Robert Gooch
Encyclopedia
Life
Born at Great YarmouthGreat Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...
, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, in June 1784, he was son of Robert Gooch, a sea captain who was a grandson of Sir Thomas Gooch. He was educated at a private day school, and when fifteen was apprenticed to Giles Borrett, surgeon-apothecary at Yarmouth. When Horatio Nelson came to visit the wounded of the battle of Copenhagen, Gooch went round the Yarmouth Hospital with him.
In 1804 he went to the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
, where among his friends were Henry Southey and William Knighton
William Knighton
Sir William Knighton, 1st Baronet GCH was Private Secretary to the Sovereign, George IV 1822–1830.He was born in 1776, and studied under his uncle, Dr. Bredall, in Tavistock, Devon. He spent two years at Guys Hospital, London, and received a diploma from the University of St Andrews in 1797...
. In his vacations he studied German at Norwich with William Taylor, and became engaged to Emily Bolingbroke. He graduated M.D. June 1807, his inaugural dissertation being on rickets
Rickets
Rickets is a softening of bones in children due to deficiency or impaired metabolism of vitamin D, magnesium , phosphorus or calcium, potentially leading to fractures and deformity. Rickets is among the most frequent childhood diseases in many developing countries...
. After a tour in the Scottish Highlands, and some further holiday in Norfolk, he came to London, worked under Astley Cooper
Astley Cooper
Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet was an English surgeon and anatomist, who made historical contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology and surgery of hernia.-Life:Cooper was born at Brooke Hall in Brooke, Norfolk...
, and in 1808 began general practice at Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. He then married the lady to whom he had been engaged for four years. She died in January 1811, and her child in July of the same year.
He left Croydon, took a house in Aldermanbury, and after a tour during which he came to know Robert Southey
Robert Southey
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
at Keswick
Keswick
-Geography:A place in Australia:*Keswick, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide**Keswick railway station, Adelaide**Adelaide Parklands Terminal A place in Canada:*Keswick, Ontario...
, he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians
Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...
on 6 March 1812. Shortly he was elected lecturer on midwifery
Midwifery
Midwifery is a health care profession in which providers offer care to childbearing women during pregnancy, labour and birth, and during the postpartum period. They also help care for the newborn and assist the mother with breastfeeding....
at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. In January 1814 he married the sister of Benjamin Travers
Benjamin Travers
Benjamin Travers was a British surgeon.He was born in Cheapside, London, the second of the ten children of Joseph Travers, a London sugar broker. After being educated at Cheshunt Grammar School, he was further educated privately before joining his father's counting house in 1799.In August, 1800 he...
the surgeon, and in 1816 went to live in Berners Street, where his practice in midwifery and the diseases of women soon became large.
His health was poor, and often obliged him to suspend his work. In January 1826 he had hæmoptysis, and in April of that year his friend Sir William Knighton procured for him the post of librarian to the king.
Confined to bed by consumption
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, he died 16 February 1830, leaving two sons and a daughter. His portrait by Richard James Lane
Richard James Lane
Richard James Lane was a prolific English Victorian engraver and lithographer. The National Portrait Gallery has some 850 lithographs of his portraits and figure studies, done between 1825 and 1850. The images include portraits of royalty, society notables and theatre personalities.-Life:The elder...
, given by his daughter, is at the College of Physicians in London.
Works
He wrote in the London Medical Record. In 1829 Gooch finished at BrightonBrighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
the ‘Account of some of the most Important Diseases peculiar to Women,’ which is his major work. During one of his journeys abroad for his health he wrote the letters on Beguines and Nursing, printed in the appendix to Southey's Colloquies on Society. In the Quarterly Review
Quarterly Review
The Quarterly Review was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by the well known London publishing house John Murray. It ceased publication in 1967.-Early years:...
he wrote an article on the plague (December 1825) and another on the Anatomy Act (January 1830). His papers were edited, with a revision of his treatise on the diseases of women, by Robert Ferguson
Robert Ferguson (1799-1865)
Robert Ferguson M.D. was an Indian-born Scottish physician.-Life:Ferguson was the son of Robert Ferguson of Glen Islay, Perthshire, and of the Indian civil service, and grand-nephew of Adam Ferguson, the historian, he was born in India...
, London, 1859.
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