William Beckett

Born in Abingdon in 1684, William Becket was known in the early eighteenth century as both a surgeon and an antiquary. He worked for some years as a surgeon at St. Thomas's Hospital in Southwark, and he later retired to Abingdon, where he died on November 25, 1738.

Becket was active in the learned world of his time. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1718, presented papers there, and was also an original member of the Society of Antiquaries. That mix of interests helps explain why his writing ranges from practical surgery to historical and medical questions.

His published work includes surgical collections and discussions of subjects such as cancers, wounds, and the history of venereal disease. Today he is remembered less as a literary author than as a lively early eighteenth-century medical writer whose work captures the overlap between science, medicine, and antiquarian scholarship.