Edward Rigby (27 December 1747 – 27 October 1821) was an English physician, writer, and local politician.

Life

The son of John Rigby, by his wife Sarah (d. 1773), daughter of John Taylor, he was born at Chowbent,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, on 27 December 1747. One of his sisters married Dr. Caleb Hillier Parry, and became the mother of Sir William Edward Parry. Educated at

Norwich School Norwich School (formally King Edward VI Grammar School, Norwich) is a private selective day school in the close of Norwich Cathedral, Norwich. Among the oldest schools in the United Kingdom, it has a traceable history to 1096 as an episcop ...

and Warrington Academy, Rigby was apprenticed in 1762 to David Martineau (1726–1768), surgeon, of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

. He then studied in London. Admitted a member of the Corporation of Surgeons on 4 May 1769, he married in the same year, and settled in

. In 1786 Rigby took the lead in establishing the Norfolk Benevolent Society for the relief of the widows and orphans of medical men. In July 1789 he visited France and other parts of the continent, witnessing the

storming of the Bastille The Storming of the Bastille ( ), which occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, was an act of political violence by revolutionary insurgents who attempted to storm and seize control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison k ...

. A practical agriculturist, he was the friend of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester of Holkham. Rigby experimented on his own farm at

Framingham Earl Framingham Earl is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. Framingham Earl is located north-west of Loddon and south-east of Norwich. History Framingham Earl's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the ...

, about five miles from Norwich. In 1783 Rigby became a member of the corporation of guardians of Norwich, and promoted the economical administration of the

Poor Laws The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief in England and Wales that developed out of the codification of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws in 1587–1598. The system continued until the modern welfare state emerged in the late 1940s. E ...

. Meeting with much opposition, he resigned in the following year. He became alderman in 1802 in a very tight contest for the North Ward, sheriff in 1803, and mayor of Norwich in 1805, presiding over a meeting addressing the issue of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

in the city. Rigby is said to have made known the

flying shuttle The flying shuttle is a type of weaving shuttle. It was a pivotal advancement in the mechanisation of weaving during the initial stages of the Industrial Revolution, and facilitated the weaving of considerably broader fabrics, enabling the p ...

to Norwich manufacturers, and to have introduced

vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...

. In politics Rigby was a Whig, and a supporter of William Windham. In 1794, however, when Windham became

Secretary at War The secretary at war was a political position in the English and later British government, with some responsibility over the administration and organization of the Army, but not over military policy. The Secretary at War ran the War Office. Aft ...

and had to stand again for

, Rigby was one of the disillusioned Whigs who backed James Mingay against him, and proposed the candidate. Windham was elected, but Mingay's reputation as a Whig was boosted. Rigby died on 27 October 1821, and was buried at Framingham.

Works

In 1776 Rigby published ''An Essay on the Uterine Hæmorrhage which precedes the Delivery of the full-grown Fœtus'' (3rd edit. 1784; 6th edit., with a memoir by John Cross, Norwich, 1822). This work was translated into French, by Marie-Anne-Victoire Gallain Boivin (1818), and German, and made Rigby's professional reputation. He wrote also: * ''An Essay on the Theory and Production of Animal Heat, and on its Application in the Treatment of Cutaneous Eruptions, Inflammations, and some other Diseases'', London, 1785. *''Chemical Observations on Sugar'', London, 1788. *''An Essay on the use of the Red Peruvian Bark in the Cure of Intermittents'', London, 1783. *''Reports of the Special Provision Committee, appointed by the Court of Guardians, in … Norwich'', 1788. *''Further Facts relating to the Care of the Poor and the Management of the Workhouse in the City of Norwich'', a sequel. * ''Holkham, its Agriculture, etc.'', ''Pamphleteer'', 1813, vol. xiii.; 2nd edit. with … additions, Norwich, 1817; 3rd edit. … enlarged, Norwich, 1818. Another edit. 1819. * ''Report of the Norwich Pauper Vaccination, from 10 Aug. 1812 to 10 Aug. 1813'', London, 1813. * ''Suggestions for an Improved and Extended Cultivation of Mangel Wurzel'', Norwich 1815. * ''Italy: its Agriculture … from the French of Châteauvieux'', 1819. * ''Framingham: its Agriculture, &c., including the Economy of a small Farm'', Norwich, 1820. His ''Letters from France'', addressed to his wife in 1789, were first published by his daughter Lady Eastlake, London, 1880.

Family

Rigby married, first, Sarah, coheir of John Dybal, by whom he left two daughters, and secondly, in 1803, Anne Palgrave, daughter of William Palgrave of

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

, by whom he had twelve children, four of whom, three girls and a boy, were the production of one birth on 15 August 1817.

Edward Rigby Edward Coke MC (5 February 1879 – 5 April 1951), known professionally as Edward Rigby, was a British character actor. Early life Rigby was born at Ashford, Kent, England, the second son of Dr William Harriott Coke and his wife, Mary Elizabe ...

(1804–1860) and

Elizabeth Eastlake Elizabeth, Lady Eastlake (17 November 1809 – 2 October 1893), born Elizabeth Rigby, was an English people, English author, art critic and art historian who made regular contributions to the ''Quarterly Review''. She is known for her writing a ...

were among them.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigby, Edward 1747 births 1821 deaths People educated at Norwich School 18th-century English medical doctors English surgeons English writers People from Atherton, Greater Manchester