William Cadogan, M.D., was born in London and educated at Oriel college, Oxford, where he took the degree of bachelor of arts 18th June, 1731. He then proceeded to the continent, was inscribed on the physic line at Leyden, 6th October, 1732, and graduated doctor of medicine there in 1737 (D.M.I. de Nutritione, Incremento et Decremento Corporis, 4to.), shortly after which he was appointed physician to the army. He settled in London about the year 1750, and was appointed physician to the Foundling hospital in 1754. With the view of securing his admission to the fellowship of our College, he returned to Oxford; proceeded A.M. 20th June, 1755; and on that day week, 27th June, 1755, bachelor and doctor of medicine. He was admitted a Candidate of the College of Physicians 4th April, 1757; and a Fellow, 26th June, 1758; was Censor in 1759, 1770, 1775, 1781; was named an Elect in 1781; and was twice called upon to deliver the Harveian oration, viz., in 1764 and 1792. He died at his house in George-street, Hanover-square, the 26th February, 1797, aged eighty-six, and was buried at Fulham, where he had a house, to which, in the latter years of his life, he was in the habit of retiring during the summer months. His monument in Fulham churchyard bears the following inscription :—
M. S.
Gulielmi Cadogan,
Oxoniæ et Lugduni Batavorum
Alumni et M.D.
Coll. Reg. Med. Lond. Socii.
Ob. 26 die Feb. A.D. 1797,
æt. Suae. 86.
Dr. Cadogan was a fellow of the Royal Society, a man of pleasing manners and strong good sense, who by his writings drew much attention to himself and paved the way to a lucrative business. His "Essay on the Nursing and Management of Children," 8vo. Lond. 1750, attracted the notice of the governors of the Foundling hospital, who adopted the rules he therein inculcated, and, as we have seen, soon afterwards appointed him physician to that institution. His " Dissertation on the Gout and all Chronic Diseases, jointly considered as proceeding from the same Causes," 8vo. Lond., became a most popular work. It ran to eleven editions, and called forth a large number of replies from persons of acknowledged standing in the profession,—as Sir William Browne, Dr. Carter of Canterbury, and Dr. Falconar of Bath, besides others of lesser note. To none of these did he deign a reply. He refers the gout to indolence, vexation, and intemperance, and his plan of treatment is generally judicious. (1) A portrait of Dr. Cadogan is on the staircase. It was painted by R. E. Pine in 1769, has been engraved by W. Dickinson, and was presented by Whitlock Nicholl, M.D., 8th March, 1828.
William Munk
Post publication addition
Cadogan's second wife Anna was the widow of Samuel Spencer, owner of Tydixton Park estate and of enslaved people in St John, Jamaica. Cadogan and his wife were named as mortgagees in possession of the estate in 1761-2. A mortgagee in possession is a lender who has exercised its right to take control of a property due to nonpayment of the mortgage. The estate was sold sometime before Cadogan's death in 1797. The next recorded owner of the estate was Charles Grant in 1809. At that time the list of estate assets included 47 enslaved people (2). This text was added in February 2021.
[(1)" Pectore erat hic aperto, virili, omnia sine fuco et præstigiis agens. Imaginem viri in tractatu, quem de Podagrâ in lucem edidit, depictam licet aspicere. In quo, nullius vestigiis inhærens, sed de seipso omnia depromens, sensus suos audacter in medium profert, de aliorum opinione securus, sibi cum animi sinceri esset conscius."—Oratio Harveiana, Anno MDCCXCVII. habita Rob. Bourne
(2) https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146651241 Accessed February 2021]