Richard Wiseman

Juliana Márquez

Class of 2024, Johns Hopkins University

Richard Wiseman (bap. 1620?-1676) was the Sergeant-surgeon to King Charles II during England’s Restoration period. His surgical education is thought to have begun in 1637—at the age of about 16 years old—when he started his apprenticeship at the Barber-Surgeons’ Hall under the surgeon Richard Smith. However, little is known about Wiseman’s master from his surgical treatises. Around 1644, Wiseman joined the Royalist Army of the Prince of Wales, who would later become King Charles II. He accompanied Prince Charles and his troops through England, Scotland, France, and Holland and, in 1651, was taken captive in the battle of Worcester, although he was still allowed to practice as a surgeon in captivity.

Reproduction of *Richard Wiseman*, sometimes attributed to Sir Balthazar Gerbier, cca 1670, oil on unknown surface, Royal College of Surgeons, London. Source: Wellcome Collection, CC BY 4.0.

Wiseman was released on bail and freed by the Company of Barber-Surgeons, likely in 1652. He practiced in London as the assistant to Edward Molins (1610? -1663) at the St. Thomas Hospital and later started his own practice at the Old Bailey at the sign of the King’s Head. In June 1660, he was appointed “surgeon in ordinary for the person” by Charles II upon his restoration. Since there were three Sergeant-surgeons at the time, it was not until the death of Humphrey Painter that Wiseman was appointed Sergeant-surgeon himself. Around that time, Wiseman was also thought to be living with tuberculosis, mentioning in one of his books that, while treating one of his patients, he “burst out with a violent coughing of blood”,[1] He passed away in 1676 after going to Bath for medical treatment for an ulcer. Wiseman was buried in Covent Garden alongside his first wife Dorothy.

Scholars have alluded to the importance of Wiseman’s texts not only by mentioning the breadth of surgical topics covered by his books, but also by emphasizing his books’ publishing timeline, his case observations, and his reference to surgical and anatomical literature from scholars like Ambroise Paré, Guy de Chauliac, and Galen. Wiseman saw himself as a “practicer, not an academic”.[2] He recorded more than 650 case observations throughout his career. Although intended to describe the surgical treatments he employed in his practice, Wiseman’s case observations stand out for featuring other healers, including physicians, surgeons, apprentices, dentists, and instrument-makers. Wiseman’s works include is Severall Chirurgicall Treatises (1676), which included a previous work A Treatise of Wounds (1672). Severall Chirurgicall Trea tises was republished unchanged in 1686. In 1696, the title of the book was changed to Eight Chirurgical Treatises and was republished in 1705, 1719, and 1734.

[1] Richard Wiseman, Several Chirurgicall Treatises (London: printed by E. Flesher and J. Macock, for R. Royston … and B. Took …, 1676), 394.

[2] Wiseman, Several Chirurgicall Treatises, a2v.

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