Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vincent, John Painter
VINCENT, JOHN PAINTER (1776–1852), surgeon, born at Newbury, Berkshire, in 1776, was the son of Osman Vincent, silk merchant and banker in that town, who lived at Donnington. Richard Budd Vincent [q. v.] was his brother. John was apprenticed to Mr. Long, who was surgeon to Christ's Hospital from 1790 to 1807, and lived in Lincoln's Inn Fields. At this period of his life he had occasion to attend Leigh Hunt, then a boy at Christ's Hospital, who says that 'he was dark, like a West Indian, and I used to think him handsome.' Vincent was admitted a member of the Corporation of Surgeons—the old Surgeons' Company—in 1800, and he became a member of the newly incorporated College of Surgeons on 20 March 1800. He then took his master's house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. He was elected assistant surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on 13 Aug. 1807, becoming full surgeon 29 Jan. 1816. On 22 July 1822 he was elected a member of the council of the Royal College of Surgeons, and on 5 Jan. 1828 he succeeded to the court of examiners in the room of Thompson Forster. He delivered the Hunterian oration in 1829, and he served the office of vice-president in 1830, 1831, 1838, and 1839, and of president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1832 and 1840. He was elected a fellow of the college when that order was established in 1843. He fell into ill-health and resigned his post of surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on 21 Jan. 1847, when he was appointed a governor of the hospital. But he retained his college offices until 1851. He died of paralysis at Woodlands Manor, near Sevenoaks, on 17 July 1852, and was buried in the church he had built at Woodlands.
Vincent was an able practical surgeon, shrewd in diagnosis, of conservative tendency, and disposed to avoid operations unless they were absolutely necessary.
Vincent married, on 28 May 1812, Maria, daughter of Samuel Parke of Kensington, by whom he had six children, of whom three sons survived him. She died in October 1824, and he then married Elizabeth Mary Williams, who outlived him.
There is a three-quarter-length in oils by E. U. Eddis in the great hall of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. It was painted by subscription, and was presented on 10 Sept. 1850.
He published 'Hunterian Oration,' London, 1829, 8vo; 'Observations on some Parts of Surgical Practice,' London, 1847, 8vo.
[Leigh Hunt's Autobiography; Medical Times and Gazette, July 1852, p. 101; Lancet, 1852, ii. 91; personal recollection by Sir James Paget, bart., F.R.S., and by Luther Holden, esq., formerly president R.C.S.Engl.; private information.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.270
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 359 | ii | 2 f.e. | Vincent, John P.: after Donnington. insert Richard Budd Vincent [q. v.] was his brother. |