John Mayow - Life

Life

There has been controversy over both the location and year of Mayow's birth, with both Cornwall and London claimed, along with birth years from 1641 to 1645. Proctor's extensive research led him to conclude that Mayow was born in 1641 near Morval in Cornwall and that he was admitted to Wadham College, Oxford at age 17 in 1658. A year later Mayow became a scholar at Oxford, and in 1660 he was elected to a fellowship at All Souls. He graduated in law (bachelor, 1665, doctor, 1670), but made medicine his profession, and became noted for his practice therein, especially in the summer time, in the city of Bath. In 1678, on the proposal of Robert Hooke, Mayow was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society. The following year, after a marriage which was not altogether to Mayow's content, he died in London and was buried in the Church of St Paul, Covent Garden.