Bartholomew Mosse

Mosse, Bartholomew, M.D., the founder of the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, was born at Maryborough in 1712. He studied medicine, travelled on the Continent, and devoted himself to obstetrics. In 1745 he opened a lying-in hospital on a small scale in George's-lane, Dublin, said to have been the first of its kind in the British Isles. Encouraged by its usefulness, he, on his own responsibility, took a large plot of ground on the north side of the city, and with but £500 in hands, set about the erection of the present Rotunda Hospital, on the plans of Mr. Cassels.

The foundation-stone was laid by the Lord Mayor on 24th May 1751. By subscriptions, parliamentary grants, and the proceeds of concerts and lotteries, the work was pushed on, and the present noble institution was opened for the reception of patients in 1757. Dr. Mosse died at Cullenswood, 16th February 1759, aged 47, and was interred at Donnybrook. An admirable memoir, with interesting particulars concerning the history of the institution founded by him, will be found in the Dublin Journal of Medical Science, vol. ii. "For this one great object of providing an asylum and a refuge for woman in her greatest hour of trial, he lived — for this he may be said to have died — died poor as to wealth, but rich in the blessings of the needy, and of those who were ready to perish."

Sources

115. Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science (2). Dublin, 1846-'77.