From A wintery cold Yeadon, I got to thinking.....

 This could be expensive said my husband. As when I get to thinking it usually involves some cock eyed trip or visit, even a holiday. Not that I much want to go anywhere in this weather....so I stayed in by the wood burner and got to thinking and eating cheese. I made a cup of tea and then went through email.

 All the usual stuff about PPI, cancer and old people insurance companies wanting to sell me funeral insurance "to put my loved ones to rest",  ah no I have that wrong, it is to put my loved ones MIND at rest. the insurance is supposed to be for my own funeral.....so therefore a lot of deleting went on, until I came to an email from an Uncle. A very perfunctory message telling me to up date my records as his email address has changed. nothing else. no message, no how are you!? no why have we not heard from you!? nothing. just a round robin email informing me to update my records. I deleted that one as well.
 He was not asking. So I was not telling. The last contact was just after my wedding. His daughter phoned whilst we were out on the van. The mobile cut off. I phoned back and she would not even pick up the phone.

The Snow and wind started to howl. Lee wrapped up the van in blankets and we settled into the house with the heating on as well!

 I started poking around on the internet for interesting pieces of family history, not just my own...I am nosy about other people's family history as well.....And bingo I scored big time!  A ships surgeon who was transported to Van Diemen's land, Tazmania for Murder.
                   I proceeded with great gusto....I went wild and made another cup of tea.

 Firstly! what do I know about Van Dieman's land!?  well it is a spell binding song  by The Edge from U2 for a start. Based on an old traditional Irish folk song The river is Wide. The Edge wrote the song about John Boyle O'reilly leader of the Irish uprising after the great famine. This poor soul was banished to Van Dieman's land.....
Also it is a film. About a Group of convicts who suffer brutal treatment in a filthy jail, and escape to the Tasmanian wilderness. They discover they have no survival skills and turn to cannibalism. The trick being to avoid sleep and then not being your companions next meal.

My naval surgeon is described as a transported convict, medical practitioner, politician, farmer and inventor.....fantastic way to spend a cold snowy afternoon.......
What happened was this. The Naval surgeon, was the son of a London obstetrician.......one of the first by all accounts, who did so well he owned a house in Leicester Square, one of the big ones with neighbors such as the painter Joshua Reynolds.
The Naval surgeon trained as a surgeon's mate at the Royal College of Surgeon's. He was quickly promoted. unfortunately he fought a duel with the ships purser and killed him......this duel was fought with pistols....and he got himself tried for murder for his trouble, then transported to Van Dieman's land , Tasmania.  Where he was sent as a prisoner to an asylum,. He managed to start a private practice whilst still a prisoner, also gaining himself a pardon. He continued with his practice at the Asylum and also started a practice in Sydney , Australia.
His first wife was the daughter of an Irish missionary, very early on in the marriage she was unfaithful, and tried to run away with her lover. The surgeon took her lover to court and sued him for 2,000. The lover ran off without paying and left the missionaries daughter to her fate. Her fate was that the surgeon put advertisements in all the papers letting the world know what happened and that he was not responsible for her any longer. He refused to divorce her. She died in poverty under mysterious circumstances.
By the next year The Surgeon was in court again. this time for liable. His target was the Governor. He lost the court case and did another 7 months in prison.
Upon his release he continued with his private practice ,became active in politics and local education, until it was pointed out that he was a transported criminal and ex prisoner and he could not hold any of these posts.....
The poor person who pointed this out was challenged to a duel.

I took a break and got myself a glass of wine and a bit more cheese.  Monza dog laid out on the floor by the wood burner. Lee is stood behind me reading this as I write.....yes it is annoying! So he is banished to the garage to chop wood.

The surgeon became an expert on the bites of venomous snakes, which he kept as pets.....as well as dislocations....pioneered the operation for the removal of cataracts and bladder stones. As far as I know anesthetic had not been invented yet, so he also helped with that too. He invented medical instruments which are documented in the lancet, as well as the details of the surgery.
He invented an atomic ship. the model of which was exhibited at Crystal palace in 1854. He married a second time to a local rich widow, continued with his private practice until his death.
He was declared bankrupt about 4 years before his death. To this day there is a private hospital in his name.

                                                Maybe he was one of the first steam punks.

There is a book written about him called the dueling Surgeon. I looked this up and discovered it to be £100. ,,,must be very juicy then.