Occupation Physician Name Henry MacCormac Language English Role Physician | Nationality British Subject, Spouse Mary Newsam | |
Born Henry MacCormac
30 June 1800
Carnan ( 1800-06-30 ) Children Five children including Sir William MacCormac Died 1886, Belfast, United Kingdom | ||
Education University of Edinburgh | ||
Henry MacCormac (1800–1886) was a notable nineteenth century medical doctor and candidate for a chair at Queen's University in Northern Ireland. He was also a man of letters who corresponded with well-known Victorian era intellectuals such as John Stuart Mill.
Contents
- Early life and background
- Education
- Visit to Sierra Leone
- Career
- Family
- Later life
- Publications
- Trivia
- References
Early life and background
Henry MacCormac was born in Carnan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland in 1800. His father, John MacCormac (d. 1811) was a wealthy linen merchant and his mother, Mary Ann Hall, (1766–1846), was the daughter of Colonel Joseph Hall, a prosperous distiller who lived at "Hall Place" in Lurgan. Henry MacCormac's paternal grandfather was Cornelius MacCormac, R.N., who was a high-ranking officer in the Royal Navy according to the MacCormac family records.
Education
Henry MacCormac qualified in Dublin, Paris and earned a Medical Doctorate at the University of Edinburgh in 1916 and also became a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh.
Visit to Sierra Leone
In the early 1800s, Henry MacCormac travelled to Sierra Leone, where his brothers, Hon. John MacCormac, (1794–1865) and Hamilton Edmond MacCormac, (d. 1859), lived as timber merchants. John MacCormac was a prosperous businessman who served as a Member of the Colonial Council in Sierra Leone and later as a Police Magistrate of the Colony.
Career
MacCormac served as a well-known physician and was a candidate for a chair at Queen's University in Northern Ireland. After retiring from his medical practice, MacCormac engaged in literary and scholarly pursuits and corresponded with a number of important Victorian era intellectuals.
Family
Henry MacCormac married his distant cousin, Mary Newsam, the daughter of William Newsam, a wealthy linen merchant whose family went to Ireland in 1640. The MacCormac family had three sons and two daughters, including William MacCormac, who served as President of the Royal College of Physicians and was knighted by Queen Victoria. Through his youngest son, Henry MacCormac was also the great grandfather of Sir Richard MacCormac, a notable architect in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Later life
Henry MacCormac died at Fisherwick Place, Belfast on 26 May 1886 at the age of 86.