page_title: Nathan Paget
section_title: Later life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Nathan Paget / Later life and career
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of William Harvey
context_page_description: Nathan Paget was an English physician, active during the English Civil War, under the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, and after the Restoration. Despite being a mainstay of a generally conservative profession, he was interested in the experimental methods of the Enlightenment. Although from a strongly Presbyterian background, he seems to have developed radical political and religious sympathies.
context_section_description: Thomas Paget died in October 1660. His will, proved on 16 October, divided his property between his two surviving sons, Nathan and Thomas, but mentions also three surviving daughters, Dorothy, Elizabeth and Mary. Paget nominated as supervisor of the will Thomas Minshull, an apothecary of Manchester, who was Nathan's cousin and uncle of Elizabeth Milton.
  Like most scientists who established themselves during the Protectorate, Nathan Paget does not seem to have suffered any major setback in his career at the Restoration. At this time Sir Edward Alston, an immensely rich Presbyterian society doctor, was keeping the College of Physicians afloat with his money and financial acumen. On 20 September 1663 Paget was designated Harveian lecturer for the following year: an appointment requiring approval by Alston, as well as two senior censors and two senior Elects of the Society. The lecture was a fairly new institution at the time, established by William Harvey himself in a trust dated 26 June 1656. However, it was already an important social as well as academic occasion. The royalist John Evelyn reported in his famous diary attending Paget's lecture on 6 October 1664.
  I heard the anniversary oration in praise of Dr. Harvey, in the Anatomy Theatre in the College of Physicians; after which I was invited by Dr. Alston, the President, to a magnificent feast.
  Paget's lecture itself seems to have disappeared but, to meet Harvey's terms, it must have been delivered in Latin and included "an exhortation to the Fellows and Members to search and study out the secrets of Nature by way of experiment."
  Paget was named an Elect of the College of Physicians on 8 May 1668. He was also  elected Censor again in 1669 and 1678.
caption: William Harvey, as portrayed by Daniël Mijtens
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