Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tuthill, George Leman
TUTHILL, Sir GEORGE LEMAN (1772–1835), physician, born at Halesworth in Suffolk on 16 Feb. 1772, was the only son of John Tuthill, an attorney at Halesworth, by his wife Sarah, only daughter of James Jermyn of the same place. He received his education at Bungay under Mr. Reeve, and on 3 June 1790 was admitted sizar at Caius College, Cambridge. He was scholar of the college from Michaelmas 1790 to Michaelmas 1796. He graduated B.A. in 1794 (fifth wrangler), and was subsequently elected to present a university address to the king. Shortly after graduating he married Maria, daughter of Richard Smith of Halesworth. Having gone to Paris with his wife, he was included among the numerous English détenus; after a captivity of several years his wife was recommended to make a direct appeal to the generosity of the first consul. She presented her petition to Napoleon on his return from hunting, with a result that in a few days she and her husband were on their road to England. Tuthill then returned to Cambridge, proceeded M.A. in 1809, had a licence ad practicandum from the university dated 25 Nov. 1812, and graduated M.D. in 1816. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1810, and was admitted an inceptor candidate of the College of Physicians on 12 April 1813, a candidate on 30 Sept. 1816, and a fellow on 30 Sept. 1817. He was Gulstonian lecturer in 1818, and censor in 1819 and 1830. He was knighted on 28 April 1820. He was physician to the Westminster and to the Bridewell and Bethlehem hospitals, both of which appointments he held to the day of his death. He was a sound classical scholar and a good chemist. He was one of the most active members of the committee for the preparation of the ‘Pharmacopœia Londinensis’ of 1824, and was responsible for the language of the work itself. He published an English version coincidently with the original. He was also engaged on the ‘Pharmacopœia’ of 1836, but died before it appeared.
He was appointed to deliver the Harveian oration on 25 June 1835, and, with Sir Henry Halford [q. v.] and William George Maton [q. v.], was actively engaged in effecting wholesome reforms at the Royal College of Physicians in 1835.
He died at his house in Cavendish Square on 7 April 1835, and was buried at St. Albans on the 14th of the same month. There is a monument to his and his wife's memory at Cransford in Suffolk. He left an only daughter, Laura Maria, married to Thomas Bowett, a solicitor in London. His fine library was sold by Sotheby on 26 and 27 June 1835.
Besides the work mentioned he was the author of ‘Vindiciæ Medicæ, or a Defence of the College of Physicians,’ 1834, 8vo.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. iii. 171; Gent. Mag. 1835, ii. 97; J. G. Alger's Englishmen in the French Revolution, p. 267; Cat. Brit. Mus. Library; Records of Caius Coll. Cambridge; Davy's Suffolk Pedigrees, in Addit. MS. 19152, ff. 215–26; Davy's Athenæ Suffolc., in Addit. MS. 19167, f. 401.]