George Hayter 1792 - 1871 Portrait of John Ayrton Paris, Frs, (1785-1856), Physician john Ayrton Paris oil on Canvas 76.20 X 63.50 Cm

George Hayter 1792 - 1871

PORTRAIT OF JOHN AYRTON PARIS, FRS, (1785-1856), PHYSICIAN

oil on canvas

76.20 x 63.50 cm

Provenance

By direct descent within the family of the sitter.

Notes

MB Cantab(1808) MD(1813) FRCP(1814)

John Ayrton Paris, M.D.,was born at Cambridge, 7th August, 1785, and was the son of Thomas Paris, of Cambridge, by his wife Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward Ayrton, of Trinity College, doctor of music. When twelve years of age, he was placed under Mr. Barker, of Trinity hall, Cambridge, and then under Dr. Curteis, at the Grammar school of Linton. Subsequently he was removed to London, and placed under the private tuition of Dr. Bradley, one of the physicians to the Westminster hospital, an accomplished mathematician and a good classical scholar. With him he read Latin and Greek, and acquired some knowledge of botany. He was matriculated at Cambridge as a pensioner of Caius college, 17th December, 1803, and was elected to a Tancred studentship in Physic 3rd January, 1804. From the commencement of his career at Cambridge he evinced that strong predilection for natural philosophy which characterised his future life. He spent some time at Edinburgh, where, in addition to improvement in the practical part of physic, he perfected the knowledge of chemistry and natural philosophy he had acquired at Cambridge, by attendance on the lectures of Dr. Hope and Mr. Playfair. He proceeded bachelor of medicine at Cambridge 2nd July, 1808, took a licence ad practicandum from the university shortly afterwards, and then came to London.

Here he had the good fortune to attract the notice of Dr. Maton, who, struck by the extent and accuracy of his chemical knowledge, warmly espoused his interests, and constituted himself in the highest sense of the term his patron. In the early part of 1809 Dr. Maton resigned his office of physician to the Westminster hospital, and on the 14th April, Dr. Paris being then twenty-three years of age, was elected physician to that institution. He entered on the duties of his office with ardour, and soon afterwards commenced a course of lectures on Pharmaceutic chemistry. On the 11th December, 1809, he married Mary Catherine, the eldest daughter of Francis Noble, esq., of Fordham abbey, Cambridgeshire.

By his lectures and his writings, Dr. Paris had already attained a name among his contemporaries, and was regarded as one of the most rising members of his profession, when a circumstance occurred which exerted an important influence on his future career. The death, in 1813, of Dr. John Bingham Borlase, the early instructor of Sir Humphry Davy, and for many years the leading physician at Penzance, left a vacancy in that part of Cornwall, which many of the resident families were anxious to have efficiently supplied. Some influential gentlemen applied to Dr. Maton to recommend them a physician. He named Dr. Paris, who after some hesitation, was induced for a time to forego his prospects in London, and remove thither. Previously thereto he returned to Cambridge, was created doctor of medicine 6th July,1813, resigned his office at the Westminster hospital, and having on the 30th September, 1813, been admitted a Candidate of the College of Physicians, proceeded to Penzance, carrying with him letters of introduction and recommendation to the first families in Cornwall, most of which had been procured for him by Dr. Maton.

Dr. Paris’s progress in Cornwall was rapid beyond his expectations, and he was admitted on terms of friendship and intimacy with the best families in the county. He co-operated with them in every effort for the advancement of science, and he urged them to exertions which without him would not have been made. He it was who proposed, and with the co-operation of scientific friends established in the early part of 1814, the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. Dr. Paris h