Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Emily, Edward
EMILY, EDWARD, M.D. (1617–1657), Harveian orator, was the third son of Maximilian Emily of Helmdon, Northamptonshire, and Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of John Waleston of Ruislip, Middlesex, and was baptised on 20 April 1617. He was entered on the books at Leyden on 8 Oct. 1640, and he graduated M.D. on 10 Nov. following.On 25 June 1641 he was admitted licentiate of the College of Physicians; he became a candidate on 22 Dec. 1643 and a fellow on 8 May 1647, having been in the meantime incorporated M.D. at Oxford, being described as of Christ Church. He was elected Gulstonian lecturer in 1649, treating during his course no less learnedly of atoms than of anatomy, and was censor of the college in 1652 and 1653. He was the first Harveian orator in 1656, and gave great offence to his colleagues by speaking in his oration with unseemly virulence against the army and the existing Commonwealth. A vote of censure was passed, but, on his affirming that he had intended no harm, and the technical portion of his speech being found of high merit, the censure was removed. It was determined, however, that in future all Harveian orations should be handed to the president and censors of the college to be read and approved at least a month before their delivery. Emily was senior physician at St. Thomas's Hospital, and practised in the neighbourhood of Silver Street. He died on 14 Nov. 1657, aged forty, and was buried in the church of St. Olave's, Silver Street, the funeral being attended by a large concourse of members of the College of Physicians. Baldwin Hamey [q. v.] (Bustorum aliquot Reliquiae, MS., R.C.P.) speaks of him in terms of high praise, declaring that time only failed him to become one of the greatest adornments of his profession. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Millington of Wandsworth, and by her he had an only son, John, who became a distinguished merchant in the city. Wood (Fasti Oxon. ii. 94) states that Emily 'in 1652 or 1653 held up his hand at the bar, at an assize held in Oxford, for coining, but being freed went to London and practised his faculty in the parish of St. Olave's.' He gives, however, no authority for his allegation, which is scarcely consistent with the fact that Emly held the high office of censor of the College of Physicians.
[Munk's Coll, of Phys. i. 244; Baker's Hist. of Northamptonshire, i. 629.]