Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Balguy, Charles
BALGUY, CHARLES, M.D. (1708–1767), physician, was born at Derwent Hall, Derbyshire, in 1708, and was educated at Chesterfield grammar school and St. John's College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of M.B. in 1731, and M.D. in 1750. He practised at Peterborough, and was secretary of the literary club there. He contributed to the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ (No. 434, p. 1413), and in 1741 he published, anonymously, a translation of Boccacio's ‘Decameron.’ This has been several times reprinted, and is the only good translation in English. He wrote some medical essays, and particularly a treatise ‘De Morbo Miliari’ (Lond. 1758). He died at Peterborough 28 Feb. 1767, and was buried in the chancel of St. John's Church, where is a marble monument to his memory, describing him as ‘a man of various and great learning.’ The statement that he translated the ‘Decameron’ is evidenced by the notes of his school friend, Dr. Samuel Pegge, in the College of Arms, who expressly mentions the fact.
[Pegge's Collections in the College of Arms, vol. vi.; Derbyshire Archæological Journal, vi. 11; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vi. 4, 74, 122.]