Thomas West (c.1668–1738)
Thomas West was born in c.1668, the son of the clergyman Richard West.
Thomas's family were living at Creaton near Daventry in Northamptonshire when on 11 March 1683/4 he was matriculated at the University of Oxford from Exeter College at the age of 16. His younger brothers Richard and Edward followed him Oxford, being matriculated from Merton College in March 1688/9 and December 1697 respectively, and both entered the church.
West obtained his BA in 1687. He then moved to Merton College, gaining his MA in 1691, his B.Med. in 1693, and his D.Med. in 1696.
He would have lost his Fellowship at Merton when in 1699 he married his first wife Catherine Lydall, the daughter of Dr Richard Lydall (who had been Warden of Merton from 1693, despite being unlearned). Catherine's mother was Sara the daughter of Richard Zouch, L.L.D. (Regius Professor of Civil Law and Principal of St Alban Hall). “W.A.” (probably Willilam Adams) wrote to Thomas Tanner, the future Bishop of Norwich, on 5 June 1699 (see Oxoniensia, “Oxford in 1699”):
The founder of Merton's house-keeper (meaning one that passes for Dr Lydals eldest daughter) is going to be married to Dr West. Surely (as Dr Brown says) the eldest hopes will never be superannuated since the grave has bin made a mistress, and carcases courted.
When Catherine died, her husband Thomas West was described as being of Covent Garden in London, but her body was brought to Oxford for burial inside Merton College Chapel near that of her mother. The register stated that she was buried on 19 December 1704, but the tombstone below states that she died on 16 December 1705.
In 1716/17 West applied for a licence from the Royal College of Physicians to practise physic in London. He became a Fellow of that college on 22 December 1718, and served as its Treasurer in 1721/2, and its Censor in 1725 and 1729.
Thomas West died at Red Lion Square near Gloucester Green in Oxford on 17 August 1738 and was buried inside Merton College Chapel near his first wife on 25 August.
Here
Near the Remains of his first Wife
CATHERINE Daughter of Dr. LYDALL
Who died Dec. ye 16 A.D. 1705
Lieth
The Body of THOMAS WEST, M.D.
Fellow of the College of Physicians,
and Formerly Fellow of this College,
Who departed this Life
The Seventeenth day of August
in the year of our Lord
1738
Aged Seventy Years.
Without a Pang translated strait to Heav’n,
And Scarcely feeling when the Stroke was giv’n,
As if well skill’d in every lenient Art
Thyself hadst smooth’d Destruction’s painfull Dart,
Didst Thou discover where this transient Span
Was ended: where immortal Life began:
But soon the wondrous Change thou shalt perceive,
No longer call’d the Wretched to releive.
Thy Science useless, and thy Worth approv’d,
Shall tell thee that from Earth thou art remov’d.