHA. For Meres see Smith, Alan, ‘Steam and the City: the Committee of Proprietors of the Invention for Raising Water by Fire, 1715–1735’, Transactions of the Newcomen Society (1977) 49, pp. 520CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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125 Burnby, op. cit. (20), p. 74; Bettany, G.T., revised Corley, T.A.B., ‘Chandler, John (1699/1700–1780)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004Google Scholar, at https://doi-org.libproxy.ucl.ac.uk/10.1093/ref:odnb/5104, accessed 27 June 2018.

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127 Chandler, John, A Treatise of the Disease called a Cold, London: A. Millar, 1761Google Scholar. For Chandler and Miller see Minter, op. cit. (34), pp. 26–27.

128 CM 17 December 1768, 25 June 1778, 27 December 1780.

129 John Chandler to Joshua Thomas, Navy Office, 31 May 1780, National Archives, ADM 106/1255/119.

130 CM 21 March 1777.

131 For Prowting see Ford, op. cit. (84), pp. 32, 36. For John Field see Cook, Dee, ‘Field, Henry (1755–1837)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004Google Scholar, at https://doi-org.libproxy.ucl.ac.uk/10.1093/ref:odnb/9386, accessed 27 June 2018; and L.G. Matthews, ‘Lambeth's link with pharmacy’, Chemist and Druggist, 19 February 1977, p. 226.

132 Hunting, op. cit. (2), pp. 194–195; Stanesby Alchorne, Commonplace Book, 1755–1777, AHA, MS 8281, B1/U/2/I.

133 Election certificate for Josiah Colebrooke, Royal Society Library and Archives, EC/1754/25.

134 CM 18 March 1742, 15 June 1749, 22 February 1753, 17 December 1768; Allibone, T.E., The Royal Society and Its Dining Clubs, Oxford: Pergamon, 1976, pp. 910, 26–27Google Scholar.

135 Schaffer, Simon, ‘Watson, William (1715–87)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004Google Scholar, at https://doi-org.libproxy.ucl.ac.uk/10.1093/ref:odnb/28874, accessed 27 June 2018.

136 Laboratory Stock Minute Book, 10 December 1744; CM 13 October 1748.

137 CM 10 December 1767, 22 December 1770, 20 June 1803, 20 June 1806; Bertucci, Paola, ‘Lane, Timothy (1734–1807)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004Google Scholar, at https://doi-org.libproxy.ucl.ac.uk/10.1093/ref:odnb/67101, accessed 27 June 2018.

138 The rank-and-file membership merits further attention. For example, apothecaries were involved in the Spitalfields Mathematical Society; see Stewart, Larry and Weindling, Paul, ‘Philosophical threads: natural philosophy and public experiment among the weavers of Spitalfields’, BJHS (1995) 28, pp. 3762, 42, 44Google Scholar.

139 Holloway, S.W.F., ‘The Apothecaries’ Act, 1815: a reinterpretation’, Medical History (1966) 10, pp. 107129, 221–236CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Simmons, op. cit. (94), p. 148.

140 Letter, C.L. Cadet to P.J. Pelletier, 9 May 1817, printed in the Journal de pharmacie et des sciences accessoires (July 1817) 3, pp. 321–327; and translated in Matthews, L.G., ‘Pharmacy and medicine in 19th century England’, Pharmaceutical Journal (28 December 1972) 209, pp. 594595, 595Google Scholar.