Hamey , Baldwin , 1600-1676 , physician

Baldwin Hamey was born in London on 24 April 1600, the eldest son of Baldwin Hamey, the Flemish physician. He received his early education at one of the public city schools. He entered the University of Leyden as a student of philosophy in May 1617, and then went to Oxford in 1621 and studied humanities in the public library. In the winter of 1622-23 he was apprenticed to his father in London, whereupon his real medical education began. Hamey returned to Holland in the summer of 1625 and graduated MD at Leyden on 12 August 1626. His thesis, De Angina, was to be his only published work.

He returned to London and continued his apprenticeship, gaining some necessary clinical experience. He then traveled in Europe, visiting the universities of Paris, Montpelier, and Padua, before returning to Southwark to marry Anna de Pettin of Rotterdam in May 1627. Later that year they moved from his parents' house in Sydon Lane, to a house in St Clement's Lane, and Hamey began to practice under the patronage of Simeon Foxe, physician and President of the Royal College of Physicians. At this time he enjoyed many hours of leisure. He began to record the biographies of his friends and contemporaries. Hamey was incorporated MD at Oxford, 4 February 1629/30, and then admitted a Candidate of the Royal College of Physicians of London in June 1630. He became a Fellow of the College in January 1633/4.

He was generous with his wealth throughout his life, and was `a liberal benefactor to many poor but deserving scholars' (Munk's Roll, 1878, p.211). In 1634 he financed the education of one such man, John Sigismund Clewer. Hamey performed many unpaid roles within the Royal College of Physicians, and was unfailing in his attendance at College events. He was a censor on several occasions between 1640 and 1654, and registrar in 1646, and 1650-54. In 1647 he delivered the anatomical Goulstonian Lectures at the College.

During the Interregnum, 1649-60, Hamey, a royalist and faithful member of the Church of England, considered leaving London, but an attack of inflammation of the lungs prevented him. Whilst convalescing he agreed to consult a puritan soldier who, much satisfied with the service, handed Hamey a bag of gold as payment. Hamey politely refused the generous gesture, whereupon the soldier took a handful of gold coins from the bag and placed them in the physician's pocket. On Hamey's producing the coins to his surprised wife he learnt that during his illness, to avoid troubling him, she had paid that exact sum, 36 pieces of gold, to a state exaction executed by another puritan soldier. Hamey perceived the providential incident as an omen against his leaving the capital. So he remained in London, where his burgeoning practice grew to include a number of parliamentarians.

Hamey became wealthy and his generosity continued unabated. In 1651 the Royal College of Physicians' building at Amen Corner, which stood in grounds belonging to St Paul's cathedral, was in a vulnerable position. Hamey, `with a generosity which does him immortal honour', bought the property and made it over in perpetuity to the College (ibid, p.212). Remaining a faithful royalist despite his apparent neutrality, Hamey also purchased a diamond ring of Charles I bearing the royal arms, for £500, which he presented to Charles II at the Restoration in 1660. During the Interregnum Hamey had sent Charles II a number of gifts. In recognition of his services the king offered him a knighthood and the position of physician in ordinary to himself, honours which an ageing Hamey respectfully declined.

Hamey was treasurer at the Royal College of Physicians in 1664-66. He retired from his practice in 1665, the year before the Great Fire of London, after having remained in London to fight the Plague. He went to live in Chelsea. After the fire he donated a large sum of money to the rebuilding of the College, and wainscoted the dining room with carved Spanish oak (which is still preserved in the Censor's Room of the present building). In 1672 he gave the College an estate near Great Ongar in Essex. The rents arising from the lands were to pay annual sums to the physicians of St Bartholomew's Hospital, provided that the hospital accepted the nominees of the College. He also donated £100 towards the repair of St Paul's Cathedral, and contributed to the upkeep of All Hallows, Barking, where his parents were buried, of his own parish church, St Clement's, Eastcheap, and to the restoration of St Luke's, Chelsea.

Hamey died in Chelsea on 14 May 1676, aged 76. He was buried in the parish church with a simple black marble slab. A gilt inscription, with his arms, was laid years later. Hamey and his wife, who had died in 1660, had had no children. A major benefactor of his inheritance was the Royal College of Physicians, to whom he confirmed forever the bequest of his estate in Essex. His friend, Adam Littleton, lexicographer, printed his essay On the Oath of Hippocrates (1688).

Publications:
De Angina (1626)
On the Oath of Hippocrates, Adam Littleton (ed) (1688)

Publications by others about Hamey:
The Stranger's Son, John Keevil (London, 1953)