John Johnstone (physician)


John Johnstone was a British physician and biographer.

Life

The sixth son of James Johnstone MD and his wife Hannah Crane, and brother of Edward Johnstone and James Johnstone, he was born in Kidderminster, where his father was practising. He studied at Kidderminster Free School and entered Merton College, Oxford, in 1786. He graduated BA in 1789, MA 1792, MB 1793, and MD 1800.
Johnstone became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1805, and a fellow of the Royal Society in 1815. He delivered the Harveian Oration in 1819. He practised medicine in Worcester from 1793 to 1799, when he moved to Birmingham, where he built up a large practice. From 1801 to 1833 he was physician to Birmingham General Hospital. He was president of the second meeting of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association in 1834.
Johnstone died in Birmingham on 28 December 1836, aged 68.

Works

A close friend of Samuel Parr, Johnstone wrote his not uncritical Memoirs for the edition of Parr's works in eight volumes; Parr had assisted him in his Harveian Oration and in his Reply to Mr. Carmichael Smyth. He also published:
Johnstone married Anna Delicia Curtis, daughter of Captain George Curtis, and niece of Sir William Curtis, 1st Baronet, on 26 December 1809. They had two daughters, Anna Delicia, who married Walter Farquhar Hook, and Agnes Mary, who married the Rev. Henry Clarke, son of Sir William Clarke, 1st Baronet.