# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Marryat, Thomas

​MARRYAT, THOMAS, M.D. (1730–1792), physician, born in London in 1730, was educated for the presbyterian ministry. He possessed great natural talents, a brilliant memory, and a genuine love for literature. 'Latin,' he says, 'was his vernacular language, and he could read any Greek author, even Lycophron, before nine years old,' His wit, though frequently coarse, was irresistible. From 1747 until 1749 he belonged to a poetical club which met at the Robin Hood, Butcher Row, Strand, every Wednesday at five, and seldom parted till five the next morning. Among the members were Dr. Richard Brookes, Moses Browne, Stephen Duck, Martin Madan, and Thomas Madox. Each member brought a piece of poetry, which was corrected, and if approved of thrown into the treasury, from which the wants of the 'Gentleman's Magazine' and other periodicals were supplied. A supper and trials of wit followed: Marryat, whom Dr. Brookes nicknamed 'Sal Volatile,' frequently kept the table in a roar, though he was never known to laugh himself. It was at this club that the plan and title of the 'Monthly Review,' subsequently appropriated by Ralph Griffiths [q. v.], were decided ​upon (cf. Marryat's letter printed in Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ii. 123-4, from Bodl. MS. Add. C. 89, ff. 247-8).
Marryat soon abandoned all thought of the ministry, and went to Edinburgh, where he commenced student in physic and graduated M.D. For a while he sought practice in London, but in 1762 made a tour of continental medical schools, and subsequently visited America, obtaining practice where he could. On his return in 1766 he resided for several years in Antrim and the northern parts of Ireland. It was his habit to set apart two hours every day to nonpaying patients that he might watch the effect of his prescriptions on them. He was accustomed to administer enormous doses of drastic medicines regardless of the patient's constitution. For dysentery his favourite prescription was paper boiled in milk. The poorer class had, however, so high an opinion of his skill that they brought dying persons to him in creels. In February 1774 he migrated to Shrewsbury, but finally settled in Bristol about 1785. Here he delivered a course of lectures on therapeutics which was well attended. To bring himself into notice he published a book called 'The Philosophy of Masons,' a work so heterodox in opinion and licentious in language as to offend his best friends. His good fortune, rather than his skill, in restoring to health some patients who had been given up by other doctors gained him a reputation which quickly enabled him to keep his carriage; but his improvident habits reduced him eventually to poverty. When he found his boon companions dropping off, he fixed a paper upon the glass of the Bush coffee-room inquiring 'if any one remembered that there was such a person as Thomas Marryat,' and reminding them that he 'still lived, or rather existed, in Horfield Road,' In the midst of his distress he persistently refused assistance from his relations.
Marryat died on 29 May 1792, and was buried in the ground belonging to the chapel in Lewin's Mead, in Brunswick Square, Bristol. His personal appearance was plain to repulsiveness, his manners were disagreeably blunt, and latterly morose; but he is represented as a man of inflexible integrity and of genuine kindness, especially to the poor. He had much of the habits and manners of an empiric, and was consequently suspected by his more orthodox professional brethren.
Marryat's first work was entitled 'Medical Aphorisms, or a Compendium of Physic, founded on irrefragible principles,' 8vo, Ipswich, 1756 or 1757, much of which he subsequently saw fit to retract. This was followed by his 'Therapeutics, or a New Practice of Physic,' which he 'humbly inscribed to everybody.' It was first published in Latin in 1758 and reprinted in Dublin in 1764; after which a publisher named Dodd issued two spurious copies, one in Cork, dated 1770, and another in London in 1774. The fourth edition, a handsomely printed quarto, was issued at Shrewsbury, under Marryat's supervision, in 1775. A pocket edition, with the title of 'The Art of Healing,' attained great popularity, the twentieth impression having appeared at Bristol in 1805. Prefixed to it is a life of Marryat, with his portrait engraved by Johnson, and autograph.
Marryat also amused himself by writing verse. A new edition of his 'Sentimental Fables for the Ladies,' republished from an Irish copy, appeared at Bristol in 1791. It was dedicated to Hannah More, and had a large sale.
[Life prefixed to Marryat's Art of Healing, 20th ed.; Marryat's Works; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
G. G.