Thomas Beddoes

Who was Thomas Beddoes?

Thomas Beddoes, English physician and scientific writer, was born in Shifnal, Shropshire. He was a reforming practitioner and teacher of medicine, and an associate of leading scientific figures. Beddoes was a friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and, according to E. S. Shaffer, an important influence on Coleridge's early thinking, introducing him to the higher criticism. The poet Thomas Lovell Beddoes was his son. An excellent painting of him by Samson Towgood Roch is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.