Henry Blyth Apothecary

In 1666 Henry Blythe of Dronfield,  son of Charles Blythe the armiger (he inherited the coat of arms), a cousin of the Blythe’s of Norton Lees. is listed in documents as an Apothecary. He appears to have been both an apothecary in Dronfield (tokens advertising him) and of Nottingham (on deeds of sale of Dronfield lands) He was only 22 at the time so perhaps he was in the process of moving back after an apprenticeship or had just moved to Nottingham. In any case it is obvious that he was an apothecary in Dronfield  around 1666. I thought this meant he was a dispensing  pharmacist or a herbalist but this is an oversimplification.

The word ‘apothecary’ is derived from apotheca, meaning a place where wine, spices and herbs were stored. During the thirteenth century it came into use in this country to describe a person who kept a stock of these commodities, which he sold from his shop or street stall. The trade in spicery and the development of pharmacy,  became interdependent and led to the emergence of spicer-apothecaries who  had their shops  where they stored and sold spices, confectionery, perfumes, spiced wines, herbs and drugs which they compounded and dispensed to the public.

Apothecaries were  medical professionals  who made and dispensed medicines to physicians surgeons, and patients  Their role was to supply drugs to doctors, rather than prescribe medicines themselves. They trained through apprenticeships and, from the 1500s, some university study as well. In addition to pharmacy responsibilities, the apothecary offered general medical advice and a range of services that are now performed solely by other specialist practitioners, such as surgery The medieval apothecary was the ancestor of the modern GP (general practitioner)

By the mid-sixteenth century apothecaries had become the equivalent of today’s community pharmacists, dealing mainly with the preparation and sale of substances for medicinal purposes. Authority over medical practice, however, lay with the College of Physicians.

The London apothecaries with their specialist pharmacy skills petitioned for several years to secede from the Grocers’ Company. Gideon de Laune, a wealthy and influential Huguenot, led the separatists. He was Apothecary to Anne of Denmark, wife of James I, which may have helped them gain the king’s approval. The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London was incorporated by royal charter on 6 December 1617.

A landmark challenge to the role and legal status of those providing care to the sick, or those who may be sick, came in the form of the Rose Case (1701–1704). William Rose, a Liveryman of the Society of Apothecaries, practising in St Martin’s-in-the-Fields, was sued for ‘practising physic’ on information supplied by John Seale, a poor butcher of Hungerford Market. Rose compounded and administered various medicines to Seale, who was said to be ‘never the better but much worse’ for his treatment. He was apparently so angry when he was presented with an astronomical bill of £50 that he complained to the Royal College of Physicians and Rose was prosecuted and tried before the Court of the Queen’s Bench in February 1701. The legality of Rose’s actions were debated at great length and eventually, and apparently reluctantly, judgement in favour of the Physicians was handed down in November 1703.

On the advice of the Attorney General, the Society of Apothecaries applied for a Writ of Error in the House of Lords, which was heard on 15 March 1704. Part of Rose’s defence included the contention that:

‘… selling a few Lozenges, or a small Electuary to any asking for a remedy for a cold, or in other ordinary or common cases, or where the medicine has known and certain effects, may not be deemed unlawful or practising as a physician, where no fee is taken or demanded for the same. Furthermore the physicians, by straining an act made so long ago, may not be enabled to monopolise all manner of Physick solely to themselves and be an oppression to the poorer families not able to go to the charge of a fee’.

 

Their Lordships regarded the physicians’ argument as being based on upholding ancient privilege and not on the provision of care for the sick, and found for William Rose and, by extension, for all apothecaries, and reversed the judgement. This landmark ruling formed the basis for the legal recognition of apothecaries as doctors, and marked the beginning of the general practice of medicine.

As yet no other trace has been found of Henry other than his baptism in 1644, and mention of him in various legal documents.

Doctor John Blythe, professor of Medicine, Cambridge.

John Blythe was said to be Thomas Blythe’s son, but a document when he was a clerk in Stafford, clearly states he was the son of Richard Blythe of Norton.   He can be seen also in a document in 1500 as dean of York buying land with a Richard of Norton in Dinnington from a William Taylor.  Geoffrey Blythe was also a dean of York before he became Bishop of Lichfield in 1503. Geoffrey is  seen in a document dealing with some of the same land with Richard in Dinnington in 1505.  Richard Blythe is listed as a gentleman.

In 1510 John Blythe listed as a scholar of Paris, is appointed archdeacon of Canterbury and prebendary of Weeford  in Lichfield.  John is to be found in several documents working with his uncle Geoffrey in the enquiry into the Lollards.

In 1530 John is made archdeacon of Stafford. In 1536 John is appointed Regius  professor of medicine at Cambridge University. This is a groundbreaking post as never before had there been  either a department of medicine or a professor of it. John was awarded a salary of £40 per annum for this post. In chancery John is seen as suing the estate of the late Bishop Geoffrey Blythe for money promised for John’s studies in Padua.

John Blythe’s association with church and medicine was not unusual, bearing in mind that for most people medical care came through the monasteries. John Blythe was however also at the beginning of a separate standardised system of teaching for medical practitioners. John had been educated at Paris and Padua so was up to date on European medical thinking which was gradually coming out of the medieval ways of thinking. Like the Blythes who participated in establishing  a division between Church and State for legal matters and a civil service,  John Blythe was helping establish another separation from the Church in the formation of an academic department of medicine.

By  the middle of the 16th century there were, in broad terms,  a  few physicians (mostly with a degree from Oxford or Cambridge) who diagnosed internal problems; barbers who conducted minor surgery such as bloodletting and drawing teeth; surgeons who carried out major surgery in the presence of a physician (both barbers and surgeons had generally been apprenticed); and apothecaries (also apprenticed) who sold drugs and sometimes treated patients.. There was much overlap and frequent disputes between the various representative bodies that developed.

The earliest reference to medical regulation in the UK dates from 1421, when physicians petitioned parliament to ask that nobody without appropriate qualifications be allowed to practise medicine. The doctors said that unqualified practitioners caused “great harm and slaughter of many men”.

Despite agreement in principle from parliament, little more appeared to happen until 1511, when a statute placed regulation of the medical profession in the hands of the bishops. The Church was apparently considered the one institution whose influence was extensive and potent enough to be effective in suppressing quacks and licensing the members of the medical profession. Clerics, often the most highly educated members of society, were better suited to the task. Medicine and religion were also closely entwined: healing had long been associated with the supernatural, while the events of birth and death involved both medics and clerics.

The Royal College of Physicians of London had been founded in 1518 and was supposed to have a monopoly in the giving of medical advice within a seven mile radius of the City of London and, from 1522, nationally. The College was founded by physicians themselves, meaning that in London the licensing of medicine was in the hands of the profession, rather than the bishop. Various disputes arose between the College, universities, and bishops over their authority to license and recognize each others’ qualifications.

As doctors often covered large areas, crossing diocesan boundaries, they often required licenses from several bishops. After the Peter’s Pence Act of 1533, the Archbishop, through his Master of the Faculties, issued dispensations throughout all England. Applicants were expected to provide evidence of their medical or surgical expertise, such as letters testimonial. Where the candidate was recommended by local clergy, physicians, or parishioners, or a mixture of these, the Faculty Office insisted on the countersigning or examination by two fellows of the College of Physicians.

John Blythe married Alice Cheke, the Esquire Bedell’s daughter in Cambridge, before 1530 probably in Cambridge. Peter Cheke’s role as Bedell  was an important ceremonial position which was something like a beadle. Alice’s brother  became tutor to the Edward VI. So John Blythe was very much both in the academic community and known at court. He had 2 sons called George and Peter and a daughter Ann. George married Anne Eggerton daughter of Thomas Eggerton.  Lord Burghley married Mary Cheeke John Blythe’s sister in law and so George Blythe became Burghley’s secretary and secretary to the Council of the North.   Peter went to live in Chesterfield and became an official for the king supervising the wool market.  John would appear to have died in 1568. But there is some confusion there as there are several John Blythe’s and as yet I do not have the wills to separate one from the other.

How did William Blythe get awarded a coat of arms?

Interestingly William Blythe was awarded a coat of Arms in 1485 before Henry Tudor won the Battle of Bosworth but the coat of arms was still confirmed. After Henry married Elisabeth of York in 1486, his second action was to declare himself king retroactively from the day before Bosworth Field. This meant that anyone who had fought for Richard against him would be guilty of treason. Thus, Henry could legally confiscate the lands and property of Richard III while restoring his own. However, he spared Richard’s nephew and designated heir, the Earl of Lincoln. He also created Margaret Plantagenet, a Yorkist heiress, Countess of Salisbury sui juris. He took great care not to address the baronage, or summon Parliament, until after his coronation. At the same time, he almost immediately afterwards issued an edict that any gentleman who swore fealty to him would, notwithstanding any previous attainder, be secure in his property and person.

After the war of the Roses out of 64 peers only 32 were left and Henry was in no hurry to replace them. He granted office to infant children leaving the real work to be done by deputy wardens who were knights or even gentlemen. And also quite a number of yeomen like William became gentlemen presumably for a small fee to help the royal coffers or maybe as a way of mustering an army when necessary for the king or a bit of both. The words of William’s award are interesting.

To all true Christian people etc. I John More otherwise called Norroy, principall herauld and kinge of arms of the North part of this realm send due and humble recommendations etc. Equitie, will and reason ordayneth etc. And therefore I sayd kinge of armes etc. Assertayned that William Blythe of Norton in the Countie of Derby hath continued in virtue etc. And for ye remembrance of his gentleness virtue and ability etc by the vertue of myne office, I the said kinge of arms have devysed, ordained and assigned unto and for the sayd  William Blythe for him and his posteritie ye arms hereafter following, that is to say he beareth ermine, three roebucks gules, armed or and also his crest  a roebucks head as aforesaid, rased of three points in a wreath ermine and gules, a garland of lorel about his necke, graunted to the sayd  William to have and to hold the same armes and creast etc. In witness whereof I sayd kinge of arms have sette to my seal of sign manuell at London on the 27^th day of February, the first year of the raignue of our Soveraigne  Lord King Henry the Seventh.

 

The words “in remembrance of his gentleness virtue and ability” makes me wonder if perhaps that William like many before him was a clerk, a lawyer or accountant, to an important person, possibly even Royal? There were earlier Blythes in John of Gaunts household, a clerk to King Edward l, a composer of religious music in the kings household but no obvious connections at the time of William’s award.

Later the Blythe family married into some important families such as Hastings, Neville, Saville, and Bosville but that was in future generations.

William had married Saffrey Austin half sister of Thomas Rotherham. Thomas may have sponsored his nephews John and Geoffrey Blythe to Eton and then to Cambridge.

Thomas Rotherham was born into a Yorkshire gentry family, educated at a local grammar school,  then to Eton, and Kings College Cambridge. Thomas was elected a fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, in 1444. He held various ecclesiastical livings in the 1450s and 1460s and took a degree at Oxford in 1463. In the late 1450s, he became chaplain to John de VERE.  After her marriage to Edward IV in 1464, Elizabeth  Woodville became Rotherham’s patron, and she was likely responsible for his appointment as keeper of the royal privy seal in 1467.  Rotherham went on diplomatic missions to Burgundy and France, and became bishop of Rochester in 1468. He did not support  Henry VI, and in the spring of 1471 warned Edward IV, who was then returning from exile to reclaim his Crown, not to attempt a landing.

In March 1472, Edward promoted Rotherham to the bishopric of Lincoln, and in 1474 the king appointed him chancellor of England. Like many of Edward IV’s bishops, Rotherham was a man of humble origins who was promoted to high church office because of his loyalty to the king and his usefulness in secular government. Rotherham accompanied Edward on the French expedition of 1475 and was one of the English lords who received a large pension from LOUIS XI of France. Said to be skilled in managing Parliament, Rotherham opened the tense 1478 session that condemned the king’s brother, George Plantagenet, duke of Clarence. In 1480, Rotherham became archbishop of York.

On Edward’s death in April 1483, Rotherham’s connections with the queen made him suspect in the eyes of Richard, duke of Gloucester, who believed the Woodville family was seeking to deprive him of the regency. Rotherham intensified the duke’s mistrust by surrendering the Great Seal of England, , to the queen after fear of Gloucester drove her to Sanctuary at Westminster in early May 1483. Thinking better of this act, Rotherham quickly recovered the Great Seal, but on 10 May Gloucester, now acting as protector for Edward V, replaced the archbishop as chancellor with Bishop John Russell. On 13 June, Gloucester arrested Rotherham, along with William Hastings, Lord Hastings, and other likely opponents, at a Council meeting held in the Tower of London. Although released shortly after an appeal from Cambridge University, which he served as chancellor, Rotherham took little further part in government, either during Richard III’s reign or during the reign of Henry VII. Noted in later life as a prominent benefactor of the English universities, Rotherham died in 1500.

It would seem unlikely Thomas Rotherham helped William Blythe get his coat of arms as he was out of favour at the time, and Williams 2 sons John and Geoffrey were not yet bishops. John was a mere archdeacon and Geoffrey had just started Kings College Cambridge.  There  was Richard Restwold, William’s son in law. Richard was a lawyer, sheriff of Wiltshire and lawyer to the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Earl of Salisbury.  Richard married an un-named daughter but both daughter and son in law were  dead by 1475. The other important marriages in the Blythe family seem to have been made after William was awarded the coat of arms. In fact all the obvious upward mobility of the Blythe family happened after the award of the coat of arms.  After the award their daughter Elisabeth married George Wasteneys of Yeadon, in Nottinghamshire. George had a substantial estate. William’s  son Thomas married Alice Skellowes ( Skelley) and joined Blythe lands  nearby with hers to form  large estates around Barnby Dunn, and Richard married Katherine of Birchett, adding her estate to Blythe lands in Coal Aston, Norton and Dronfield.  But all that was to come so who sponsored William for the coat of arms?