Annals of the Royal Colle(ge of Surgeolns of England (1979) vol 6i
A portrait of Thomas Hollier, Pepys's G C R Morris
surgeon
MA DM MRCP
Institute of Basic Medical Sciences,
Royal
College of Surgeons of Englanid
The generosity of the President and Past Presidents of the British Association of Urological Surgeons1 has recently enabled the College to acquire a good portrait (Fig. i) of Thomas Hollier (I60g-go), best known2 as the surgeon who removed a large stone from the bladder of Samuel Pepys in I658. Thomas Hollier was probably about six months old when he was baptised at Holy Trinity, Coventry, on 20th September I609. His father, William, was a cobbler 'or at best a poor shoo maker . . . a foxing drunken fellow', according to the story3 that John Ward, afterwards vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, heard 40 years later, in which Thomas was taken up as a boy by Dr Mathias (otherwise Hulsbos or Holsbosch), a German-born physician long in practice in London, who attended the family of James I and often visited Combe Abbey, near Coventry, where Lord Harington had been the guardian of the young Princess Elizabeth. Thomas had been recommended by his schoolmaster to Dr Mathias as a lad 'to dresse his horses and ride along with him'. But by the time 'Mathews Hulsbos, Docter of Phisicke' made his will4 in April I629 Hollier was 'my servant who hath been loving and carefull of me'. He was left all the English books on medicine, surgery, history and divinity that were in the doctor's house in Shoe Lane and not bequeathed to the College of Physicians (which received 68o volumes5), besides the books and other goods in the houses of three friends in the country and almost half the doctor's clothes. Hollier was then well equipped, at the rather late age of 20, to enter the apprenticeship that decided his personal as well as his professional future. His master was James Molins, neighbour and friend of Dr Mathias Hulsbos, formerly apprenticed to William Clowes the elder, since i 6o5 surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital, lithotomist there and at St Bartholomew's Hospital from I623, and
licentiate (I627) of the College of Physicians, who became Master of the Company of Barbers and Surgeons in I632 and was the progenitor of a surgical family that almost spanned the century and the grandfather of Hollier's second wife. The completion of Hollier's apprenticeship in May I637 was soon followed by a shortlived first marriage' and then by his appointment as surgeon for scald heads at St Thomas's Hospital early in i 638'. James Molins died8 at the end of that year and was succeeded in all his hospital appointments by his son Edward (I6Io?-i663). just a month after the death of James Molins, Hollier, a widower of 29, married9 Edward Molins's niece Lucy Knowles, who was not quite i61°. She was the eldest daughter"1 of Thomas Knowles, linen draper, and his wife Lucy, the eldest daughter of James Molins-in whose will'2 his grandchild Lucy was left £5o. Thomas Hollier and Lucy (Fig. 2) produced four sons and five daughters; six of these children were married before Lucy's death on I 5th August I677. Little is known of her character; she is not mentioned by Pepys in his Diary. While Edward Molins was away from London with the King's army in the Civil War his duties at St Thomas's were performed by Hollier. That was one reason why, when the House of Commons ordered the dismissal of Molins and nominated a successor, the hospital preferred to appoint Hollier as surgeon and surgeon for the stone on 29th January I644. Also Hollier had been 'exercised in the said Hospitall' for I4 years'3. (The period must have included the whole of his apprenticeship, so the statement makes him the first recorded pupil at St Thomas's.) At Bart's no formal succession was recorded; but Hollier, instead of Molins, was paid as surgeon for the stone from March i643's. The Holliers lived in Warwick Lane, just north of St Paul's'5. Thomas invested so well in property there that he lost heavily in the
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A portrait of Thomas Hollier, Pepys's G C R Morris
surgeon
MA DM MRCP
Institute of Basic Medical Sciences,
Royal
College of Surgeons of Englanid
The generosity of the President and Past Presidents of the British Association of Urological Surgeons1 has recently enabled the College to acquire a good portrait (Fig. i) of Thomas Hollier (I60g-go), best known2 as the surgeon who removed a large stone from the bladder of Samuel Pepys in I658. Thomas Hollier was probably about six months old when he was baptised at Holy Trinity, Coventry, on 20th September I609. His father, William, was a cobbler 'or at best a poor shoo maker . . . a foxing drunken fellow', according to the story3 that John Ward, afterwards vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, heard 40 years later, in which Thomas was taken up as a boy by Dr Mathias (otherwise Hulsbos or Holsbosch), a German-born physician long in practice in London, who attended the family of James I and often visited Combe Abbey, near Coventry, where Lord Harington had been the guardian of the young Princess Elizabeth. Thomas had been recommended by his schoolmaster to Dr Mathias as a lad 'to dresse his horses and ride along with him'. But by the time 'Mathews Hulsbos, Docter of Phisicke' made his will4 in April I629 Hollier was 'my servant who hath been loving and carefull of me'. He was left all the English books on medicine, surgery, history and divinity that were in the doctor's house in Shoe Lane and not bequeathed to the College of Physicians (which received 68o volumes5), besides the books and other goods in the houses of three friends in the country and almost half the doctor's clothes. Hollier was then well equipped, at the rather late age of 20, to enter the apprenticeship that decided his personal as well as his professional future. His master was James Molins, neighbour and friend of Dr Mathias Hulsbos, formerly apprenticed to William Clowes the elder, since i 6o5 surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital, lithotomist there and at St Bartholomew's Hospital from I623, and
licentiate (I627) of the College of Physicians, who became Master of the Company of Barbers and Surgeons in I632 and was the progenitor of a surgical family that almost spanned the century and the grandfather of Hollier's second wife. The completion of Hollier's apprenticeship in May I637 was soon followed by a shortlived first marriage' and then by his appointment as surgeon for scald heads at St Thomas's Hospital early in i 638'. James Molins died8 at the end of that year and was succeeded in all his hospital appointments by his son Edward (I6Io?-i663). just a month after the death of James Molins, Hollier, a widower of 29, married9 Edward Molins's niece Lucy Knowles, who was not quite i61°. She was the eldest daughter"1 of Thomas Knowles, linen draper, and his wife Lucy, the eldest daughter of James Molins-in whose will'2 his grandchild Lucy was left £5o. Thomas Hollier and Lucy (Fig. 2) produced four sons and five daughters; six of these children were married before Lucy's death on I 5th August I677. Little is known of her character; she is not mentioned by Pepys in his Diary. While Edward Molins was away from London with the King's army in the Civil War his duties at St Thomas's were performed by Hollier. That was one reason why, when the House of Commons ordered the dismissal of Molins and nominated a successor, the hospital preferred to appoint Hollier as surgeon and surgeon for the stone on 29th January I644. Also Hollier had been 'exercised in the said Hospitall' for I4 years'3. (The period must have included the whole of his apprenticeship, so the statement makes him the first recorded pupil at St Thomas's.) At Bart's no formal succession was recorded; but Hollier, instead of Molins, was paid as surgeon for the stone from March i643's. The Holliers lived in Warwick Lane, just north of St Paul's'5. Thomas invested so well in property there that he lost heavily in the
*.-v,:iY. ,&jRe. _1| l 1|_
*_|*&MbsEj'-.}_.SYw:fd;4,j5-|3s^?s.S|;igM1EaMv-kI_S,ml1a't|Er-il.i|,_s:S.I*|b{k_1ilISl_-|s'S1.=fg|Xi!-W|l_ l'>fR=_.--S|;'iasX|-R"X:b_9;1riS>|-o'=-|_.
