Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Delaune, Paul
DELAUNE, PAUL (1584?–1654?), an eminent physician, a native of London, was related, probably, to Gideon Delaune [q. v.], the wealthy apothecary, and by marriage to Dr. Argent, who was eight times president of the College of Physicians, and who died in 1642. Delaune was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he proceeded A.M. about 1610. He graduated as M.D. at the university of Padua on 13 Oct. 1614, and at the university of Cambridge on 4 Nov. 1615 (Regist. Acad. Cantab.). He was examined before the censors' board of the Royal College of Physicians on 8 Sept. 1615, admitted a candidate of the College of Physicians 25 June 1616, and became a fellow on 21 April 1618. When Lord Falkland was appointed lord deputy of Ireland, Delaune accompanied him as his physician, and resided for some years in Dublin. On 24 May 1642 he was made an elect, and in 1643 senior censor, of the College of Physicians. On 13 June 1643, after the withdrawal of Dr. Winston to the continent, Delaune was appointed professor of physic in Gresham College, through the influence of Thomas Chamberlane, a member of the Mercers' Company. For upwards of nine years he discharged the duties of his chair with efficiency and success. On 27 June 1643 he was recommended by the college, in compliance with an order of Lenthall, speaker of the House of Commons, as one of three physicians to the parliamentary army under the Earl of Essex. In 1652 Dr. Winston returned to England and was restored to the Gresham professorship (20 Aug.) For some time after his compulsory resignation of the chair of physic Delaune was in straitened circumstances. Ultimately he accepted from Cromwell the appointment of physician-general to the fleet, which he accompanied first to Hispaniola, and afterwards to Jamaica. He was probably present at the capture of this island in 1653, but nothing further is known of his history or fate. According to Hamey, his death took place in December 1654.
[Ward's Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, ii. 268–9; Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 170–2; Hamey's Bustorum Aliquot Reliquiæ, containing ‘Vita Doctoris Pauli de Laune.’]