Gerardus Clarkson (236)

Election date: 1768 (Elected to the American Society when it absorbed the membership of the Medical Society.)

Gerardus Clarkson (December 1738 July 1724-September 1790) was a physician and a member of the American Philosophical Society, via his 1766 election to the Philadelphia Medical Society. While born in New York, Clarkson lost his father at an early age and soon moved with his family to New Jersey in 1743 when his mother remarried a Presbyterian minister. The family moved again to Philadelphia in 1743 when Clarkson’s stepfather accepted a position at the newly formed Second Presbyterian Church. In Philadelphia, the minister saw that his new son enjoyed an excellent education and in 1751 enrolled him in the inaugural class at the Academy of Philadelphia. Following graduation, Clarkson apprenticed under APS member Dr. Thomas Bond and after that opened a successful medical practice. Medicine was central for the remainder of Clarkson’s life, including his philanthropy work such as joining the Society of Inoculating the Poor in 1774. With the arrival of American Revolution, Clarkson avoided most involvement but made an exception by caring for sick and wounded Continental soldiers. When not acting as a physician, Clarkson dedicated himself to Philadelphia’s Christ Church, a decision that signaled a clear break with his step-father’s new light teachings. Clarkson served in leadership positions in the church and eventually was a founder and a Trustee at Philadelphia’s Episcopal Academy. His death in 1790 was mourned by many, including APS member and close friend, Benjamin Rush, who lamented there was “scarcely a street or corner in Philadelphia” that did not remind him of many conversations with the doctor. (PI)
 

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