William Shippen Jr.

William Shippen Jr. (October 21, 1736 – July 11, 1808), was the first systematic teacher of anatomy, surgery and obstetrics in Colonial America and founded the first maternity hospital in America.[1] He was the 3rd Director General of Hospitals of the Continental Army.[2]

For other people named William Shippen, see William Shippen (disambiguation).
William Shippen, Jr.
3rd Surgeon General of the United States Army
In office
1775–1777
Preceded byJohn Morgan
Succeeded byJohn Cochran
Personal details
BornOctober 21, 1736
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DiedJuly 11, 1808(1808-07-11) (aged 71)
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Spouse(s)Alice Lee
RelationsSamuel Blair (brother-in-law)
Thomas Lee (father-in-law)
ChildrenAnne Hume Shippen
ParentsWilliam Shippen Sr.
Susannah Harrison

Early life

He was born on October 21, 1736 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1] He was the son of William Shippen Sr. (1712–1801), also a doctor, and Susannah (née Harrison) Shippen. His sister, Susan Shippen, was married to Samuel Blair, the second Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives.[3][4]

He studied at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), graduating in 1754. He studied medicine first with his father, then went to England and Scotland and in 1761 earned his medical degree at the University of Edinburgh Medical School.[2]

Career

Shippen followed his father William Shippen Sr. into a medical career. At his father's encouragement, William Jr. commenced America's first series of anatomy lectures in 1762. He became one of the first professors (of anatomy, surgery, and midwifery) of America's first medical school (the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania), which he co-founded in 1765 with Dr. John Morgan. At the time, male midwifery was considered "offensive" and people threw stones through the windows of his dissecting rooms and occasionally burst into his rooms in mobs.[2]

Like his father, William Shippen Jr. was elected to the revived American Philosophical Society in 1767, where he served as Curator from 1771-1772, and as Secretary from 1772-1773.[5]

American Revolution

During the American Revolutionary War, Shippen served as Chief Physician & Director General of the Hospital of the Continental Army in New Jersey (1776) and as Director General of the Hospitals West of the Hudson River (October 1776). Ultimately, he served (April 11, 1777 – January 1781) as Director of Hospitals for the Continental Army, a precursor of the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army. Shippen had connived to replace Dr. Morgan, his predecessor in that position. Later Morgan, with the assistance of Dr. Benjamin Rush, brought about his forced resignation. He was subsequently court martialed for misappropriating supplies intended for recovering soldiers and underreporting deaths, but was acquitted on a technicality.[2]

Shippen was among the founders of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and served as its president 1805–1808.[1] He was also a member of the original board of trustees of Old Pine Street Church.[6]

Personal life

Shippen was married to Alice Lee (1736–1817), the daughter of Thomas Lee and Hannah Harrison Ludwell. They were the parents of Anne Shippen in 1763 who was a noted diarist.[7]

Shippen died on July 11, 1808 in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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References
Notes
  1.  Kelly, Howard A.; Burrage, Walter L., eds. (1920). "Shippen, William (1736–1808)" . American Medical Biographies . Baltimore: The Norman, Remington Company.
  2. "William Shippen Jr. (1736–1808)". Penn Biographies. University of Pennsylvania, University Archives and Records Center. Retrieved April 27, 2015.
  3. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. 16. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society. October 1862. p. 360. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  4. Sprague, William Buell (1858). Annals of the American Pulpit: Presbyterian. Rober Carter & Brothers. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  5. Bell, Whitfield J., and Charles Greifenstein, Jr. Patriot-Improvers: Biographical Sketches of Members of the American Philosophical Society. 3 vols. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1997, I: 330-32, 333-34, 376-77, 458, 477, II:29, 152, 369, 390, 397, 404, III:3, 13, 16-31, 77, 193-95, 296-98, 345, 391, 576, 600.
  6. Gibbons, Hughes Oliphant (1905). A History of Old Pine Street. Philadelphia: John C. Winston Company.
  7. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/69341
Sources
  • Randolph Shipley Klein, Portrait of an Early American Family: The Shippens of Pennsylvania Across Five Generations. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975.
  • Columbia Encyclopedia article
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