The World of John Coakley Lettsom: a talk and book signing by author John Whitehead.

Born to Quaker parents in the British Virgin Islands in 1744, John Coakley Lettsom freed his inherited enslaved workers, leaving himself penniless.  Yet, he rose to become a leading London doctor and a signatory of the first petition to abolish the slave trade.  Join author John Whitehead to explore this extraordinary life.

The recorded facts of Lettsom's life form the basis of John's book The Three Promises of John Coakley Lettsom, published in 2024.  However, these records leave many questions unanswered.  Why did Lettsom actually go to a Quaker school near Warrington, and not to the one in Lancaster?  How did he earn sufficient money practicing in the Virgin Islands to fund the completion of his medical education?  And why, having just freed his father's slaves, did he purchase Teresa, a young black woman whose beauty he was still extolling in letters written sixteen years after his return to England?

In this talk the author will delve into the historical context of Lettsom's life, in particular the story of Quaker communities in the Caribbean and their relationship with their enslaved workers and also the changes in medical practice that Lettsom helped to bring about.  John will also explain why he chose to present the story as a novel rather than as a biography, and how he went about filling in the blanks within the record.