Regency Personalities Series-Henry Cline
Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.
Henry Cline
1750-January 21827
Henry Cline
Cline was born in London, and educated at Merchant Taylors’ School. When seventeen he apprenticed to Mr. Thomas Smith, and became a lecturer in anatomy.
He obtained his diploma in 1774. In 1781, Cline was appointed to lecture on anatomy. In 1784, the death of his old master Smith, allowed Cline to succeed him in a surgeoncy at St. Thomas’s Hospital. In 1796 to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where he remained during the rest of his life.
In 1796 Cline was elected a member of the court of assistants of the Surgeons’ Company; but there were some shenanigans involved. It tool until 1800 when they were incorporated by charter as the Royal College of Surgeons, to fix this. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1806.
In 1808 Cline bought land at Bound’s Green in Essex, and visited it regularly, becoming greatly interested in agriculture, according to Astley Cooper, his pupil. When he was sixty years old his practice brought him about £10,000 per annum. In 1810 Cline became an examiner at the College of Surgeons. In 1815 he became master of the College of Surgeons. In 1823 Cline was president of the college.
Cline was a friend of John Horne Tooke, attending him professionally when in the Tower of London, and also friends with John Thelwell. He was in favor of the French Revolution and saw to Astley Cooper’s safety in Paris in 1792. He published Form of Animals in 1805. In 1775 Cline married Miss Webb. They had a son who also became a lecturer on anatomy and surgery, Henry, who died before his father.
