Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/504

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HALLIBURTON


376


HAMILTON


Harris, of Harrisville, and attended the Louisville Medical University. He held an arduous country practice in Harris- ville up to 1861, and in 1S61 recruited a company for service in the Union Service, serving as its captain until May, 1862, when he was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel of the tenth Regi- ment of West Virginia Volunteers; was twice wounded, and on his discharge in April, 1S65, resumed practice at Harris- ville, where he became the leading practi- tioner, also serving in the Legislature of 1874, and while there introducing a bill to regulate the practice of medicine and surgery in West Virginia. It was defeated and such action delayed until 1881. He was a member of the West Virginia State Medical Society, and its president in 1874. In 1850 he married Ellen F. Sampson of Ohio. Two daughters survived.

W. H. S.

Halliburton, John (1740-1808).

John Halliburton, son of a Presby- terian clergyman of Haddington, Scot- land, was born about 1740 and died in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1808.

In 1760, or a little later, he was sur- geon on board a British frigate, com- manded by Lord Colville. On her arrival at Newport, Rhode Island, he became acquainted with the Hon. Jahleel Brenton and deeply attached to one of his daughters. Having com- pleted a required term of service on the ship, he returned to Newport and mar- ried Miss Susanna Brenton in the year 1767, and settled down to practise in Newport. Here he seems to have been very successful and accumulated a good deal of property. But little good did it bring him, for, as he ad- hered to the side of the Motherland in the dispute with the Colonies, he was compelled during the Revolutionary War to abandon his practice and property and make his escape from Rhode Island. On the pretext of visiting patients on the mainland, Dr. Halliburton secretly left New-


port in a barge and landed safely at Long Island, where the British Army was stationed. On his arrival at head- quarters he presented himself to Sir Henry Clinton who (as some recogni- tion of his services) offered him the headship of the Naval Medical Depart- ment at Halifax. Having accepted this he soon afterwards sailed from New York and reached Halifax in 17S2, his wife and family coming a year later. In addition to his official duties, Dr. Halliburton entered into general practice and became a leader in his profession. In 17S7 he was appointed a member of His Majesty's Council. Sir Brenton Halliburton, for a long time Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, was his son. The inscription on his tomb- stone in St. Paul's cemetery happily summarizes his characteristics:

"If unshaken loyalty to his king, steady attachment to his friends, active benevolence to the destitute, and hum- ble confidence in God can perpetuate his memory, he will not be forgotten." D. A. C.

Hamilton, Alexander (1712-1756).

Dr. Alexander Hamilton was a native of Scotland, and a graduate of medicine. He was a cousin of Dr. R. Hamilton, professor of anatomy and botany in the University of Glasgow, where it is prob- able he received his medical education. He " learnt pharmacy " in the " shop " of David Knox, an Edinburgh surgeon, and visited London. An elder brother, also a physician, had preceded him to Annap- olis, where he was practising medicine in 1727. Hamilton was the preceptor of Dr. Thomas Bond, of Calvert County, Maryland, who settled in Philadelphia and founded the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1752. In 1745, with Jonas Green, editor of the "Maryland Gazette," he organized at Annapolis the Tuesday Club, of which he was secretary and orator, and "fife and soul," during its ten years of existence. The manuscript minutes of the proceedings of this club are in possession of the Maryland Histor-