William Long

Who was William Long?

William Long FRS, FSA was an English surgeon.

Born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, he was the youngest of ten children of Walter Long of Preshaw, Hampshire, and Philippa Blackall. He was eminent in his profession, and for thirty-three years, from 1784 to 1807, was surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. He was appointed Master of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1800 and was among those who gave a donation to help fund their new surgical library. He was also on the College's list of first Governors, first Examiners of Surgeons and the first Court of Assistants. He wrote several papers, including one entitled "The Effects of Cancer".

He lived in London's Chancery Lane, and later at Lincoln's Inn Fields, and developed close friendships with the painter George Romney, sculptor John Flaxman, and writers William Hayley, Isaac Reed and William Blake, who, like Long, were members of the Unincreasable Club, at nearby Queens Head, Holborn, London. Long sat for Romney as his first subject for a portrait which was done for his friend Hayley. Subsequently Long acquired many of Romney's paintings, which were eventually sold by Christie's on behalf of the family, in 1890.