Letter 2859

William Coward (b. 1656/7, d. in or before 1725) born in Winchester, Hampshire and moved to Oxford in 1674 where he became a commoner of Hart Hall before admitted to Wadan College as a scholar in 1675. He received his BA in 1677, MA in 1683, BM in 1685 and DM in 1687 then moved to Northampton to practice as a physician. In 1693/4 he moved to London and after publishing an honourable medical work he published a controversial work ‘Second Thoughts concerning the Human Soul’ in 1702 under the pseudonym Estibius Psychalethes. He continued to publish on this dangerous subject in response to criticism. His works were brought before the court in 1704 where they were deemed heretical and ordered to be burnt. Despite this, Coward continued to write on the topic and sought the assistance of Sir Hans Sloane for ‘Ophthalmiatria’ (Dario Pfanner, Coward, William (b. 1656/7, d. in or before 1725), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6488, accessed 18 July 2013]).