Jones, John (1729-1791)

Distinguished American physician.

Practiced in New York. Professor of surgery and obstetrics at Kings College (Columbia University) (1767). Published the first American textbook on surgery, Plain, Concise, Practical Remarks on the Treatment of Wounds and Fractures (New York, 1775). Helped organize the medical department of the Continental Army. Settled in Philadelphia (1780), where he was an attending physician at the Pennsylvania Hospital and the first vice president of the College of Physicians (1787). Attended Franklin in his final illness and published an account of it in the Pennsylvania Gazette (April 21, 1790).

Quaker. Son of Dr. Evan and Mary (Stephenson) Jones of Jamaica, New York. Studied medicine under Thomas Cadwalader of Philadelphia, in several European capitals, and at Rheims (M.D. 1751). Never married.