John Freke (surgeon)

John Freke (1688 to 1756) was an English surgeon of the early eighteenth century, associated above all with St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. The son of a rural minister from Dorset, he was apprenticed at seventeen to the London surgeon Richard Blundell. He became an assistant surgeon at Barts in 1726, was put in charge of the anatomical and surgical preparations the next year, and was appointed to deal with diseases of the eye, which made him the hospital's first ophthalmic surgeon. He served as a surgeon there from 1729 to 1755. Together with Percival Pott he helped separate the profession of surgeon from that of barber, and in 1745 he established the Company of Surgeons. He designed several instruments, including an improved obstetric forceps, and his 1748 Essay on the Art of Healing discussed breast cancer and the danger of leaving infected lymphatic tissue in place. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1729 and wrote on electricity.