American Medical Biographies/Brickell, John (1749–1809)
Brickell, John (1749–1809)
John Brickell was born in or about the year 1749, in County Louth, Ireland, and died at Savannah, Georgia, December 22, 1809. He came to America about 1770, and it is very likely that he was the John Brickell who entered King's College (now Columbia University), New York, in 1774, but had not completed the course when the activities of the institution were suspended in 1776. Shortly afterward, during the Revolution, he settled in Georgia, and practised medicine for many years at Savannah. He was recognized as an accomplished scholar and a sincere patriot. Outside of his professional work, his chief interest was in the science of botany. He was a correspondent of Muhlenberg; and, of his five papers contributed to the earlier volumes (1798–1809) of the Medical Respository, two were devoted to descriptions of plants found by him near Savannah. Brickellia, a genus of Compositae, was dedicated to his memory by Stephen Elliott in 1823. Dr. Brickell's only surviving relative, at least in Georgia, seems to have been his brother James, to whom he left all of his property by will.