William Wagstaffe was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 physician.

Wagstaffe was born in Cublington

Cublington

Cublington is a village and one of 110 civil parishes within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is about seven miles north of Aylesbury. The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'Cubbel's estate'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it was recorded as Coblincote.The...

, Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

, UK, The only son of the town's rector, and related to the Wagstaffe family of Knightcote, Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

. He was educated at a school in Northampton

Northampton

Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...

, entered Lincoln College, Oxford

Lincoln College, Oxford

Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...

 in 1701, graduated B.A. (June 16, 1704) and M.A. (May 5, 1707). The same year, he joined the London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 practice of physics of his relative Thomas Wagstaffe. He married Thomas' daughter and, after her early death, married the daughter of surgeon Charles Bernard.

On July 8, 1714, Wagstaffe graduated M.B. and M.D. at Oxford. He became fellow 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 December 22, 1718, and was a censor in 1720. He became reader on anatomy to the Barber-Surgeons on December 15, 1715, and succeeded Salisbury Cade as physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on December 29, 1720. He became a fellow of the Royal Society

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

 on March 13, 1718.

Wagstaffe died in Bath.

Works

• A Comment upon The History of Tom Thumb
  Tom Thumb
  Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. The History of Tom Thumb was published in 1621, and has the distinction of being the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tangling with giants, and becoming a...
  
  e (1711)
• A Letter showing the Danger and Uncertainty of inoculating the Small Pox (1722)

External links

• Dictionary of National Biography on WikiSource
• Chalmer's Biography (1812)
• Miscellaneous works of Dr. William Wagstaffe at Google books