Early life and education

Nathan Alcock was born at Aston

Aston, Vale Royal

right|thumb|200px|Map of civil parish of Aston within the former borough of Vale RoyalAston is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 111...

, near Runcorn

Runcorn

Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port within the borough of Halton in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. In 2009, its population was estimated to be 61,500. The town is on the southern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form Runcorn Gap. Directly to the north...

, Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, the second son of David Alcock and his wife Mary née Breck. David Alcock was a descendent of Bishop John Alcock

John Alcock (bishop)

-Biography:Alcock was born at Beverley in Yorkshire, son of Sir William Alcock, Burgess of Kingston upon Hull and educated at Cambridge. In 1461 he was made dean of Westminster, and his subsequent promotion was rapid in both church and state. In the following year he was made Master of the Rolls,...

, the founder of Jesus College, Cambridge

Jesus College, Cambridge

Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...

. He was educated initially by his parents and then at a local school but he left this school, probably because of his dislike of the schoolmaster. He promised his father that he would qualify in medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 in return for a small estate in Wirral

Wirral Peninsula

Wirral or the Wirral is a peninsula in North West England. It is bounded by three bodies of water: to the west by the River Dee, forming a boundary with Wales, to the east by the River Mersey and to the north by the Irish Sea. Both terms "Wirral" and "the Wirral" are used locally , although the...

, Cheshire, which was worth about £50 a year. He went to medical school

Medical school

A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...

 at Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

, and then to Leiden

Leiden University

Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...

 where he was taught by Boerhaave and his contemporaries, Gaubius

Hieronymus David Gaubius

Hieronymus David Gaubius was a German physician and chemist.-Life:He was a native of Heidelberg. He studied medicine and sciences at the Universities of Harderwijk and Leiden, where he was a pupil of Hermann Boerhaave and Bernhard Siegfried Albinus...

, Albinus

Bernhard Siegfried Albinus

Bernhard Siegfried Albinus was a German-born Dutch anatomist.Albinus was born at Frankfurt , where his father, Bernhard Albinus , was professor of the practice of medicine...

, and Gravesand

Willem 's Gravesande

Willem Jacob 's Gravesande was a Dutch philosopher and mathematician.-Life:Born in 's-Hertogenbosch, he studied law in Leiden and wrote a thesis on suicide. He was praised by John Bernoulli when he published his book Essai de perspective. In 1715, he visited London and King George I. He became a...

. He graduated M.D.

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

 in 1737.

Medical career

He returned to England and went to Oxford University

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

. Here he found that one of the professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

s in the medical faculty gave no lectures and the other did not reside there. He therefore began to give unauthorised lectures in anatomy

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

 and chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

. This led to opposition from the professors who argued that his theological

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 opinions were unsound. However his lectures were popular with the students and he was supported by eminent people including William Blackstone

William Blackstone

Sir William Blackstone KC SL was an English jurist, judge and Tory politician of the eighteenth century. He is most noted for writing the Commentaries on the Laws of England. Born into a middle class family in London, Blackstone was educated at Charterhouse School before matriculating at Pembroke...

 and Robert Lowth

Robert Lowth

Robert Lowth FRS was a Bishop of the Church of England, Oxford Professor of Poetry and the author of one of the most influential textbooks of English grammar.-Life:...

 (who was later Bishop of London

Bishop of London

The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...

). In 1741 he was granted the degree of M.A. and was incorporated from Jesus College

Jesus College, Oxford

Jesus College is one of the colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street...

. He graduated B.M.

Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery

Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, or in Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae , are the two first professional degrees awarded upon graduation from medical school in medicine and surgery by universities in various countries...

 in 1744, and M.D. in 1749. Also in 1749 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1754 was made Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians

Royal College of Physicians

The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

, London.

He built up a large practice in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

 and became very wealthy. However, possibly because of ill health, or following the death of a woman he intended to marry, he returned to Runcorn. Here he built up a practice as large as his practice had been in Oxford. He died from a stroke

Stroke

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

 in Runcorn in 1779 and was buried in the parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 there.

Politically he was a whig

British Whig Party

The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

 and theologically he was a follower of Bishop Hoadly

Benjamin Hoadly

Benjamin Hoadly was an English clergyman, who was successively Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. He is best known as the initiator of the Bangorian Controversy.-Life:...

. His Leiden thesis

Thesis

A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...

 was on pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

. He published nothing during his lifetime but his brother Thomas

Thomas Alcock (clergyman)

Thomas Alcock was a clergyman in the Church of England, a pluralist and an author.-Early life:He was born at Aston, near Runcorn, Cheshire the third son of David Alcock and his wife Mary née Breck. David Alcock was a descendent of Bishop John Alcock, the founder of Jesus College, Cambridge...

, vicar of Runcorn, edited and published his The Rise of Mahomet, Accounted for on Natural and Civil Principles in 1796. Also after Nathan's death, in 1780, Thomas Alcock published his biography

Biography

A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

entitled Some Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Nathan Alcock.