Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/407

 SHATTUCK

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SHATTUCK

England and died in Watertown, Mass- achusetts, August 14, 1672, aged fifty- eight. Benjamin was born in Little- ton, Massachusetts, November 11, 1742, the grandson of the Rev. Benjamin Shattuck, first minister of Littleton, and son of Stephen Shattuck, farmer, a man of great physical and mental powers and a warm patriot. On the memorable April 19, 1775, after he was sixty-five, he shouldered his gun and marched to Concord and followed the retreating enemy to Cambridge. Benjamin's grand- mother was a grand-daughter of the cele- brated John Sherman, clergyman and metaphysician.

He was fitted for college by Jeremiah Dummer Rogers and graduated A. M. from Harvard College in 1765. After studying medicine with Dr. Oliver Pres- cott, of Groton, Massachusetts he settled, in Templeton, and practised there until his death in that town, January 14, 1794.

April 12, 1772, he married Lucy, daugh- ter of Jonathan Barron, a brave provin- cial officer who was killed in "Johnson's Fight" at Lake George, September 8, 1755. They had seven children.

Dr. Shattuck was settled in a region with but few inhabitants; instruments and books were scarce. By perseverance and sagacity coupled with unremitting labor he built up a large practice and was accounted the foremost physician of the county.

W. L. B.

Shattuck ileniorials, 1855, Lemuel .Shattuck.

Discourse by Ebenezer Sparhawk, A. M.,

Boston, 1882.

Genealog. Diet, of the First Settlers of

New Eng., James Savage, 1861. Hist. Har. Medical School, T. F. Harring- ton. Amer. Med. Biog., .James Thacher, M. D., 182S.

Shattuck, George Cheyne, Senior (1784-

1854).

George Cheyne Shattuck was born in Templeton, July 17, 1784, the youngest son of Dr. Benjamin Shattuck, and Lucy Barron, and was named for George Cheyne, an old London and Bath phy- sician who lived between 1671 and 174.3.

He was educated at Dartmouth Col- lege, where he received his A. B. in 1803; M. B. in 1806; the honorary M. D. in 1812, and LL. D. in 1853, meanwhile receiving the M. D., from the University of Pennsylvania in 1807, and the honor- ary A.M. from Harvard in the same year. He was a fellow of the American Acad- emy of Arts and Sciences, and began to practise in Boston in 1807, and continued there until his death, March 18, 1854.

He married FAiza, Cheever Davis, daughter of Caleb Davis, and lived and died in his house at the corner of Stani- ford and Cambridge Streets in the West End. He had a very large family practice and was noted for his benevo- lence. Dr. Edward Jarvis relates of him that upon many occasions he was called upon to treat the needy students at Andover and Cambridge. After hearing their complaints and prescribing for them, he would hand the sufferer a pre- scription and .say courteously, " Now, sir, will you be good enough to carry this prescription to the apothecary 134 Washington Street, and while he is putting up the medicine, will you do me the favor to carry this note to Mr. K., No. 5 Congress Street?" The grateful student wishing to make some return for a free consultation and for the kindly interest in his case, gladly took the note to Mr. K. only to learn that it was an order to K., the tailor, for a suit of clothes for the bearer of the note.

Shattuck was president of the Massa- chusetts Medical Society from 1836 to 1840 and delivered the annual discourse in 1828. He was, many years before the establishment of the Board of Health, one of the consulting physicians of the City of Boston. He avoided public office as a rule. He was a man of strong religious convictions. Rev. Cjtus A. Bartol said of his last hours, " 'Pray with me,' was commonly his first salutation as I entered his sick chamber. ' I want your prayers, they are a great comfort and consolation. Pray not for my recovery, I am going to God. I wish in your prayer to go as a .sinner.' "