Sir George Wakeman
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Sir George Wakeman (died 1688) was an English medical doctor, who was royal physician to
Catherine of Braganza Catherine of Braganza (; 25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to Charles II of England, King Charles II, which la ...
, Consort of
Charles II of England Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and King of Ireland, Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest su ...
. In 1678, in the allegations of the fabricated
Popish Plot The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinat ...
, he was falsely accused of treason by
Titus Oates Titus Oates (15 September 1649 – 12/13 July 1705) was an English priest who fabricated the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II. Early life Titus Oates was born at Oakham in Rutland. His father was the Baptis ...
, who had gained the backing of Thomas Osborne, 1st Earl of Danby, the effective head of the English government. Oates accused Wakeman of conspiring to kill the King with the help of the
Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
, and to put his brother
James, Duke of York James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II of England, Charles II, on 6 February 1 ...
on the throne in his place. At his trial in 1679 Wakeman was acquitted, the first sign that the public was beginning to lose faith in the reality of the Plot.


Life

He was the son of Edward Wakeman (1592–1659) of the
Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...
, by Mary (d. 1676), daughter of Richard Cotton of
Warblington Warblington is a suburb of Havant, in the county of Hampshire, England. Warblington used to be a civil parish, and before that was part of the Hundred of Bosmere. Etymology In Saxon times there was a farm ( OE: ) possibly owned by a woman ...
, Sussex. George Wakeman was raised as a
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, and was educated abroad, probably in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, where he possibly graduated in medicine. Like his elder brother Richard (d. 1662), who raised a troop of horses for the king, he was a staunch royalist. On his return to England, he became involved in a plot against
Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...
, and was imprisoned until the eve of the Restoration. His record of loyalty to the
Stuart dynasty The House of Stuart, originally spelled Stewart, also known as the Stuart dynasty, was a royal house of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been hel ...
was to be a crucial factor in his acquittal on charges of treason in 1679: although Charles II's gratitude to his subjects for their past services could not always be relied on, in the crisis of 1678-9 he repaid Wakeman's loyalty in full. Also, once the initial hysteria caused by the Plot died down, it became clear to most rational people that Wakeman's record of unblemished loyalty to the Crown was utterly inconsistent with the charges of treason made against him.
John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diary, diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's Diary, ...
, a personal friend of his, was no doubt one of many who accepted that there was a Plot of some sort but refused to believe that Wakeman, "so worthy a gentleman", had any part in it. On 13 February 1661, as Sir George Wakeman of Beckford, he was created a
baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
by Charles II, though it seems that the patent was never sealed. In August 1668 he was attending the rising statesman
Sir Joseph Williamson Sir Joseph Williamson, PRS (25 July 1633 – 3 October 1701) was an English civil servant, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England variously between 1665 and 1701 and in the Irish House of Commons between 1692 and 1 ...
, later Secretary of State; his appointment some two years later as physician in ordinary to Queen Catherine of Braganza is attributed to his high reputation for a Roman Catholic physician in England.


Popish Plot

In their perjured narrative of the
Popish Plot The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinat ...
, Titus Oates and
Israel Tonge Israel Tonge (11 November 1621 – 1680), aka Ezerel or Ezreel Tongue, was an English divine. He was an informer in and probably one of the inventors of the "Popish" plot. Career Tonge was born at Tickhill, near Doncaster, the son of Henry To ...
declared that Wakeman had been offered £10,000 to poison Charles II's
posset A posset (, also historically spelled possot poshote, possyt or poshotte), was originally a popular British hot drink made of milk curdled with wine or ale, often spiced, which was often used as a remedy. The original drink became extinct and ...
, and that he could easily effect this through the agency of the Queen. The story went that Wakeman refused the task, and held out until £15,000 was offered to him. Then, they said, he attended the "Jesuit Consult" on 30 August 1678, received a large sum of money on account, and, the further reward of a post as physician-general in the army having been promised him, he definitely engaged to poison the king. At his first appearance before the King and his Privy Council, Wakeman defended himself with such vigour, pointing to his lifetime of loyal service to the Stuart monarchy, that the Council, somewhat taken aback, did not order his arrest. Wakeman was indicted for high treason at the
Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...
on 18 July 1679, together with three priests, the case being tried by Lord Chief Justice
William Scroggs Sir William Scroggs (c. 162325 October 1683) was Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Chief Justice of England from 1678 to 1681. He is best remembered for presiding over the Popish Plot trials, where he was accused of showing bias agai ...
, assisted by his fellow Chief Justice
Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford, PC, KC (22 October 1637 – 5 September 1685) was the third son of Dudley North, 4th Baron North, and his wife Anne Montagu, daughter of Sir Charles Montagu of Boughton House and Mary Whitmore. He was crea ...
and the junior King's Bench judges. Scroggs, formerly a strong believer in the Popish Plot, was on this occasion, for reasons which have never been entirely clear, firmly on the side of the accused. The chief witnesses for the prosecution were
William Bedloe William Bedloe (20 April 165020 August 1680) was an English fraudster and Popish Plot informer. Life He was born at Chepstow in Monmouthshire; he was probably the son of Isaac Bedloe, himself the son of an Irish Army officer, and a cousin of Wi ...
and Oates, who swore that he had seen the paper appointing Wakeman to the post of physician-general. It was elicited from Oates in the course of the proceedings that he was incapable at the time alluded to of identifying either Wakeman's person or his handwriting. Wakeman and his co-accused all defended themselves with great vigour (in a case of treason the accused was not entitled to
counsel A counsel or a counsellor at law is a person who gives advice and deals with various issues, particularly in legal matters. It is a title often used interchangeably with the title of ''lawyer''. The word ''counsel'' can also mean advice given ...
until the passage of the
Treason Act 1695 The Treason Act 1695 ( 7 & 8 Will. 3. c. 3) is an act of the Parliament of England which laid down rules of evidence and procedure in high treason trials. It was passed by the English Parliament but was extended to cover Scotland in 1708 by th ...
), and their witnesses received a far more courteous hearing than defence witnesses in previous trials had. In particular, Ellen Rigby, the housekeeper to the
Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
order in London, was listened to with a respect not often accorded to a Catholic woman in that age. Scroggs in his summing up commented severely upon the character of the evidence, stressed his reluctance to shed innocent blood, (a reluctance which had certainly not been evident in previous Plot trials), and warned the jury that while he still believed in the Plot, it must not be assumed that all those accused were party to it. The jury, after asking if they might find the prisoners guilty of
misprision of treason Misprision of treason is an offence found in many common law jurisdictions around the world, having been inherited from English law. It is committed by someone who knows a treason is being or is about to be committed but does not report it to a p ...
, and being told they could not, found all the prisoners not guilty. The acquittal dealt a severe blow to the credibility of the "Plot", but there was a public backlash also. The jurors had to flee their homes for fear of the mob, and a dead dog was thrown at Scroggs. When the Portuguese Ambassador, the
Marquis of Arronches The nobility title Marquis of Arronches was created on April 27 of 1674 by D. Afonso VI of Portugal in favour of Henrique de Sousa Tavares, 3th Count of Miranda do Corvo 28th Lord of the Sousa House. The present Marquis of Arronches is D. Afons ...
, called on Scroggs in person to congratulate him on Wakeman's acquittal (historians have called the Ambassador's action one of "incredible folly"), the public, perhaps not unreasonably, assumed that the judge had been bribed.Kenyon p.202 Wakeman went to
Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...
to see the queen and king, and left the country. In the course of evidence given at subsequent trials Oates entirely ignored the verdict, and continued to speak of the bribe offered to and accepted by the queen's physician. Wakeman was back in London by 1685, and gave evidence against Oates on 8 May 1685, in his first trial for
perjury Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...
. Nothing is known of his further career.


Further reading

*J. P. Kenyon. "The acquittal of Sir George Wakeman: 18 July 1679".
The Historical Journal ''The Historical Journal'', formerly known as ''The Cambridge Historical Journal'', is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press. It publishes approximately thirty-five articles per year on all aspects of British, E ...
, 1971.


References

* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Wakeman, George Year of birth missing 1688 deaths 17th-century English medical doctors People associated with the Popish Plot Physicians-in-Ordinary