Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bathurst, John
BATHURST, JOHN, M.D. (1607–1659), physician to Oliver Cromwell, was the second son of Dr. John Bathurst, of Goudhurst in Kent, a connection of the old family of Bathursts settled in that place, and the ancestors of Lord Bathurst. He was born in Sussex, his mother being Dorothy, daughter of Captain E. Maplesden of Marsden, a naval officer. In December 1614 Bathurst entered the university of Cambridge as a sizar at Pembroke College, took the degree of B.A. in 1617-8, and that of M.A. in 1621. In 1637 he obtained the degree of M.D., and in the same year, on 22 Dec., was admitted at once candidate and fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, of which he was afterwards twice censor, in 1641 and 1650. On 1 Feb. 1642-3 he was incorporated M.A. at Oxford. We hear of him in 1653 as attending the sick seamen of the fleet after Blake's prolonged engagement with the Dutch in February of that year. He represented Richmond, Yorkshire, as burgess in the parliament summoned by Cromwell in 1656, and again in Richard Cromwell's parliament in 1658. In July 1657 he was named elect of the College of Physicians in the room of the great Harvey. Bathurst was physician to Cromwell and to the family of Sir Richard Fanshawe. When the latter, after his capture at the battle of Worcester, was kept a prisoner in London, he fell 'very sick of the prevailing scorbutic,' and Bathurst interceded for him with the Protector, who, on the strength of the doctor's medical certificate, obtained at the council chamber the order for Fanshawe's liberation, overruling the strenuous objections of Sir Harry Vane. He was very charitable, and yet was said to have accumulated a fortune of 2,000l. a year. Bathurst married Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of Brian Willance, Esq., of Clint, Yorkshire, and had a numerous family. He died on 26 April 1659, aged 52.
[Munk's Roll of the College of Physicians, i. 222; Lady Fanshawe's Memoirs; Calendar of State Papers, 1653; Wood's Athenae (Bliss), iii. 1000; Fasti, ii. 11.]