Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paman, Henry

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
484356Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 43 — Paman, Henry1895Norman Moore

PAMAN, HENRY, M.D. (1626–1695), physician, son of Robert Paman, was born at his father's estate of Chevington, Suffolk, in 1626. He entered as a sizar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 22 June 1643, where William Sancroft [q. v.] was his tutor. They became friends for life. He migrated to St. John's College on 22 July 1646, graduated B.A. the same year, and was elected a fellow of that college. He became M.A. in 1650, and was incorporated M.A. at Oxford on 11 July 1655. On 20 June 1656 he kept an act for a medical degree before Professor Francis Glisson [q. v.], maintaining the thesis 'Morbis acutis convenit dieta tenuissima' (note in Glisson's handwriting, vol. iii. of his papers). In the same year he was senior proctor, and in 1658 he graduated M.D., being incorporated M.D. at Oxford on 13 July 1669. He was elected public orator at Cambridge on 5 March 1674, and held office till 9 July 1681. Eight Latin letters written by him in this capacity were printed under the title 'Literae Academiae Cantabrigiensis ab Henrico Paman cum esset orator publicus scriptae' (Ward, Gresham Professors, appendix, p. xvi). They are addressed to the astronomer, John Hevel, on 12 May 1674; to James, duke of Monmouth, on 12 June 1674, and twice without date; to Charles II on 11 Sept. 1674; to Chief-justice Sir Francis North; to William, duke of Newcastle, on 7 Aug. 1676; to Sancroft, archbishop of Canterbury, on 8 Jan. 1677. In 1677 Paman went to reside in Lambeth Palace with Archbishop Sancroft. On 21 June 1679 he was appointed professor of physic at Gresham College, and on 1 Dec. 1679 he was elected F.R.S. In 1683 he was admitted a candidate at the College of Physicians, and elected a fellow on 12 April 1687. He graduated LL.D. at Cambridge in 1684, and was thereupon appointed master of the faculties by Sancroft. He resigned his professorship on 21 June 1689. When Sancroft declined the oaths to William III and left Lambeth, Paman also declined, and gave up his mastership of the faculties. He went to live in the parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden, where he died in June 1695; he was buried in the parish church. He was rich, and, after providing for his relations, left considerable sums of money and books to St. John's College, to Emmanuel College, to the College of Physicians, and to his native parish. Though he published nothing himself, he is known to every reader of medicine, because a Latin letter by him to Dr. Thomas Sydenham [q. v.] is published in Sydenham's works as a preface to the treatise 'De Luis Veneriae historià et curatione.' It praises Sydenham's method, and urges him to write on this subiect. Sydenham (ed. Pechey, 1729, p. 244) says that Paman had long been his friend, and adds, 'I always valued your friendship as a most precious thing.'

[Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 446; Ward's Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, 1740; manuscripts in Sloane collection in Brit. Mus. 3309 vol. iv., and 4162 vol. iii.]

N. M.