John Hodgson Ramsbotham 1809 - 1868

John Hodgson Ramsbotham 1809 - 1868 LAC 1832, MRCS Eng. 1832, MD Erlangen 1852 and 1855 was an orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy, a member of the Obstetrical Society of London, he was the President of the Northern Homeopathic Association, having been the founder of the Homeopathic Society in Huddersfield.

Ramsbotham was a member of the Hahneman Publishing Society, the British Homeopathic Society, an Honorary member of the British Homeopathic Association and a member of the Hahnemann Medical Society. John Hodgson Ramsbotham was a Surgeon at the Royal Maternity Charity Hospital London, and at the Halifax Homeopathic Dispensary. He was also a member of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society.

John Hodgson Ramsbotham was a member of the Medical Council of the London Homeopathic Hospital.

Ramsbotham was a colleague of Hugh Cameron, John James Drysdale, Robert Ellis Dudgeon, Richard Hughes, Joseph Kidd, Thomas Robinson Leadam, Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, John Rutherford Russell, Stephen Yeldham and many others.

John Hodgson Ramsbotham practiced at Vernon Terrace, Huddersfield.

From Helen Kelsall, The Development of Voluntary Medical Institutions in Rochdale 1832-1872), Transactions New Series Number 4, (1994, Rochdale Literary and Scientific Society). In John Bright, Robert Alfred John Walling (Ed.), The Diaries of John Bright, (1931). Page 136, John Bright told us that he visited London to consultant a Dr. Chapman, a ‘… homeopathist in Grosvenor Street…’ who prescribed him pusatilla and charged him 1 guinea (James Chapman MA Cantab. In 1850, a Jas Chapman MA Cantab is mentioned in the London Medical Gazette as a Medical Officer at the Hahnemann Hospital at 39 Bloomsbury Square, he is mentioned again (as ‘… MA Cantab and MD…’) in The British Journal of Homeopathy in 1850 practicing at 28 Grosvenor Street,  and he is mentioned again in 1851 in The __British Journal of Homeopathy). John Bright also consulted a Dr. Benett (an orthodox surgeon), and a homeopathic physician, Dr. Ramsbottom [John Hodgson Ramsbotham], and John Bright noted that ‘… Dr. Bennett [was] rather awkward at seeming to act with an ‘irregular’ mendical man…’ (Rochdale Observer 13.2.1869)

From http://www.archive.org/stream/ramblesroundhort00cudw/ramblesroundhort00cudw_djvu.txt Henry Ramsbotham married Ann Elizabeth, daughter  of Thomas Shepley, Esq. of Tadcaster. He died in 1810,  and his widow afterwards married Dr. Mossman.

Henry  Ramsbotham had two sons, Henry Robert and John Hodgson. Robert, after being in partnership with the Rands for many  years, founded the firm of Messrs. H. R. Ramsbotham & Co.,  and lived at Allerton Hall, afterwards removing to Finchley, where he died, unmarried, in 1880.

John, the second son, was apprenticed with Mr. Blakey, surgeon, of Bradford, and  practiced as a medical man for a time in London and afterwards in his native town. Being compelled by ill health  to retire from the active pursuit of his profession, he accepted in 1838 the stewardship of the Thornhill estates at Fixby and  Calverley.

In 1845, having had his attention drawn to the  method of treatment put forth by Hahnemann, then a novelty  in this country, he gradually resumed practice, and by his enthusiasm as one of the pioneers of homeopathy in the  north of England, made many converts to the new doctrine  among his professional friends. He was well known as a successful practitioner, first in Huddersfield and then in Leeds, where he died in 1868.

He married Mary, eldest  daughter of the Rev. Samuel Redhead. Of his sons, two have become connected with the Bradford trade, viz., Robert Redhead, who was in partnership with Mr. Wm. Firth as a worsted spinner, and died in ?, and John Rand, who is associated with his cousin Frederick Mossman in carrying on the business of H. R. Ramsbotham & Co..

His eldest son, Samuel Henry Ramsbotham, succeeded him in practice at Leeds, and  his youngest son, Francis Shepley, is an assistant master at Charterhouse School, Godalming. His daughter, Mary  Lilizabeth, married the Rev. Edward Kemble, formerly vicar of Yeadon, now vicar of Coniston Cold, in Craven.

John Hodgson Ramsbotham submitted a case on Hydrophobia to the Quarterly Homeopathic Journal in 1850, and comments on Gastrotomy in the Journal of the British Homeopathic Society in 1864, Induced Labour in the deformed pelvis, comments on Puerperal Fever in The Application of the Principles and Practice of Homoeopathy to Obstetrics by Henry Newell Guernsey in 1867, the non union of fractures in Practical Notes on the New American and Other Remedies by Richard Tuthill Massy in 1876.

Of interest:

Samuel Henry Ramsbotham MD Edin. MRCS Engl., homeopath and son of John Hodgson Ramsbotham, practiced at 28 Somers Street, Harrowgate, and at 16 Park Place, Leeds, and at Fairstead, Ripon Rd.

Samuel Henry Ramsbotham (?-?) of Leeds, son of John Hodgson Ramsbotham, attended (Anon, The Homeopathic World, Volume 43, (1908). Page 236) the 2nd International Homeopathic Congress held in London (Anon, The Medical Counselor, Volume 7, (The Michigan State Homeopathic Society, 1883). Page 347) in on 11th-18th July 1881 (Anon, The Homeopathic World, (August 1,1881)) at Aberdeen House, Argyll Street, Regent Street.

Francis Henry Ramsbotham **1801 - 1868 cousin of **John Hodgson Ramsbotham, an allopath, who was a Consultant Obstetrician who argued forcibly with James Young Simpson on the use of chloroform in obstetrics. Francis Henry Ramsbotham lectured at the London Hospital Medical College on Pathology and Forensics, having taken over the practice of his father, John Ramsbotham.

Francis Henry Ramsbotham wrote The Principles and Practice of Obstetric Medicine and Surgery, Suggestions in Reference to the Means of Advancing Medical Science, Introductory Address Delivered at the London Hospital Medical College in 1861, Lectures, Notes, Case Reports, and Correspondence, 1827 - 60, and several other publications.