Person:John Pierce (50)

from Henry Page Pierce's family history: p 2.

"John Harvey Pierce was born at Wychurch in Kent, England, in 1749. His father, who died young, was born at the same place. His mother's name was Harvey and he was named after her brother, a captain Harvey. She was related to the earls of Bristol. whose family name was (and is) Hervey, and was descended from John Harvey, the brother of William, who discovered the circulation of the blood. Her second husband was a Mr. Braddock....."

"John Harvey Pierce was a physician, practiced in London and afterward retired to Charmouth, two miles from Lime Regis, in Devon County. He moved from there to Clocomb House, about one mile from Axminster and thence to New Park, near Clocomb, where he lived for the rest of his life. He lived in France for about four years, where he was very intimate with John Quincy Adams, then minister at Paris. He was a strong Whig. He had a large practice in London, but after he reitred to the county he gave up his practice except among the poor. He was liberally educated and spoke seven languages fluently He was of medium size, with blue eyes, brown hair and a roman nose. His tombstone has the inscription: "John Harvey Pierce, the poor man's friend."

"He had a large estate (a tavern called Edinborogh Castle, a coal yard, 400 feet on the river Thames, and other real estate."

In George Norman Pierce's biographical entry in Erie County history published in 1908, it is stated that John Harvey Pierce was in attendance at the birth of Queen Victoria, and that he was a Physician to the Crown.

"Wychurch" is Upchurch, Kent. " John Harvey Pierce's mother's name was Mary Day. His grandmother was Mary Harvey. No connection with the Earls of Bristol has yet been found. Moreover, the descendants of William Harveys siblings is reasonably well established; his brother John did not have children.

It is unlikely that JHP was on intimate terms with John Quincy Adams, who was a young man at school when his father, John Adams, was the U.S.'s representative in France.

He could not have been in attendance at the birth of Queen Victoria, as she was born in 1819, a year after he died.

1. ↑ HMP family history.