William Shippen Jr. was an American physician and pioneer teacher of anatomy and midwifery.
Background
He was born on October 21, 1736 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the cousin of Edward Shippen and the great-grandson of Edward Shippen. He was the son of Susannah (Harrison) and William Shippen, who was one of the prominent medical men of his day and a member of the Continental Congress.
Education
After attending the academy kept by Samuel Finley at Nottingham, the boy went to the College of New Jersey (Princeton), from which he graduated in 1754. He then studied medicine with his father until 1757, when he went abroad to study. He studied especially under William Hunter and Colin McKenzie. From London he went to Edinburgh, where he received the degree of M. D. in 1761, with a thesis "De Placentae cum Utero Nexu" (1761).
Career
William won the esteem and friendship of John Fothergill, who became greatly interested in his plans to establish courses in midwifery and anatomy in Philadelphia. When he returned to Philadelphia in 1762, Fothergill sent, in his care, to the Pennsylvania Hospital a number of anatomical drawings and casts that he desired the managers to permit Shippen to use in his teaching. The pictures had been made by Jan Van Rymsdyk, the celebrated Dutch painter residing in London, who made most of the pictures for William Hunter's great work on the gravid uterus.
Shippen began his courses on November 16, 1762, in the State House. Although he made use of the Fothergill pictures and casts, he utilized chiefly the dissection of human bodies, a method taught by Hunter. His courses were very successful, and the number of students increased year by year. Somewhat later he began giving courses on midwifery, not only to medical students but also to women who intended to practise midwifery.
When John Morgan succeeded in getting the trustees of the College of Philadelphia to organize a medical school in connection with the college in 1765, Shippen was appointed professor of surgery and anatomy. In 1776 he was appointed chief physician and director general of the hospital in the Continental Army in New Jersey. In October of the same year he was appointed by Congress director general of all the hospitals in the west side of the Hudson River, and, after John Morgan was displaced by Congress, was appointed on April 11, 1777, chief physician and director-general of the Continental Army hospital in his stead.
In March 1777 Shippen had submitted to Congress a plan for the reorganization of the army medical department and this brought him prominently to the notice of Congress and, no doubt, had much to do with his obtaining the appointment. Shippen himself was later subjected to a court martial on charges of financial irregularity in his department. He was acquitted and remained chief of the medical department of the Continental Army until his resignation in 1781.
In 1778 he was elected physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital, but he resigned in the following year owing to the pressure of his military duties. In 1791 he again became a member of the staff of the hospital, on which he continued to serve until 1802. He was the president of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia from 1805 to 1808. In 1791, when the University of Pennsylvania was established, he was appointed professor of anatomy, surgery, and midwifery.
After the death of his only son, a young man of great promise, in 1798 he seems to have lost interest in life. His health gradually declined, his practice fell off, and he seldom lectured. He died in Philadelphia.
Achievements
Connections
About 1760 he was married in London to Alice Lee, the sister of Francis Lightfoot, William, Richard Henry, and Arthur Lee. Together, they were the parents of Anne Hume Shippen (1763–1841), who married Henry Beekman Livingston (1750–1831), who commanded the 4th New York Regiment at the Battles of Saratoga.