Thomas Dimsdale, FRS (1712-1800)

Born in Theydon Garnon, Thomas was the son of John Dimsdale, a surgeon, and his wife Susan. The family were members of the Society of Religious Friends (Quakers). The Dimsdales were from Hoddesdon but a branch of the family settled in Theydon Garnon in about 1640. Robert Dimsdale (Thomas’s grandfather) was a surgeon and doctor and treated his patients at Kendalls on the site of what is now Kendal Lodge in Hemnall Street. He bought the 30 acre farm at the end of the 17th Century and may have been in the group who helped build the first Meeting House in Epping.

Robert accompanied William Penn on a visit to America in 1684, to help establish the colony where a greater degree of religious freedom could be practised. He died in 1713 and left his estate to his two sons John and William.

Thomas was trained in medicine by his father John, and later attended St Thomas hospital to complete his training. He began practice in Hertford in 1734.

In 1745 Dimsdale served as a doctor with the Duke of Cumberland's army on its march north to suppress the Jacobite rising. He was present at the siege of Carlisle, but after the town's surrender he left the army and returned home.

At around that time Dimsdale inherited a fortune from his cousin (upon the death of the cousin's widow) which enabled him to stop practicing medicine, but he later returned to his medical career. In 1761 he took the degree of MD at King's College, Aberdeen.

Before long, he became interested in the emerging practice of inoculation against smallpox. His first treatise on the subject, The Present Method of Inoculating for the Small-Pox (1767), circulated widely and was translated into numerous languages.

As a result of his fame in the field, Dimsdale was invited to inoculate Empress Catherine of Russia and her son, Grand Duke Paul. She had asked to be inoculated as an example to her subjects, many of whom viewed the practice with suspicion. Dimsdale and his son Nathaniel, who served as his assistant, attended Catherine in St Petersburg in October 1768. Such was the anxiety surrounding the event that the Empress arranged for relays of post-horses to be ready to carry the two men rapidly to safety, should something go wrong and the public rise up in anger against them.

No such measures proved necessary. Both patients responded well to the inoculation, and the Empress held a great thanksgiving service at court. She declared Thomas Dimsdale a Baron of the Empire, a Councillor of State, and Physician to Her Majesty. Catherine also rewarded him with £10,000, a pension of £500 per annum, £2000 expenses. Nathaniel Dimsdale was also made a Baron of the Empire. Although he declined Catherine’s request to stay in Russia permanently, Thomas Dimsdale inoculated dozens of Russian gentry in St Petersburg and Moscow before returning to England. He travelled to Russia again in 1784 to inoculate the Grand Duke Alexander and his brother Constantine.

Banking career

By about 1761 Thomas Dimsdale had entered into the private banking partnership of Dimsdale, Archer & Byde in Cornhill, London. In 1774 he was one of two partners who broke away and reformed the partnership as Staples, Baron Dimsdale, Son & Co.

Dimsdale himself retired from the bank around 1776, but his sons succeeded him, and the bank remained a Dimsdale family enterprise for generations until eventually, in 1891, it merged with Prescott, Cave, Buxton, Loder & Co to form what became Prescott's Bank.

Political career

Thomas Dimsdale was elected to Parliament as the member for Hertford in 1780. In his 10 years as an MP he is only known to have made one speech, in June 1783.

The English Chronicle wrote about him in 1781:
He is very much distinguished in his profession by the industrious and honest exercise of which he has acquired an independent fortune ... He owes his seat entirely to the good opinion entertained of him by his electors, amongst whom he is an old and favourite resident. Oratory is not one of his talents, but it is believed, however, that he will at least pronounce the decisive monosyllable with eloquence, with the genuine eloquence of sincerity, and vote upon every subject from the unbiased influence of his principles and conviction.

About his one recorded speech (on the receipts tax, 12 June 1783), the reporter writes that he ‘spoke for some time, but in so low a tone, that we could not distinctly hear him’

He was re-elected in 1784, but did not stand in 1790, and was succeeded by his son Nathaniel.

Family life and death

In 1739 Thomas Dimsdale married Mary Brassey, daughter of the Hertford MP and banker Nathaniel Brassey. They had no children. She died in 1744. In 1746 he married Anne Iles, a relative of his first wife. They had nine children together. Anne died in 1779. Soon afterwards, he married Elizabeth Dimsdale of Bishop’s Stortford. There were no children of this union.

Thomas died on the 30th December 1800, aged 88, his request was to be buried in the Friends’ burial ground at Bishop’s Stortford along with other members of his family. When his wife died twelve years later, she was buried alongside him.