Letter 0326

Posted on August 2, 2016 by -

William Courten (alias Charleton) to Hans Sloane – June 8, 1690


Item info

Date: June 8, 1690
Author: William Courten (alias Charleton)
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4036
Folio: ff. 82-83


Original Page


Transcription

[fol. 82] Middle Temple June ye 8th: 1690 Dear Sr. on Thursday morning I was taken with a kind of lurking feaver & though I have bled 9 ounces & eaten nothing but water gruell & drunk no pure wine yet do I not find any amendment, it was verry unhappy for me that I should be taken ill in yo’r absence being verryly persuaded that had you been here yo’r Company alone would have Contributed much to my recovery. Sr. If her Graces and yo’r own occasions could permit I should be verry glad to see you not knowing how it may please god to dispose of me who must alwayes acknowledge myself Sr Yo’r much obliged humble servant Wm Charleton This morning I bled again 9 ounces but have found no benefit by it

William Courten, alias Charleton (1642-1702) was a naturalist and collector. He may have adopted the name Charleton to avoid creditors. Courten befriended Hans Sloane and Tancred Robinson while studying at Montpellier and was well acquainted with other physicians and scientists including Martin LIster and Leonard Plukenet. After his death Courten’s collection came into the hands of Sloane and the latter authored Courten’s epitaph (B. D. Jackson, ‘Courten , William (1642–1702)’, rev. A. J. Turner, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6447, accessed 22 July 2014]).



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