Charles Goodall ca.1642-1712

Charles GOODALL ca.1642-1712

Biographical Note

Son of Thomas Goodall of Earl Stonham, Suffolk. Matriculated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge 1659, but did not graduate; after obtaining a university licence to practice surgery in 1665, he went to study at the University of Leiden, where he graduated MD in 1670. He moved to London to practice there and became fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1680. He became closely involved in the affairs of the College, and in its efforts to become more effectively recognised as a regulatory body. Towards the end of his life he was variously censor, consiliarius, and (from 1708) president of the College. He became physician to the Charterhouse in 1691. He wrote or edited numerous medical works, many of them around medical controversies, and was actively interested in research for new remedies derived from plants.

Books

Goodall is likely to have had a considerable library though its size and disposal are not known. His will refers to some manuscripts belonging to the Royal College which should be returned to them (the College Register, and "collections of College affairs), but there is otherwise no specific mention of books, and the residue of his estate went to his wife. A manuscript notebook of his now in the Rawlinson Collection in the Bodleian, with extensive references to medical books and his various research interests, has been noticed in Bodleian Library Record. in a letter of 1693 to Anthony Wood he wrote that “the books you mention I have by me and many more relating to K. Ch. I & those unhappy times”.

Characteristic Markings

None of Goodall's books have been identified.

Sources

• Beecham, H. A notebook and a collection of manuscripts: originally the property of Dr. Charles Goodall, Bodleian Library Record 7 (1962-67), 312-317.
• Cook, Harold J. "Goodall, Charles (c. 1642–1712), physician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Munk, W. The roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London. 2nd edn. London, 1878.