John Ranby
John Ranby (1703–1773) was a prominent English surgeon, who served in the household of King George II and wrote books on surgery. His influence helped to instigate a corporation of surgeons distinct from barbers. Life. The son of Joseph Ranby of St. Giles-in-the-Fields in Middlesex, an innholder, he put himself apprentice to Edward Barnard, foreign brother of the Company of Barber-Surgeons, on 5 April 1715. On 5 October 1722 he was examined on his skill in surgery. His answers were approved, and he was ordered the seal of the Barber Surgeons Company as a  foreign brother. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 30 November 1724. He was appointed surgeon-in-ordinary to the king's household in 1738, and in 1740 he was promoted sergeant-surgeon to George II. He became principal sergeant-surgeon in May 1743, and in this capacity accompanied the king in the German campaign of that year. He was present at the battle of Dettingen, and there had as a patient Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, the king's second son. In 1745 Ranby's interest with the king and the government of the day helped  the passing of the act of parliament constituting a corporation of surgeons distinct from that of the barbers. He was the nominated as the first master of the newly founded surgeons' company, though he had held no office in the old and united company of Barber-Surgeons. Joseph Sandford, the senior warden of the old company, and William Cheselden, the junior warden, took office under him as the first wardens. He was re-elected master of the company in 1751, when the company entered into occupation of their new theatre in the Old Bailey, and for a third time in  1752. Ranby was appointed surgeon to the Chelsea Hospital on 13 May 1752 in succession to Cheselden. John Ranby died on 28 August 1773, after a few hours' illness, at his apartments in Chelsea Hospital, and was buried in the south-west portion of the burying-ground attached to the hospital, in a square sandstone tomb with a simple inscription. Reputation. Ranby had a large surgical practice, and Henry Fielding introduced him into "Tom Jones". He was a man of strong passions, harsh voice, and inelegant manners. Queen Caroline of Ansbach called him "the blockhead" before submitting to an operation  for hernia, of which she died. Messenger Monsey, a fellow medic, had a low moral opinion of him: "Ra[i]nby was the only man I ever heard coolly defend the use of laudanum in effecting his designs on women, which he confessed he had practised with success." Family. Ranby married, in 1729, Jane, the elder daughter of the Hon. Dacre Barrett-Lennard. An illegitimate son, John Ranby (1743–1820), became known as a pamphleteer. His daughter Hannah married Walter Waring, MP for Bishops Castle and Coventry.