Patrick Napier, Colonial Surgeon

Nearby lived "Patrick Napier of Queenes Creek in the County of Yorke chirurgeon," one of the earliest surgeons of Scottish descent in Virginia. Born about 1634, and apprenticed to the surgeon general of the Scottish army defeated by Cromwell in 1650, Patrick Napier arrived here before 1655. He married Elizabeth, a daughter of Robert Booth, clerk of the York County Court and a member of the House of Burgesses. By horse and boat, Napier attended the sick, performed surgery, bled his patients, and dispensed various remedies consistent with the practice of medicine in the mid-17th century. He died in 1669. He was the progenitor of most of the Napiers in America.