James Parkinson’s name became attached to a disease he did not name. In 1817, the London surgeon published An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, a careful account of six people with characteristic symptoms. The essay gave later doctors a basis for recognising the condition, although Parkinson’s own explanation of its cause was mistaken. Medicine was only one part of his life: he also wrote on public health, campaigned for political reform and helped establish the Geological Society of London.
Medicine in Hoxton
Parkinson was born in Shoreditch, London, on 11 April 1755. His father, John Parkinson, was an apothecary and surgeon with a practice in Hoxton Square. James was the eldest of five children, and in 1783 he married Mary Dale. The couple had eight children; two died in childhood. The following year, the City of London Corporation approved him as a surgeon. Soon after his marriage he succeeded his father in the Hoxton Square practice.
Parkinson’s education is described in the available accounts as the London Hospital; they do not establish the more specific claim that he attended a London Hospital Medical College. His work as a surgeon and apothecary was rooted in a busy London practice, but he wrote for readers beyond the consulting room. His medical publications included Medical Admonitions, first published in 1799, and an 1805 work on gout. He also wrote about public health and the legal protection of people with mental illness, their doctors and their families.
In 1812, he assisted his son in reporting a case of appendicitis in which perforation was identified as the cause of death. The case was described as the first of its kind in English. Parkinson also believed that a worthwhile surgeon should know shorthand, a skill at which he was proficient. His medical writing and practical interests reflect a broader concern with health and the conditions in which people lived.
The shaking palsy
In An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, published in 1817, Parkinson described six people: three of his own patients and three whom he had observed in the street. He called the condition “paralysis agitans”, or shaking palsy. His account distinguished tremors at rest from those occurring during movement and recorded a pattern of symptoms that included tremor, weakness and impaired movement.
Parkinson’s observations were important, but they were not a modern diagnosis. He mistakenly proposed that the tremors resulted from lesions in the cervical spinal cord. About 60 years later, the French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot coined the name “Parkinson’s disease”. Parkinson’s essay is therefore best understood as a systematic early description of the condition, rather than a complete or accurate explanation of it. That distinction matters: his achievement lay in observing and recording a recognisable pattern, which later medicine could examine further.
Politics and public concerns
Before turning towards medical writing, Parkinson was active in the radical politics of his time. He criticised the government of William Pitt and wrote nearly 20 political pamphlets in the period after the French Revolution, sometimes using the name “Old Hubert”. He called for social reform, wider representation in the House of Commons and annual parliaments. His political writing and his later concern for public health both addressed the welfare and rights of ordinary people.
His associations brought him into a dangerous political controversy. In 1794, his membership of a secret political society led to his examination under oath before Pitt and the Privy Council in connection with the so-called Popgun Plot, an alleged plan to assassinate George III with a poisoned dart. Parkinson refused to testify about his own part until he was assured he would not be forced to incriminate himself. No charges were brought against him, though several of his friends were imprisoned for months before being acquitted. The episode preceded his shift away from political pamphleteering and towards medical publications.
Fossils and the Geological Society
Parkinson’s interest in geology and palaeontology developed alongside his professional life. He collected fossils and took his children and friends on excursions to observe and gather specimens. Finding few accessible books in English on how to identify and interpret fossils, he set out to write an introduction himself.
The first volume of Organic Remains of a Former World appeared in 1804, followed by further volumes in 1808 and 1811. Parkinson illustrated the work; his daughter Emma coloured some of its plates. He later produced the shorter Outlines of Oryctology in 1822, devoted to fossil remains, especially those found in British strata. These books made his natural-history interests visible in print and connected his work to the study of Britain’s geological record.
On 13 November 1807, Parkinson joined other naturalists at the Freemasons’ Tavern in London for the first meeting of the Geological Society of London. He contributed papers to the society’s transactions and to a journal of natural philosophy, chemistry and the arts. His geological outlook included catastrophism: he believed the Earth and its living things had been shaped by large-scale events, and interpreted creation and extinction as guided by God. His natural history combined collecting, illustration, publication and participation in a developing scientific community.
Final years and remembrance
Parkinson died on 21 December 1824, aged 69, after a stroke that affected his speech. He was buried at St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch, where he had been a member of the congregation. The exact location of his grave is not known; it may be in the crypt or churchyard. A stone tablet inside the church commemorates him, and a blue plaque at 1 Hoxton Square marks the site of his home.
There is no known portrait of Parkinson. An image sometimes labelled as him has been identified as either a dentist of the same name or another James Parkinson, who later became a lighthouse keeper in Tasmania. Parkinson died before photography was invented. His name also appears in the names of fossil organisms, including the ammonite Parkinsonia parkinsoni.
Why James Parkinson deserves a place in British Legacy
Parkinson’s place in British history rests on more than the later use of his name for a disease. His 1817 essay recorded six people with a recurring set of symptoms and distinguished tremors at rest from those during movement. He was wrong about the underlying cause, but his observations gave subsequent doctors a clear account to consider. That combination of careful description and fallible explanation is an instructive part of medical history: progress depends not only on correct theories, but also on evidence that others can test and refine.
His work also ranged across public life. In London, he practised medicine, wrote about health and argued for the protection of people with mental illness. His political pamphlets pressed for reform and broader representation, while his books on fossils helped make natural history more accessible to English readers. He took part in the founding meeting of the Geological Society of London and contributed to its scientific publications. Together, these achievements show a British practitioner whose interests linked medicine, social questions and the study of the natural world. Remembering Parkinson in that fuller context preserves both the reach of his curiosity and the limits of what he could know.
Sources
James Parkinson — revision 1375199375
Adapted in part from James Parkinson by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.