whether this can be the same man, more than thirty years
Philip Bradford came out with the recruits of 1665 as Surgeon of Fort St. George. He died at Madras in 1668.
In 1662 John Westrey was serving as Surgeon at Masulipatam. Thomas Morris, Physician to the same factory, died there on 21st Dec, 1675; before his death he declared that his real name was Woodward, of Ripley, in Worcestershire.
John Waldo reached Madras on 14th June, 1670, to serve as Surgeon there. In 1676 a second Surgeon was allowed, and Bezaliel or Bazaleel Sherman was sent out to fill the post, arriving on 7th Aug., 1676. A volume of Despatches from England, 1670-77, published at Madras in 1911, on page 25, quotes from a "Company Generall Letter to ye Ffort," dated 24th Dec, 1675, para. 56 of which runs—
"Considering how numerous the People wth you grow, [and] being desirous to use al means for the prservation [of] yor healths we have entertained here Bezaliell Sherman alsoe as Chirurgeon and at the Like Salery wth him already there he carries over wth him his wife Passage free and One [lacuna in original] an Apprentice at his Owne Charge and both are to be at his Charge there and he is Obleiged to Bring the sd Apprentice up a Chirurgeon and noe otherwise imployed and to remaine at the Fort."
It is a pity that the name of the apprentice has not survived. The Fort St. George Cons, of 19th May, 1677, record—
"Upon the address of the two Surgeons of the ffort, it is ordered that the wages of the said two Surgeons, John Waldo and Bazaliel Sherman from the time of the departure from Gravesend of the Shipps they came by until the time of their landing here be paid them by the purser."
Waldo went home on 27th Jan., 1677/78. A Mr. Waldo was afterwards Surgeon of the William and John, an interloping ship which visited Hugh in June, 1683.[1]
Sherman is mentioned as one of the subscribers, giving ten pagodas, towards the erection of the new church, St. Mary's, founded on 25th March, 1768. Cons, of 25th Aug., 1680, report his death—
"Mr Bezaleel Sherman the Chyrurgeon died this day."
As early as 1675 a Mate or Assistant had been allowed to the Surgeons at Madras. The volume of Despatches from England,
- ↑ Yule, Hedges' Diary, Notes, Vol. I, p. 94.
