John Freind: physician, chemist, Jacobite, and friend of Voltaire's

Abstract

John Freind (1675/76–1728) achieved distinction in several walks of life, first as a classical scholar, then as a physician and as a chemist who advocated Newtonian philosophy. His clinical practice was generally conservative and he was against the newly introduced practice of inoculating the smallpox. His principles were Tory and High Church; his loyalty to the house of Stuart involved him in the Jacobite plot of 1722, and a spell in the Tower of London. His money was part of the foundation of Dr Lee's benefaction to Christ Church, which still survives in name in scientific posts in Oxford. He was among the circle of friends that Voltaire formed during his two-year stay in England and, 50 years later, Voltaire took him and his son as the principal characters in a conte philosophique defending a deistic attitude against both atheism and revealed religion.