Background
James Hutchinson was born in Makefield Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1752. He was the son of Randall and Catherine (Rickey) Hutchinson. His father was a prosperous farmer.
James Hutchinson was born in Makefield Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1752. He was the son of Randall and Catherine (Rickey) Hutchinson. His father was a prosperous farmer.
James received an unusually good education for the times. He attended an academy in Burlington, N. J. , continued at a school in Virginia, and is said to have attended the College of Philadelphia. After studying medicine in Philadelphia, in 1775 he went to England to study under Dr. John Fothergill of London.
His return home tafter his study in England was hastened by the Revolution. He came by way of France and was the bearer of important dispatches from Benjamin Franklin to the Congress of the United States. On his arrival in Philadelphia he immediately joined the army as a surgeon and later became surgeongeneral of Pennsylvania, serving as such from the latter part of 1778 until 1784. After the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British army, he was appointed a member of the Committee of Safety.
He built up a large medical practice and with Benjamin Rush held the office of physician to the Port of Philadelphia. In 1779 he was appointed one of the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, by the act under which the institution was incorporated, and served as such until 1781. In 1783 he declined the chair of materia medica and chemistry at the university, but in 1789 he accepted the appointment and in 1791 was appointed professor of chemistry, which position he held until his death.
He also served two terms on the medical staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital (1777-78, 1779 - 93). In 1793 Philadelphia experienced a severe epidemic of yellow fever. Hutchinson's exertions in this emergency were beyond his strength and he fell a victim to the disease himself.
He took an active part in local politics to the end of his life, was an influential member of the Whig party, and several times refused election to office.
He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and a fellow as well as one of the incorporators of the College of Physicians.
He was twice married: first to Lydia Biddle and after her death to Sidney Evans Howell.