Peter Sonmans (245)

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

Peter Sonmans (1709–14 March 1776) was a physician, and a member of the American Philosophical Society via the absorption of the Medical Society by the American Society in 1768. Born the son of a wealthy landowner in New Jersey, Sonmans chose instead to pursue a career in medicine. He settled in Philadelphia, opening his practice in 1735 followed by marrying Bethiah Wilson in 1737. A colleague to a number of APS Members including John Kearsley, William Shippen, Sr., Thomas Cadwalader, and Thomas Bond, Sonmans collaborated with them to report on the smallpox epidemic of 1736-37. As an established member of the medical community, it is unsurprising that APS Member John Morgan asked him to join the Medical Society in 1766. His family inheritance, however, allowed Sonmans to pursue ventures outside of medicine. Intrigued by viticulture, Sonmans experimented with cultivating a vineyard beginning in 1768, sharing his results (and cuttings) with APS Member Edward Antill. Additionally, he used his wealth to patronize a number of local institutions including the Academy of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Hospital. Sonmans died in 1776 and was buried in Christ Church burying ground, survived only by his wife who received the bulk of his property. (PI)

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