METHUSELAH ARCHIVE PEOPLE / GEORGE II
George II

George II

George II of Great Britain
1683–1760 · British (Hanoverian)
role:King of Great Britain and Ireland (r. 1727-1760)
nationality:British (Hanoverian)
connection:Ward reset the king's dislocated thumb with 'a violent wrench,' according to the 1899 Dictionary of National Biography, winning George II's lasting patronage; the king rewarded Ward with rooms in the Whitehall almonry, from which Ward treated poor patients at royal expense.
confirmed:yes
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NOTES

George II was reigning king of Great Britain when Joshua Ward returned from exile in 1733-34. The 1899 Dictionary of National Biography records that Ward won the king’s “immediate displeasure and more lasting esteem” by curing his dislocated thumb “with a violent wrench,” and that George II subsequently allowed Ward “an apartment in the almonry office, Whitehall, where he ministered to the poor at his majesty’s expense.” The king’s patronage of a promoter whom the DNB described as “destitute of medical learning” beyond slight knowledge of pharmacy gave Ward’s pill and drop the appearance of royal endorsement and financed a free clinic that widened Ward’s patient base beyond paying customers.