John Minson Galt (1744-1808)

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Biographical Sketch

From: Galt Family of Williamsburg Source: The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Apr., 1900), pp. 259-262

"Dr. John M. Galt was the son of Samuel Galt, who was the of one of the two Covenanters (Scotch Protestant), John and William Galt, who are said to have been banished from Scotland in 1684 on account of their religion...Dr. John M. Galt was born in 1744, and died 1808. He was educated at College of William and Mary, and received his medical education in Edinburgh and Paris in 1765-'6-'7. He was for a time surgeon in the Hudson Bay Co., but gave up the position and returned to Williamsburg and began there the practice of medicine. He married Miss Judith Craig, daughter of Mr. Alexander Craig and Marie Maupin his wife.

Dr. John M. Galt was attending physician to the Hospital for the Insane at Williamsburg (the first hospital exclusively for the insane in the United States). He was a vestryman of Bruton Parish Church, and one of the Board of Directors for William and Mary College. In 1774 he was one of the Committee of Williamsburg. He was a prominent surgeon during the war, and was in the siege of Yorktown; was senior field surgeon of Virginia troops at the end of the war, and had charge of the sick soldiers in the hospitals in and around Williamsburg after the war. He was a philanthropist, and compounded and gave to the patients of the insane hospital all medicines used by them after he was appointed their visiting physician. He had a very large practice in Williamsburg and the adjacent counties. Dr. Alexander D. Galt, son of Dr. John M. Galt, was born 1771 in Williamsburg, was educated at William and Mary College and at Oxford, England. He was also private pupil of Sir Astley Cooper and attended the London hospitals 1792-'3-'4. He was associated with his father and succeeded him as physician to the Hospital for the Insane."

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John Minson Galt I in the SCRC database.

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