THE SYMCOTTS MANUSCRIPTS

The Symcotts manuscripts comprise a case-book, a receipt book, medical notes, letters, wills and other documents relating to John Symcotts and his family, and now housed in three repositories. Dr. Symcotts was born about 1592 and died in 1662. He enjoyed an extensive’ practice in Huntingdon and Bedfordshire, and was for years the medical attendant of Oliver Cromwell and of members of his family. The Symcotts papers provide material for reconstructing the life of a seventeenth century physician, and throw light on the state of medical practice in the provinces. Few similar records have survived, and so far as is known no comparable collection has been published.

The Bedford Collection (DDX 125)

Almost all these documents, belonging to Mr. Stephen Price of Twyning, and deposited at the County Record Office, Bedford, have been handed down through the families of Symcotts, Crawley and Lord. John Symcotts died childless. He left most of his property to his nephew William, only son of his twin brother Robert. William Symcotts of Clifton, who was also a Doctor of Medicine, left three daughters, Penelope, Anne (who in 1702 married John Crawley, M.D., son of Robert Crawley, M.D., of Dunstable, and grandson of Sir Francis Crawley), and Elizabeth. It was through Anne’s sons, John and Thomas, that the Symcotts papers passed to their cousin John Lord (grandson of John Lord, rector of Dunstable and vicar of Kensworth, who died in 1728; and son of John Lord, rector of Toddington, who died in 1751, and of Martha Crawley). This John Lord (1712-78) was rector of Drayton Parslow, Bucks., 1740-78 and also “practised physick”; and through his great granddaughter the majority of the Symcotts papers passed to her son, Mr. Stephen Price. Mr. Price reassembled (with the exception given below) those which had passed to other members of the family; and added a few letters and prescriptions recently sold at Sotheby’s. Those thus added are : the letter to his nephew William; those to Mistress Halford, “Madam”, and “Good John”; the case history of Mistress Halford; and prescriptions (Nos. 2, 10, 17, 30, 32, 35, 40).