John Aikin

John Aikin (15 January 1747 – 7 December 1822) was an English doctor and writer.

For the English Unitarian scholar, see John Aikin (Unitarian).

John Aikin
John Aikin, published in 1823
Born(1747-01-15)15 January 1747
Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, England
Died7 December 1822(1822-12-07) (aged 75)
Stoke Newington, Middlesex, England
NationalityEnglish
OccupationDoctor, writer

Life

He was born at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, England, son of Dr. John Aikin, Unitarian divine, and received his elementary education at the Nonconformist academy at Warrington, where his father was a tutor. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and in London under Dr. William Hunter. He practised as a surgeon at Chester and Warrington. Finally, he went to Leiden in Holland, earned an M.D. (1780), and in 1784 established himself as a doctor in Great Yarmouth.[1]

In 1792, one of his pamphlets having given offence, he moved to London, where he practised as a consulting physician. However, he concerned himself more with the advocacy of liberty of conscience than with his professional duties, and he began at an early period to devote himself to literary pursuits, to which his contributions were incessant. When Richard Phillips founded The Monthly Magazine in 1796, Aikin was its first editor. In conjunction with his sister, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, he published a popular series of volumes entitled Evenings at Home (6 vols, 1792–1795), for elementary family reading, which were translated into almost every European language.[1]

Works

In 1798 Aikin retired from medicine and devoted himself with great industry to various literary undertakings, among which his General Biography (10 vols, 1799–1815) holds a conspicuous place. His other works included Biographical Memoirs of Medicine in Great Britain (1780) and The Lives of John Selden, Esq., and Archbishop Usher (1812).[1] Aside from editing The Monthly Magazine from 1796 to 1807 and Dodsley's Annual Register from 1811 to 1815,[2] he produced a paper called The Athenaeum 1807 to 1809, not to be confused with The Athenaeum, a well-known British magazine published from 1828 to 1921.

Family

Aikin had four children, three sons and a daughter.[3] The eldest son, Arthur, was a prominent scientist, and the youngest, Edmund, an architect.[4] The second son, Charles, was adopted by Aikin's sister, who had no children of her own. Through Charles, Aikin was grandfather to the writer Anna Letitia Le Breton. His daughter Lucy was a biographer, who in 1823 published her Memoir of John Aikin, M.D., with a selection of Miscellaneous Pieces, Biographical, Moral and Critical.

Bibliography
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References
  1.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aikin, John". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 437.
  2.  Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Aikin, John". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  3. Aikin, Lucy (2010). "Lucy Aikin: A Brief Chronology". In Mellor, Anne K.; Michelle Levy (eds.). Epistles On Women and Other Works. Broadview Editions. ISBN 9781770481244.
  4. "Aikin, Edmund". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Sources

Further reading
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