hill of Calais (Paston Letters, iii. 160); his second wife is usually supposed to have been Anne, daughter of Edward, lord Hastings, who in 1507, if not earlier, became the wife of Thomas Stanley, second earl of Derby (d. 1521), and died in 1550; but this supposition is not free from difficulties, and a Margaret, lady Fitzwalter, mentioned in 1518, is sometimes taken to be his widow. By his first wife Radcliffe had five daughters and one son. The attainder was removed in favour of this son Robert, afterwards first earl of Sussex [q. v.], by letters patent of 25 Jan. 1506, confirmed by an act of parliament in 1509.
[G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage, iii. 371; Dugdale's Baronage; Bentley's Excerpta Historica, pp. 101, 111; Rotuli Parliamentorum, vi. 504; Busch's England under the Tudors, Engl. transl. pp. 95, 340.]
RADCLIFFE, JOHN (1650–1714), physician, was born in a house in the market-place at Wakefield in 1650 (Leatham, Lectures, p. 142). His father, George Radcliffe, of strong republican principles, was governor of the Wakefield house of correction from 1647 to 1661, and increased his moderate estate by marrying Sarah, daughter of Mr. Louder (Lupton, Wakefield Worthies, p. 104). There was a large family. John was sent to the Wakefield grammar school, but is alleged to have received part of his education at the Northallerton grammar school, under Thomas Smelt (Kennett's notes in Lansd. MS. 987, f. 221; Ingledew, History of Northallerton, p. 295). At the age of fifteen he was admitted to University College, Oxford, matriculating on 23 March 1665–6. In 1667 he was made senior scholar after obtaining much honour in the logic school (Pittis, Memoirs of Dr. Radcliffe). He graduated B.A. in October 1669, and became fellow of Lincoln College. The degree of M.A. followed in June 1672. Then, turning to medicine, he proceeded M.B. in July 1675, M.D. and grand compounder in July 1682. In his study of medicine, as of other subjects, he succeeded more by his ready wit than by his learning. His medical library, he said, consisted of some phials, a skeleton, and a herbal. On settling in practice in Oxford, he paid little regard to professional conventions, and thus incurred the anger of older practitioners. But his success in coping with an epidemic of smallpox, and his treatment of Sir Thomas Spencer's wife, assured him a prosperous career. In 1677 he resigned his fellowship rather than take orders, and having incurred the displeasure of Dr. Thomas Marshall [q. v.], rector of Lincoln College, he gave up his chambers there.
Radcliffe moved to London in 1684, and settled in Bow Street; and in the following year he obtained a large increase of practice through the death of Dr. Richard Lower of King Street, Covent Garden (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 298). His apothecary, Dandridge, who died worth 50,000l., said that Radcliffe had not been in town a year before he made more than twenty guineas a day. Many people, we are told, pretended to be ill in order that they might be entertained by his witty conversation. In 1686 the Princess Anne of Denmark chose Radcliffe for her principal physician, but he was not made a fellow of the College of Physicians until 12 April 1687. In that year he gave an east window for the chapel at University College, Oxford, and in 1688 Dr. Obadiah Walker, the head of the college, corresponded with him in the hope of bringing him over to the Roman catholic faith. Although Radcliffe declined conversion, he felt great respect for Walker, and afterwards gave him a handsome competency, and in 1699 contributed to his funeral expenses (ib. iv. 444; Hearne, Collections, i. 85–6).
The services Radcliffe rendered to the Earl of Portland and the Earl of Rochford caused William III to give him five hundred guineas from the privy purse, and to offer him an appointment as one of his physicians, with 200l. a year more than any other. Radcliffe declined the offer, owing to the calls of his private practice; but for eleven years he cleared on the average over six hundred guineas a year by his attendance on the king. In March 1690 Radcliffe was elected M.P. for Bramber, and he sat for that borough until the dissolution in 1695. He seems to have saved the king's life during a dangerous attack of asthma in 1690, and next year he attended William, duke of Gloucester, the infant son of the Princess Anne, with such good result that Queen Mary ordered the lord chamberlain to present him with one thousand guineas. In 1692 he lost 5,000l. owing to the capture by the French of a ship in which he had ventured the money at the advice of Betterton the actor; but when friends condoled with him he said he had only to go up two hundred and fifty pairs of stairs to make himself whole again. At the suggestion of his friend Dr. Arthur Charlett [q. v.], master of University College, Radcliffe gave large sums to the college in 1692–1694, including 1,100l. towards exhibitions.
Queen Mary was seized with smallpox in December 1694, and, after the disease had well developed, Radcliffe was sent for by the council. As soon as he read the recipes given her he said she was a dead woman, as
