[Gent. Mag. 1808, pt. i. p. 660 ; Moore's Byron, i. 174-5; Brenton's Naval Hist. ii. 99, 232; James's Naval Hist. ii. 246, v. 34-6.]
BETTS, JOHN, M.D. (d. 1695), physician, was son of Edward Betts by his wife Dorothy, daughter of John Venables of Rapley in Hampshire. He was born at Winchester, and educated there in grammar learning, was elected a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in February 1642–3, and took the degree of B.A. on 9 Feb. 1646–7. Being ejected by the visitors appointed by the parliament in 1648, he applied himself to the study of medicine, and accumulated the degrees of M.B. and M.D. at Oxford on 11 April 1654. He was admitted a candidate of the College of Physicians on 30 Sept. 1654 and a fellow on 20 Oct. 1664. Dr. Betts practised with great success in London, chiefly among the Roman catholics, he himself being a member of their church. Afterwards he was appointed physician in ordinary to King Charles II. His position in the College of Physicians appears to have been influenced by his religious opinions and the varying tendencies of the times in which he lived. For instance, Dr. Middleton Massey in his manuscript notes speaks of ‘Joannes Betts, qui ob suam in Pontificis Romani superstitione contumaciam, Collegio exclusus fuit anno 1679, sed 1684 restitutus.’ Betts was censor of the college in 1671, 1673, 1685, and 1686, and was named an elect on 25 June 1685. On 1 July 1689 he was returned to the House of Lords as ‘a papist,’ and on 25 Oct. 1692 was threatened with the loss of his place as an elect if he did not take the oath of allegiance to the king. Although he did not take the oath, he was allowed to remain undisturbed in his position, probably on account of his age. He was dead on 15 May 1695, when Dr. Hulse was named an elect in his place; and he was buried at St. Pancras.
He published: 1. ‘De ortu et natura Sanguinis,’ London, 1669, 8vo. Dr. George Thompson animadverted on this treatise in his ‘True way of Preserving the Blood in its integrity.’ 2. ‘Medicinæ cum Philosophia naturali consensus,’ London, 1692, 8vo. 3. ‘Anatomia Thomæ Parri annum centesimum quinquagesimum secundum et novem menses agentis, cum clariss. viri Gulielmi Harveii aliorumque adstantium Medicorum Regiorum observationibus.’ Wood says that this account was drawn up by Dr. Harvey. His son, Edward Betts, also became a doctor of medicine, acquired a high reputation as a physician, and died on 27 April 1695.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 611; Wood's Fasti, ii. 90, 183; Biog. Brit. (Kippis), ii. 297; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 270; Munk's College of Physicians (1878), i. 318, 460; Lysons's Environs, iii. 354; Addit. MS. 22136, f. 8.]
BETTY, WILLIAM HENRY WEST (1791–1874), better known as the Young Roscius, was born 13 Sent. 1791 at St. Chad's, Shrewsbury. His father, William Henry Betty, was son of a physician of the same name, who had made a fortune at Lisburn in Ireland. Dr. Betty's eldest son settled for a time at Shrewsbury, where he married the only daughter of James Staunton, of Hopton Court in Shropshire. His mother, a lady of rare accomplishments, began to instruct him almost in his infancy. His mother (who had meanwhile moved to Ballynahinch, in the county Down, where he conducted a farm and a linen manufactory) having one day recited Wolsey's speech from 'Henry VIII,' the child learnt it with his mother's help, and afterwards learnt 'My name is Norval,' and Thomson's Lavinia. Thenceforth he was encouraged to practise declamation. In 1801 he entered a theatre for the first time at Belfast, to see Mrs. Siddons as Elvira. On his return he said that he would die if he were not allowed to become an actor. Two years later he made his first appearance at Belfast on Friday, 19 Aug. 1803. He was announced beforehand as 'a young gentleman only eleven years old, whose theatrical abilities have been the wonder and admiration of all who have heard him.' His part was Osman in the tragedy of 'Zara,' Aaron Hill's version in English of the 'Zaire' of Voltaire. The house was densely crowded, the success complete. The manager, Mr. Atkins, had engaged him for four nights. He appeared on 24 Aug. as Douglas, on the 26th as Rolla, and on the 29th as Romeo. His first appearance in Dublin was at the Crow Street theatre on 28 Nov. There he added to his repertory the parts of Frederick in Mrs. Inchbald's play of 'Lovers' Vows,' altered from the German of Kotzebue, of Prince Arthur in 'King John,' of Tancred in Thomson's tragedy of 'Tancred and Sigismunda,' and of Hamlet. The last-mentioned part, notoriously the longest in the whole range of the drama, he actually learnt in three hours. After starring in Dublin for nine niphts, he was welcomed with equal delight at Cork and at Waterford. In the spring of 1801 he played for fourteen nights at Glasgow, his first appearance there being on 21 May in the Dunlop theatre as Douglas. At Edinburgh dignitaries of the church and of the universitv, as well as lords of the Court of Session, vied with each other in offering presents and adulation. More than
