The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.2 | September 2022

Member’s article

came ashore in 1796. The war with France was raging and this was the era of Nelson’s greatest sea battles before Trafalgar. There would have seemed to have been every need for experienced surgeons afloat, yet the wider picture called for Wilson’s presence elsewhere. In 1795 Great Britain acquired the Cape Colony from the Dutch East India Company and remained in control until the 1802 Treaty of Amiens. Wilson was needed at the Cape of Good Hope Naval Hospital. Isaac Wilson MD No longer serving at sea certainly seems to have facilitated the pursuit of certain personal matters that required Wilson’s attention. On 23 December 1796 he graduated MD at St Andrews University which was accustomed to grant up to ten degrees per year to mature, qualified doctors. The degree could be obtained by the recommendation of two other MDs (of any university) and the payment of the requisite fee. The candidate didn’t need to go to St Andrews. It was all done by post. Wilson already seems to have been exploiting his influential contacts. His sponsors were Archibald Thompson MD, Physician, Royal Hospital at Haslar, and William Pattison MD who had himself graduated MD only in 1796. The 1798 Irish Rebellion Meanwhile, disturbing events were playing out in Ireland, Wilson’s homeland. Marshall’s biography recounts that Isaac Wilson's younger brother, Adam, became an “insurgent in 1798”. He was evidently a member of the liberal and non-sectarian “Society of United Irishmen” comprised mainly of Presbyterians and Catholics that sought Parliamentary reform. Inspired by the American and French Revolutions and by repressive

Abolition of the trade was not attained on this occasion and the outbreak of war with France in 1793 effectively delayed further serious consideration of the issue as politicians concentrated on the national crisis and the threat of invasion. Wilberforce nevertheless persisted and the Slave Trade Act finally received the Royal Assent on 25th March 1807. Resummoned to the colours Meanwhile, with the French Revolutionary War imminent, the Royal Navy needed Wilson at sea again and between February 1792 and October 1796 he served as Surgeon on HMS Hussar . It was at this time that he made the acquaintance of Prince Edward (the future Duke of Kent) who was in Quebec from 1791 and Halifax, Nova Scotia from 1794. It appears at first sight strange that Wilson Medallion created as part of anti-slavery campaign by Josiah Wedgwood 1787

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