Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pepys, Lucas
PEPYS, Sir LUCAS (1742–1830), bart., physician, son of William Pepys, a banker, and his wife Hannah, daughter of Dr. Richard Russell of Brighton, was born in London on 26 May 1742. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, whence he graduated B.A. on 9 May 1764. He then studied medicine at Edinburgh, and afterwards graduated at Oxford, M.A. on 13 May 1767, M.B. on 30 April 1770, and M.D. on 14 June 1774. Before his M.B. degree he obtained a license to practice from the university of Oxford, took a house in London, and on 10 Feb. 1769 was elected physician to the Middlesex Hospital, and held office for seven years. In the summer he used to practise at Brighton. He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians on 30 Sept. 1775, was censor in 1777, 1782, 1786, and 1796, treasurer from 1788 to 1798, and president from 1804 to 1810. In 1777 he was appointed physician-extraordinary to the king, and in 1792 physician-in-ordinary. He was created a baronet on 22 Jan. 1784. He attended George III in his mental disorder of 1788–9, and in that of 1804. He was examined on the subject of the king's health by a committee of the House of Commons on 7 Jan. 1789. He then thought it likely that the king would recover in time, and stated that he had observed signs of improvement. He attended two days a week at Kew, where the king was, from four in the afternoon till eleven the next morning, having a consultation often either with Sir George Baker or Dr. Richard Warren. In 1794 he was made physician-general to the army, and was president of an army medical board, on which it was his duty to nominate all the army physicians. When so many soldiers fell ill of fever at Walcheren, he was ordered to go there and report. He was so ill-advised as to decline, and the board was in consequence abolished; but he was granted a pension. He had a large practice, and after Jenner's discovery he was an active supporter of the National Vaccine Institution. He was punctual and assiduous as president of the College of Physicians, but his only published work was the Latin preface to the ‘London Pharmacopœia’ of 1809. He married, on 30 Oct. 1772, Jane Elizabeth, countess of Rothes, and had by her two sons and a daughter. He married again, on 29 June 1813, Deborah, daughter of Dr. Anthony Askew [q. v.], who survived him. His house was in Park Street, Grosvenor Square, and he died there on 17 June 1830. He is described by Dr. Munk, who knew several of his contemporaries, as ‘a person of great firmness and determination, somewhat dictatorial in his manner.’ His portrait was painted by Edridge.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 304; Picture of the Present State of the Royal College of Physicians, London, 1817; Report from the Committee appointed to examine the Physicians who have attended his Majesty, 1789; Lecky's Hist. of England.]