Early Career
Born 1792 at Nottingham, he was the eldest son of John Bigsby (1760-1844) M.D., F.R.C.P., of Clareborough Cottage, East Retford, Nottinghamshire, and Mary (d.1821), only daughter of John Chamberlin (d.1815), J.P., of Red Hill, High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire. His brother, Thomas, lived at Retford and married a daughter of Colonel John Kirke (1777-1826), J.P., of Markham Hall and Retford. His second brother, Charles, graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, and became a clergyman. Bigsby Road in Retford is named for his family.
Like his father, John Jerimiah Bigsby was educated at Edinburgh University where he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1814. That year he published his thesis and became a physician at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. In 1816, he joined the British Army as an assistant surgeon and was stationed at the Cape of Good Hope in 1817. The following year, he was appointed medical officer to a German Rifle Regiment in the English service and posted with them to British North America. He was stationed at Quebec City but was sent to Hawkesbury in Upper Canada to treat a typhus epidemic among Irish immigrants.
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