John Bamber, M.D., a native of Kent, was bred a surgeon, and practised as such for many years in the city of London, and realised a large fortune. When of mature age, he withdrew from that department of practice, devoted himself to physic, and, having produced letters dimissory from the company of Barbers and Surgeons, dated 16th July, 1724, disfranchising him from that company, he was admitted a Licentiate of the College of Physicians 5th October, 1724. On the 12th April, 1725, he was created doctor of medicine at Cambridge, per literas Regias, as a member of Emmanuel college; and coming again before the Censors for examination, was admitted a Candidate 18th October, 1725; and a Fellow 30th September, 1726. He was Censor in 1730 and 1731; and dying 7th November, 1753, was buried in Barking church, Essex, where a monument, ornamented with a. fine bust of the doctor in white marble, bears the following inscription:—

Hic jacet Johannes Bamber, M.D.
Reg. Soc. Colleg. Medic. Lond. Socius,
qui per multos annos medicinam
cum multâ laude feliciter exercuit.
Reipublicæ utilis suisque non inglorius vir;
maritus, parens optimus,
sociis charus, omnibus benevolus;
egenis arte atque re suâ liberalis.
Occidit eheu! Flebilis
occidit morte subitâ nec inopinatâ,
senectute gravi, non valetudine,
Novembris die septimo, anno salutis 1753,
æt. suæ 86.

Dr. Bamber acquired large estates in the county of Essex. His two daughters and co-heiresses married respectively Francis Walter Jones, surgeon, of Mincing-lane, afterwards of Wyfields, Barking, in right of his wife: and Margaret, Sir Crisp Gascoyne, knt., alderman of Vintry ward and lord mayor in 1752 (the first lord mayor who lived in the present Mansion-house). Sir Crisp Gascoyne died 28th December, 1761, and was buried at Barking, leaving with other children Bamber Gascoyne, a well-known political character in the last century. On his death in 1791 the Bamber estates descended, under Dr. Bamber’s will, to a second Bamber Gascoyne, who cut off the entail, pulled down the house at Biirons, and sold the site and the park. His daughter and heiress married the marquis of Salisbury, who took the name of Gascoyne before that of Cecil, and became possessed of the Bamber property, worth, it is said, 12,00l. a-year. There is a fine portrait of Dr. Bamber, by Verelst, at the top of the grand staircase at Hatfield house.

William Munk