Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Elliott, John (fl.1690)

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899917Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 17 — Elliott, John (fl.1690)1889Gordon Goodwin

ELLIOTT, JOHN, M.D. (fl. 1690), adherent of James II, was created M.D. of Cambridge by royal mandate in 1681 (Cantabr. Graduati, 1787, p. 129), and incorporated on that degree at Oxford 11 July 1683(Wood, Fasti Oxon., ed. Bliss, ii. 388, who describes Elliott as a member of Catherine Hall, Cambridge). Having been constituted a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians by the charter of James II, he was admitted as such 25 June 1687, and at the general election of officers for that year he was appointed censor. Elliott, who was one of the few admirers of James II, spoke openly of the Prince of Orange as a traitor and usurper. For publishing and dispersing on 10 June 1689 what purported to be 'A Declaration of His Most Sacred Majesty King James the Second, to all His Loving Subjects in the Kingdom of England,' 'given at Our Court in Dublin Castle the eighth day of May 1689 in the fifth year of our reign,' he, along with Sir Adam Blair, Captain Henry Vaughan, Captain Frederick Mole, and Robert Gray, M.D., was impeached by the commons of high treason and other crimes and offences, and committed to Newgate (Commons' Journals, x. 195-6). After appearing at the bar of the House of Lords, counsel were assigned him, and he was formally remanded, 4 July, to await his trial (Lords' Journals, xiv. 267). No trial, however, took place. He was detained in custody until 9 April 1690, when, by giving bail to the amount of 10,000l., he regained his liberty (ib. xiv. 454, 456, 457). In the following December his bail was, upon his petition, ordered to be discharged. Elliott's name does not appear on the college list for 1693.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys. (1878), i. 474-5; Lords' Journals, xiv. 255-7. 264, 265, 266, 267, 276, &c.; Luttrell's Relation of State Affairs (1857), vols. i. ii.; Cat. of College of Physicians in Brit. Mus.]

G. G.