William MacOubrey 1800 - 1884

William MacOubrey 1800 - 1884 MD Trinity College Dublin 1825, was an Irish orthodox physician, orangeman and Barrister at Law in the Middle Temple 1839, who converted to homeopathy.

William MacOubrey was the physician of Henry James Snr,

MacOubrey was the eldest son of John M MacOubrey of Downpatrick, apothecary and Margaret Nicholson, and he practiced at 8 and 13 Swan Street, Chelsea, and at 134 Sloane Street in the 1840s and 1850s, and he then returned to Belfast and in 1865 (aged 65), he married Henrietta Mary Clarke 1818 - 1903 (aged 47), the stepdaughter of George Borrow. MacOubrey and his new wife returned to London to live at 80 Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, presumably after Henrietta’s mother died in 1869. In 1878, MacOubrey and Henrietta moved to Oulton to care for George Borrow (Clement King Shorter, George Borrow and His Circle, (Forgotten Books). Multiple pages).

MacOubrey was on the Management Committee of the English Homeopathic Association alongside William Henry Ashurst, John Burnett, Edward Cronin, Paul Francois Curie, A O Deacon, Robert S Dick, George Napoleon Epps, John Epps, Robert Frith, Joseph Glover, Robert Grosvenor, George Hayes, Thomas H Johnstone, Henry Kelsall, John Miller, Henry P Osman, Charles Thomas Pearce, William Perkins, George K Prince, James Stansfeld, Peter Stuart, Allan Templeton, James Thomson, William Warne, James Wilson,

MacOubrey was one of the consulting physicians, alongside Charles Thomas Pearce, in the treatment of David Richard Pearce (brother of Charles Thomas Pearce), who was suffering from cholera, but unfortunately died.

Charles Thomas Pearce attended his brother David Richard Pearce who had contracted cholera, and treated him homeopathically. Charles Thomas Pearce was then himself struck down by cholera and could not attend his brother. He left careful instructions for the care of his brother, but these were not carried out and an allopath was called in, and his brother died.

Charles Thomas Pearce instructed MacOubrey to continue the care of his brother whilst he was ill, and MacOubrey prescribed stramonium, rhus tox, aconite, belladonna, ant tart, sulphur,

Charles Thomas Pearce had asked his colleague William MacOubrey (also a homeopath) to care for his brother whilst he was ill, but it was only Charles Thomas Pearce who was subject to persecution and prosecution! William MacOubrey was also a Barrister at Law in the Middle Temple as well as being an MD and a homeopath! Obviously _The Lancet__ _was too embryonic to risk attacking him!

MacOubrey was subsequently involved in the defense of Charles Thomas Pearce, who was subjected to the indignity of being incarcerated in Newgate Prison under the jumped up charges of Thomas Wakley and a biased deputy Coroner H Membury Wakley (the son of Thomas Wakley shame!) Thomas Wakley (a litigenous libel lawyer who sought infamy and publicity for his new journal) was one of the founders of The Lancet, alongside William Cobbett (a racist, ex prisoner and anti Semite), William Lawrence (a controversial materialist and anti vitalist Baronet) and James Wardrop (who wrote scurrilous and ‘faked’ articles for The Lancet under the pseudonym ‘Brutus’).

In 1849, as a medical student, Charles Thomas Pearce was acquitted of a charge of manslaughter brought by the reformer Thomas Wakley, (an appointed coroner (actually his ‘son‘ H Membury Wakley) after his brother David Richard Pearce’s death from cholera.

A full transcipt of the case at the Old Bailey is here and it was fully reported in the British journal of Homeopathy, and it was also widely reported in America.

MacOubrey wrote Drake: or, The transfer of the Trident: a national drama, Dissertatio medica inauguralis, de ictero,

Of interest:

John MacOubrey was also a Barrister at Law in 1847.