Life

He was the son of Thomas Winston, a carpenter, of Painswick

Painswick

Painswick is a small town in Gloucestershire, England. Originally the town grew on the wool trade, but it is now best known for its parish church's yew trees and the local Rococo Garden. The town is mainly constructed of locally quarried Cotswold stone...

, Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

, and his wife Judith, daughter of Roger Lancaster of Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

. He graduated M.A. at Clare Hall, Cambridge

Clare College, Cambridge

Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on "the Backs"...

 in 1602, and continued a fellow of that college till 1617. He then studied medicine at Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

, where he attended the lectures of Fabricius ab Aquapendente, and at Basle, where he became a pupil of Caspar Bauhin. He graduated M.D. at Padua, and was incorporated M.D. at Cambridge in 1608.

He was admitted a licentiate of the 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...

 in London on 9 March 1610, a candidate or member on 10 September 1613, and was elected a fellow on 20 March 1615. He was ten times censor between 1622 and 1637. He was an active member of the Virginia Company

Virginia Company

The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on 10 April1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America...

, regularly attending its meetings in London until October 1621, and acting as one of the editors of A Declaration of the State of the Colonie and Affaires in Virginia, published in 1620. He was elected Professor of Physic at Gresham College on 25 October 1615, and held office till 1642. He then went abruptly to France, but returned in 1652. William Lenthall

William Lenthall

William Lenthall was an English politician of the Civil War period. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons.-Early life:...

 wrote to the Gresham committee on his behalf, and on 20 August 1652 he was restored to his professorship, which he held till his death. He had a large practice as a physician, and always kept an apothecary

Apothecary

Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....

, who followed him humbly. He died on 24 October 1655.

Works

His works show anatomical reading as well as a practical acquaintance with the anatomy of man and of animals. He was well read in Galen

Galen

Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...

 and in Latin literature and Meric Casaubon

Méric Casaubon

Méric Casaubon , son of Isaac Casaubon, was a French-English classical scholar...

 praised his learning. After his death his Anatomy Lectures were published in London in 1659 and 1664. He made no original discoveries, held the old erroneous opinion that there are openings in the septum

Interventricular septum

Interventricular septum , abbreviated IVS, is the stout wall separating the lower chambers of the heart from one another....

 between the ventricle

Ventricle (heart)

In the heart, a ventricle is one of two large chambers that collect and expel blood received from an atrium towards the peripheral beds within the body and lungs. The Atria primes the Pump...

s, showed no acquaintance with William Harvey

William Harvey

William Harvey was an English physician who was the first person to describe completely and in detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the body by the heart...

's work on the circulation of the blood, and believed that the arteries transmit vital spirit elaborated in the left ventricle as well as blood.