James McClurg (353)

James McClurg (1746–9 July 1823) was a physician, delegate, mayor, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. He was born in Virginia to a British naval surgeon and his wife. His father is thought to have opened the first hospital for the inoculations against smallpox in North America. Following in his father’s footsteps, James McClurg studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating as a doctor of medicine in 1770. He furthered his studies in Paris and London, intermingling amongst the scientific elite of the Enlightenment. He earned a reputation for his 1772 Experiments upon the Human Bile and Reflections on the Biliary Excretion, which expanded upon knowledge of the human intestines. In 1779, he married the daughter of a prominent slave-owning planter back in Virginia and became the first Chair of Anatomy and Medicine at the College of William and Mary that same year. At this time, McClurg also entered into Virginia’s political sphere and in 1784 became a member of the Council of State. Three years later, the House of Delegates selected him for the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention, likely because fellow delegate James Madison was aware of his agreeable federalist leanings. McClurg took the floor twice to advocate for strong executive powers, with little success. He left the convention to return to his medical practice in Virginia. His political career was not entirely over, however, and he served as Mayor of Richmond from 1801 to 1802. He was president of the State Medical Society from 1820 to 1821 and died in Richmond two years later. (ANB)