Benjamin Waterhouse (1754–1846) and the riddle of Amos Babcock

Abstract

The late Dr Henry R Viets (1890–1969) suggested in 1940 that the author of A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts was Amos G Babcock. He also showed that Benjamin Waterhouse edited the manuscript. A similar journal, The Prisoner’s Memoirs of Dartmoor Prison by Charles Andrews, is also described and contrasted. The career of Professor Waterhouse is narrated in relation to the medical politics at that time in New England: a possible explanation for Babcock’s anonymous authorship is given.

Keywords

Benjamin Waterhouse Amos Babcock Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts

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References

Viets HR. A Journal, of a Young Man of Massachusetts … Written by Himself. Boston, 1816, and a Note on the Author. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 1939–40; 12: 605–622. This does not include the Shakespearean quotation on the title page: ‘Nothing extenuate, or set down aught in malice’.

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Andrews C. The Personal Memoirs or, DARTMOOR PRISON, containing a complete and impartial HISTORY of the entire captivity of the AMERICANS IN ENGLAND, from the commencement of the late war between the United States and Great Britain, until all prisoners were released by the TREATY OF GHENT. Also, a Particular Detail of all occurrences relative to that HORRID MASSACRE AT DARTMOOR, on the fatal evening of 6th April 1815. The whole carefully compiled from the journal of Charles Andrews, a prisoner in England, from the commencement of the war, until the release of all the Prisoners. Quaeque ipse miserrima vidi, et quorum pars magna fuit; quis talia fando, temperat a lacrymis? Virg.1.11.v.5 [These sufferings I myself have seen, and the great part of which I was a principal party. Who can relate such woes without a tear?] Printed for the author, New York, 1815.

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