Joshua Symonds d.1731

Joshua SYMONDS d.1731

Biographical Note

Symonds's background, education and career have not been traced; by the time of his death, his will reveals that he was a successful surgeon in London, with no living children but an extended family (including his mother), and able to employ a coachman and a maid. He was able to bequeath £800 to his wife. In 1717 he published a brief surgical treatise, Syllabus partium corporis humani (ESTC t78077).

Books

Symonds used an engraved armorial bookplate, describing himself as "of London Surgeon" (Franks 28739). In his will, he bequeathed specific medical books to some friends and associates, including his Giunta edition of Galen to Robert Hopwood and an edition of Hippocrates to Jonathan Goldsmith. Beyond this, the extent of his library is not known; his books would have been inherited, as part of the residue of his estate, by his wife Grace.

Sources

• Will of Joshua Symonds, the National Archives PROB 11/646/77.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903-4.