John Morgan

John Morgan

Male 1735 - 1789  (53 years)

Personal Information    |    Notes    |    All

  • Name John Morgan 
    Born 16 Oct 1735  Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died 15 Oct 1789 
    Person ID I15641  Larry and Carole King Murray Tree
    Last Modified 25 Apr 2019 

    Father Evan Morgan,   d. 1748 
    Relationship natural 
    Family ID F17003  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Mary Hopkinson,   d. 2 Jan 1785 
    Married 4 Sep 1765 
    Last Modified 25 Apr 2019 
    Family ID F3393  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • The achievements of Dr. Morgan were undoubtedly well known to Elias Cooper who must have admired and envied his success in founding the Colonies' first medical school in 1765, the Medical School of the College of Philadelphia. This College and its Medical School have survived as the University of Pennsylvania which is recognized as having the oldest medical school in the United States. Morgan, as did Cooper nearly a century later, aspired to establish a medical school and planned ahead for it. By the time he undertook the project, Morgan's qualifications for the task were outstanding. In 1750 at the age of fifteen he became the medical apprentice of the European-trained and highly respected Dr. John Redmond of Philadelphia. He continued with Dr. Redmond for six years during which he also attended the College of Philadelphia in 1754, '55 and '56 and was granted a B. A. degree. In 1756 he joined the Pennsylvania Provincial troops as a regimental surgeon. The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was in progress and Morgan was a member of the militarily crucial expedition under the British General Forbes who, with George Washington as his aide, drove the French from Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio River in 1758, renaming the site Pittsburgh after the great British war minister, William Pitt. In 1760 the American phase of the war was over and the Provincial Forces were disbanded. Morgan then resigned his commission and returned to Philadelphia. While in the army he met British surgeons who impressed him with their ability, and convinced him that only in Europe could he acquire the training that would make him a leader in his profession. On 1 May 1760 his College honored him with a Master of Arts degree, and later that month he sailed for England. Morgan spent the next five years abroad, taking his M. D.. degree from Edinburgh in 1763, and also studying diligently in well-known centers of medical learning on the continent. While growing up in Philadelphia, Morgan was a neighbor of Benjamin Franklin who thought highly of the young man. When Morgan arrived in England in 1760 to begin his medical studies, Dr. Franklin was an agent of the Colonies in London and was helpful to him with wise counsel and warm letters of reference to prominent people. He commended him especially to his friend and personal physician, Dr. John Fothergill (1712-1780), a scholarly gentleman and leading Quaker with one of the largest practices in London. This made for an auspicious beginning to Morgan's European sojourn. It was while a medical student in Britain that he and William Shippen, Jr., a fellow student from Philadelphia, conceived the idea of together founding a medical school in Philadelphia. In 1765, soon after his return from Europe, Morgan independently and without consulting Shippen presented a proposal for a Medical School to the Trustees of his alma mater, the College of Philadelphia which had been established in 1749 in accordance with a plan drawn up by Benjamin Franklin. On 3 May 1765 the Trustees unanimously approved Morgan's recommendation to establish the Medical School of the College of Philadelphia; unanimously elected him Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic; and authorized him to proceed with organizing the School. Thus was medical education inaugurated in the Colonies. Later that same month Morgan delivered his landmark Discourse upon the Institution of Medical Schools in America at the Anniversary Commencement held at the College of Philadelphia. In this address he laid out his plan for the new Medical School and made the radical proposal that the teaching and practice of medicine should be conducted by those who specialize in and confine their efforts to only one of three fields that he broadly designated as Medicine, Surgery and Pharmacy. Although the concept of specialization was valid and appealing in principle, it was ahead of its time. It drew criticism as being premature and impractical, as Morgan himself later discovered in his own practice. For many decades to come, the great majority of American physicians carried on a general practice as well as preparing and furnishing the medicines they prescribed. Nevertheless, Morgan is the best known early American advocate of the advantages of specialization and is well remembered for it. In his Discourse Morgan called for high academic standards which his School sought to maintain in the years to follow. Later in 1765 Professor Morgan was joined on the Medical School faculty by his contemporary and fellow Philadelphian, Dr. William Shippen, Jr. (1736-1808) (M. D. Edinburgh 1761) who was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Surgery. In 1768 Dr. Adam Kuhn (1741-1817) (M. D.. Edinburgh 1767) was appointed Professor of Botany and Materia Medica; and in 1769 Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) (M. D.. Edinburgh 1768) was made Professor of Chemistry. Dr. Rush, later a member of the Continental Congress and a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, is the most widely known of this original group of four professors, all of whom were Edinburgh graduates. Small wonder that the new Medical School in Philadelphia was modeled as far as local conditions would permit after the Medical School of Edinburgh University, making it therefore reasonable to regard that great University in Scotland as the father of American medical education [Source: Society of Friends and Pennsylvania Colony, 1682; Chapter 3] He was elected to the Royal Society of London 7 Mar 1765, Medical Dept. of the Army during the Revolution; founded the Medical School of the College of Philadelphia in 1765 (it later became the School of Medicine of the University of PA); a member of the Forbes expedition in the French and Indian War; Lt. commission 1758, acted as Surgeon. Went to Europe in 1760.