Charles Scarburgh 1615-1694

Sir Charles SCARBURGH or SCARBOROUGH 1615-1694

Biographical Note

Born in London, son of Edmund Scarburgh, gentleman. BA Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1637, MA and fellow 1640. Ejected in 1644, he moved to Merton College, Oxford where he became MD (1646) and worked with William Harvey on his De generatione animalium. Moving to London in 1647 he became associated with John Wallis and other natural philosophers, and was made reader in anatomy at Surgeons' Hall. He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1650 and held various offices there. He was knighted in 1669 and held a succession of appointments as a royal physician. He was MP for Camelford in 1685. He published a textbook on dissection in 1676; his edition of Euclid was published postumously in 1705.

Books

Scarburgh's library, noted for its strength in mathematics, was auctioned in London, 8.2.1695, 18.2.1695, 1.3.1695 (1097 lots in the first two parts, no catalogue for the third part survives). In his diary, John Evelyn recorded a conversation with the Earl of Sunderland in 1695, having bought some of the books, lamenting the dispersal of the library.

Sources

• Alston, R. C. Inventory of sale catalogues 1676-1800. St Philip, 2010.
• Martensen, Robert L. "Scarburgh, Sir Charles (1615–1694), physician and natural philosopher." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Newman, C. Sir Charles Scarburgh, British Medical Journal 3(5980), 1975, 429-30.