Page 19

Samuel and his father Henry Tolcher lived in Totnes in the later part of

the 17th and early 18th century. They practiced as Apothecaries in the

town.

Henry was married to a Mary whose maiden name is not recorded. He died

in 1713 and was named in a will of 1673 as an 'apothecary and trustee'. His

wife died in 1736.

Clearly Samuel must have been born before 1713 but it is likely he was

born much earlier. He is not in the Totnes birth records, but might have

been registered in a neighbouring parish. Samuel was twice married and

the bond of his second marriage to Joan Lane (widow) of Stoke Gabriel is

shown below.

Samuel was previously married to Elizabeth Voss and had nine children by

her. She died in 1741 and is buried in Totnes. Samuel died in 1755. Joan

Lane appears to have been quite a lot younger than Samuel. She was born

Joan Bowman in Little Torrington on 1st November 1709. There is no

record of her marriage to Mr Lane, but there are quite a number of Lane's

in Stoke Gabriel.

Very little is currently known about him except that after his marriage

Samuel's son Henry (b 1726) appears to have taken over the running of the

apothecary business as he is noted as taking an apprentice in 1754.

Further research is being undertaken but the attached information from the

Society of Apothecaries is useful background

The licensing of medical practitioners began with the Act of 1511. This

stated that within London and seven miles around it no one could practise

as a physician or surgeon unless examined and approved by the bishop of

London or the dean of St Paul's, who were to be assisted in the case of

physicians by four doctors of physic, and in the case of surgeons, by

experts in surgery.

Apothecaries, on the other hand, were originally the equivalent of today's

community pharmacists. Because of their specialist skills in compounding

and dispensing drugs, James I granted the London apothecaries their own

charter of incorporation in 1617. This allowed them to separate as a body

from the Worshipful Company of Grocers (in which both they and the

druggists formed distinct groups) and become a City livery company in

their own right. The Society of Apothecaries was empowered by its charter

to search apothecaries' shops to monitor the quality of raw materials and

medications sold, as well as to examine apprentices' competence to

become apothecaries trading and practising in the City of London.

Until the Apothecaries' Act of 1815, apprentices outside London only had

to fulfil the terms of their indentures to their masters' satisfaction; those

within the City, had to answer to the Society's Master and Wardens and

the President and Censors of the College of Physicians. In the case of the

latter, the apprentice would have been subjected to an oral exam requiring

knowledge of Latin, botany and materia medica, and the Pharmacopoeia

Londinensis, as well as dispensing skills.

However, education and training were not uniform throughout the country

and qualifications were not easily identifiable over the centuries. Dr

Juanita Bumby (A study of the English Apothecary from 1660 to 1760,

Medical History, Supp. No.3, 1983) suggests that "as to legalities, it would

seem that, despite bitter complaints by all parties, a medical practitioner,

were he self-styled physician, surgeon or apothecary, could practice

illegally with a fair degree of impunity in small towns, boroughs, cities and

even the metropolis itself."

By the mid-18th century, there were no neat boundaries between the three

professions and the licences granted by the episcopal authorities had little

to do with a man's medical qualifications, indeed, they were usually issued

after he had been in practice for years; as Rowse wrote, they were rather

'certificates of honesty and good conduct'."

As a result of a key lawsuit settled in the House of Lords in 1703/4 (and

known as the Rose Case), apothecaries were entitled to prescribe

(formerly the sole right of physicians) as well as to dispense medicines.

From having been the equivalent of today's community pharmacists, this

ruling enabled apothecaries to become general practitioners of Medicine

(today's GPs). This change in professional development, although far-

reaching, was gradual. Not all apothecaries chose to move away from

pharmacy to practise Medicine, but this was true of the majority. The

emergent chemists and druggists were then able to enter the

pharmaceutical field. From 1775 only apothecaries practising medicine

could become members of the Society of Apothecaries, but it was not until

the late 1830s that they were permitted to levy a fee for their prescriptions

in addition to charging for the medicines they dispensed.

There was no formalised training and no adequate regulatory machinery

until the 1 9th century when the Apothecaries' Act of 1815 came into force.

This Act empowered the Society of Apothecaries to institute a Court of

Examiners. For the first time in the history of medical education a

curriculum of study was established and standards of training set. The

Society's regulations for its Licence (LSA) combined attendance at

lectures with hospital experience, and anyone wishing to practise as an

apothecary in England and Wales on or after 1 August 1815 had to have

qualified as a Licentiate by law. However, the examination was purely oral

until 1860 when written papers were introduced.

Finally, there was no statutory registration of medical practitioners (from

any sector of the profession) until the Medical Act of 1858 brought the

General Medical Register into being.