The Apothecary in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg: Being an Account of his medical and chirurgical Services, as well as of his trade Practices as a Chymist — John Shaqi
The Apothecary in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg: Being an Account of his medical and chirurgical Services, as well as of his trade Practices as a ChymistFord, Thomas K.
History
The Apothecary in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg: Being an Account of his medical and chirurgical Services, as well as of his trade Practices as a Chymist
Ford, Thomas K.
Pharmacists -- Virginia -- Williamsburg; Pharmacy -- Virginia -- Williamsburg
THE Subscribers having this Day entered into Partnership, beg Leave to
acquaint the Public in general, and their Friends and Neighbours in
particular, that they intend practicing Physic and Surgery to their
fullest Extent; and that they intend also, as soon as the Situation of
the Times will admit, to keep full and complete Assortments of Drugs
and Medicines, which they will endeavour to procure of the very best
in Quality, and will take Care to have them fresh by making several
Importations in the Year. It is proposed that _John M. Galt_ shall pay
his particular Attention to Surgery, to whom our Friends are desired
to apply on all such occasions, but will be advised and assisted by
_W. Pasteur_ in all difficult Cases. They both desire to make their
most grateful Acknowledgments to their Friends and Customers for the
many Favours and Civilities they have received, and hope, by this
Union, they will be enabled to carry on their Business to the entire
Satisfaction of their Friends; as, on their Part, the strictest
Assiduity and Attention shall be observed.
PASTEUR & GALT
Only a few days after this announcement appeared, the spark of
revolution flared out in both Lexington, Massachusetts, and
Williamsburg, Virginia. As it happened, Dr. Pasteur was to play a minor
role and a momentary one on the Williamsburg stage. Governor Dunmore’s
surreptitious removal of the colony’s gunpowder from the Magazine was
detected and there was an immediate reaction from the populace, some
under arms. Attending a patient in the Palace, Dr. Pasteur was twice
accosted by the Governor and made the bearer of angry messages to the
Speaker of the House of Burgesses and “the Gentlemen of the Town.”
Should he be attacked, His Lordship blustered, “he would declare freedom
to the slaves & reduce the city of Williamsburg to ashes.”
What actually followed was that Dunmore and his family fled the Palace,
never to return, and Pasteur became the next mayor of Williamsburg. It
should be mentioned that he and John Minson Galt were already members of
the Committee of Safety for the city when they formed their partnership.
The sympathies of both were clearly on the patriot side.
The partners very shortly were able to advertise the importation of the
usual wide assortment of drugs and medicines for sale in their shop on
Duke of Gloucester Street. And a few surviving bills indicate that they
did not lack for medical and surgical business. Dr. Pasteur, it would
seem, did not share his younger colleague’s aversion to phlebotomy, as
the following excerpt from a Pasteur & Galt bill to Henry Morse Esq. in
1775 shows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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