Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 577

VALENTINE GREATRAKES (1629-1683) A brief account of Mr Valentine Greatrak's, and divers of the strange cures by him lately performed. J. Starkey 1666 96 pp., front. (port.). 20.8 cm.

Although he was born in Ireland, Greatrakes was English, his ancestors having settled there in the late sixteenth century. When Greatrakes was five years old, his father died and later, in 1641, the family was forced to flee to England during an Irish revolt. He was privately educated in theology and the humanities in Devon where the family lived with his maternal uncle. When he was nineteen, Greatrakes returned to Ireland where he was determined to regain what he could of his father's estate. He served county Cork as Justice of the Peace, Clerk of the Peace, and Registrar for the transportation of his dispossessed countrymen until the Restoration in 1660 when he retired to farm on his estate. About four years after he returned to his estate, Greatrakes "had an Impulse, or a strange perswasion . . . that God had given me the blessing of curing the Kings-Evil" (p. 22). His method was to use his hands to stroke the affected part and, as a result, he was frequently called the "stroker." His successes were such that he was soon charged with practicing medicine without a license but he countered that, since he charged no fee, he needed no license. Although forbidden to heal, he continued as before and eventually was stroking for all manner of complaints. He effected many cures, achieved great popularity, and was even called upon by Charles II to exercise his powers on three patients from St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. After his visit to England, he returned to live quietly in Ireland and cure those who came to his door. The present tract was written in response to charges contained in a pamphlet by David Lloyd (1635-1692) which attacked his morals and techniques. Lloyd, in his Wonders no miracles (London, 1666), brought forth numerous negative arguments and labeled Greatrakes an imposter and fake. Greatrakes prepared this small book to answer those criticisms and certify the validity of his cures. Essentially prepared as a letter to Robert Boyle (see No. 564 ff.), the book contains, in addition to the autobiographical introduction, over fifty letters from individuals, public figures, patients, churchmen, physicians, and Fellows of the Royal Society testifying to the success of his cures. Pages 89-90 of the University of Iowa copy have been incorrectly bound between pages 94 and 95.

See Related Record(s): 564

Cited references: Cushing G378; Garrison-Morton 4992; Osler 2824; Waller 3722 (1723 ed.); Wellcome III, p. 159

Gift of John Martin, M.D.