Dr Thomas Arthur

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Arthur, Thomas, Dr., a Catholic physician, born in Munster in 1593. He studied on the Continent, and became the leading practitioner in Ireland. His fee-book, published in The Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, is an interesting and valuable document, containing a list of his patients (many of them eminent characters of the day), with particulars of their illnesses, and memoranda of the fees received in each case. Once we find him attending Archbishop Ussher, or, as he styles him, " Pseudo-Primas Ardmachanus," curing him of a severe disease, and receiving £51 for his services at Drogheda and Lambay Island. His usual fees appear to have been 10s. and 20s. Dr. Arthur lived on through the siege of Limerick in 1651, and records many liberal honorariums from Parliamentary officers. The date of his death does not appear to be known. After his time, many of the well-known Irish physicians were Catholics, medicine being the only profession left open to members of that church.

Sources

10. Archaeological and Historical Association of Ireland, Journal. Dublin, 1853-'77.

85. Columba, St., Adamnan's Life of: Edited by Rev. William Reeves, D.D. (I. A. S.) Dublin, 1857.

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