Reeve, Henry

Summary

Father: Abraham Reeve
Mother: Elizabeth Wallace

Birth: 17 Sep 1780
Birth Source: Baptism

Death: 26 Sep 1814, Hadleigh, Suffolk
Death Source: Obituary

Spouse1: Susanna Taylor, m. 17 Sep 1807, Norwich, St. George at Colegate, Norfolk

Narrative

Children of Henry Reeve and Susanna Taylor:

1. Susan Reeve, b. 14 Oct 1808, d. Apr 1814
2. Wallace Reeve, b. 1 Mar 1810, d. Apr 1815
3. Henry Reeve, b. 9 Sep 1813

Gleaned from England births and baptisms from the parish of Hadleigh, Suffolk:

• Henry Reeve, b. 17 Sep 1780, bap. 5 Oct 1780, s/o Abraham & Elizabeth

Marriage from Norwich, St. George at Colegate, Norfolk Parish Registers:

• Henry Reeve M. D. of the Parish of St Stephens in the City of Norwich and Susanna Taylor of the Parish of St George's Colegate in the city of Norwich were married in this Church by licence this seventeenth Day of September in the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seven by me ....

Their children are recorded in Norwich independent registers:

• (1808) Nov 2nd Susanna daughter of Henry Reeve M.D & Susanna his wife, born Octr 14 was this day baptized by me P Houghton
• (1811) July 25 Wallace son of Henry Reeve M D and Susanna his wife born March 1st last baptized by me Pendlebury Houghton
• (1814) Feb 9. Henry son of Henry Reeve MD & Susan his wife of the parish of All Saints born 9th Sep 1813 baptized by me Thomas Madge

The Ipswich Journal, 1 Oct 1814
On Tuesday last died, at his father's house, at Hadleigh, in this county, in the 35th year of his age, Henry Reeve, M. D., lately physician in Norwich. Of the loss which his family has sustained, no words can give an adequate description; but it may be allowed to say, that during his life time, he was sincerely admired and beloved, and in his death, he is most unfeignedly lamented.

Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, etc., 7 Oct 1814
On the 26th ult., aged 34, at Hadleigh, Suffolk, Henry Reeve, M D. of Norwich.

The Dictionary of National Biography contains the following on Henry:

REEVE, HENRY (1780-1814), physician, was second son of Abraham Reeve of Hadleigh, Suffolk, where he was born in September 1780. His mother was Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Dr. Wallace, rector of Messing in Essex. At sixteen he left Dedham school to study anatomy and surgery under Philip Meadows Martineau of Norwich, and removed in 1800 to the university of Edinburgh. There he attended the lectures of Dugald Stewart on moral philosophy, of Robison on natural philosophy, of Gregory on medicine, of Hope on chemistry. He associated with Brougham, Horner, and Sydney Smith; was elected in November 1802 a member of the Speculative Society, of which they were the moving spirits; and contributed to early numbers of the 'Edinburgh Review' articles on 'Population' and on Pinel'a 'Treatment of the Insane.' He was president of the Royal Medical Society in 1802-3, graduating M.D. in the latter year, for which occasion he wrote a thesis entitled ‘Do Animalibus in hyeme sopitis.’
Removing to London to continue his studies, he frequented the house of Mrs. Barbauld and Dr. Aikin, formed a friendship with Sir Humphry Davy, met Sir Joseph Banks, Isaac D'Israeli, and Coleridgo. In conjunction with Dr. Thomas Bateman (1778-1821) [q. v.], he founded, in 1805, the 'Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal,' to which he sent frequent communications. In 1805 he started on a foreign tour, spent some months at Neuchatel, traversed Switzerland, and ventured, with an American passport, on French territory at Geneva. Reaching Vienna on 30 Sept., he was there an eye-witness of the scenes that followed Austerlitz (6 Dec.), saw Napoleon at Schonbrunn, heard Crescentini sing, had an interview with Haydn, and was present when Beethoven, 'a small, dark, young-looking man,' directed a performance of 'Fidelio.' At Berlin, moreover, in the spring of 1806, he became acquainted with Klaproth and Humboldt, and was among the auditors of Fichte.
Shortly after his return to England he settled at Norwich, and pursued his profession with energy and success. He was admitted, on 12 Feb. 1807, an extra-licentiate of the College of Physicians, and was elected physician to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, and to the lunatic asylum. But an obscure disease out short his promising career. He died at his father's house at Hadleigh on 27 Sept. 1814, aged 34. A tablet inscribed to his memory was placed by his widow in the Octagon Chapel at Norwich. A paper by him on 'Cretinism' was read before the Royal Society on 11 Feb. 1808 (Phil. Trans, xcviii. 111), and he published at London in 1809 an essay 'On the Torpidity of Animals.’ His 'Journal of a Residence at Vienna and Berlin in the eventful Winter 1805-6' was published by his son in 1877. The journal of his preceding Swiss tour remains in manuscript.
He married, in 1807, Susanna, eldest daughter of John Taylor of Norwich, one of that family by whom, according to the Duke of Sussex, the saying was invented that 'it takes nine tailors to make a man.' Mrs. Reeve was a sister of Mrs. Sarah Austin [q. v.], and died in 1804, having survived her husband fifty years. Of his three children two died in infancy; the third, Henry, is separately noticed.
[Introduction to Journal by Henry Reeve, C.B.; Mrs. Ross’s Three Generations of English-women, i. 19-29; Munk's College of Physicians, iii. 46; Memoir of Dr. Reeve by Bateman in Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, xi. 249; Gent. Mag. 1814, ii. 610 ; Watt’s Bibl. Brit.] A. M. C.

Research Notes

Extensive biographical information on his son Henry is contained in his memoirs, compiled by John Knox Laughton and published in 1898. This contains some family information on this Henry as well.

Sources

Baptism:    England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 (Ancestry)
Marriage1:  Norwich, St. George at Colegate, Norfolk Parish Register 1785-1810, PD 7/8
Death:        Obituary, Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, etc., 7 Oct 1814

Obituary, The Ipswich Journal, 1 Oct 1814
RG4, Piece 1965: Norwich, the Octagon Chapel (Presbyterian Or Unitarian), 1691-1837, folio 50

Laughton, John Knox. (1898). Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C. B., D. C. L., Vol. I
Laughton, John Knox. (1898). Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C. B., D. C. L., Vol. II
Lee, Sidney. (1909). Dictionary Of National Biography, Vol. 16, p849