Robert Storrs (1801-1847), surgeon-apothecary of Doncaster, Yorks.

Notes by Robert Storrs recording interesting cases and medical events from his practice, together with transcripts of two papers read at the Sheffield Medical Society. With additional notes on drugs by an unidentified contributor, possibly one of Storrs's apprentices, and later notes by Storrs's grandson, Reginald Storrs, a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London.

1823-1896

3 Volumes and 1 digital item

Given by Dr John H S Tooth, Storrs's great-great-grandson, September 2007.

Robert Storrs was born on 23 June 1801, only child of John Storrs, a baker and provision dealer of Doncaster, and his wife Elizabeth (née Robertshaw). Robert was apprenticed for several years to a local surgeon, John Moore and an apothecary, Benjamin Popplewell, before leaving in August 1822 to spend two years walking the wards of Guy's Hospital, London. Whilst there he presented four papers to the Guy's Hospital Physical Society. In London he met his future wife, Martha Townsend, whom he eventually married in March 1827. They had thirteen children, of whom twelve survived their father. Storrs returned to Doncaster in June 1824 to set up as a sole practitioner in the town. In July 1830 he was appointed honorary surgeon to Doncaster Dispensary. He was heavily involved in treating victims of cholera in 1832. In 1835 he was elected a municipal councillor on a Reform ticket, and in 1837 was one of the founder members of the Doncaster Lyceum. The extent to which his practice had prospered can be gauged from the census return for his household in 1841, when it comprised in addition to family members, a governess, two surgeon apprentices, and one male and four female servants. Storrs later took a close interest in puerperal or childbed fever as a result of the notorious outbreak which struck Doncaster in 1841, and he subsequently published the results of his investigations in the Provincial Medical Journal. He died of typhus on 14 September 1847.

The notebooks were inherited by the donor by direct descent from the creator.