Head, Samuel

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: K. G. Pryke, “HEAD, SAMUEL,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/head_samuel_7E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Doctor, merchant, jp, office holder, and judge; b. c. 1773 in Halifax, son of Michael Head; m. twice; he and his first wife had one child; m. secondly 2 Jan. 1817 Sophia Augusta Eagleson, in Liverpool, N.S., and they had probably four children; d. 16 Nov. 1837 in Halifax.
    • The son of a surgeon, Samuel Head received his own medical training in England and in 1803 became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of London. He started a practice in surgery and medicine in Halifax about 1804 and ran a pharmacy which had been established by his father around 1790. Because of the relatively large number of doctors in Halifax, it was difficult to set up a medical practice there. Head’s pharmacy was thus a key element in his career and he operated it until he died
    • JHead’s concern for the quality of medical treatment and his attempts to establish a hospital reflected his belief in the importance of public duty. Caring about the condition of the poor, he chaired the committee of charity of the Charitable Irish Society from 1819 to 1834. As well, he was a founder in 1820 of the Halifax Poor Man’s Friend Society, and he remained active in this organization until it was disbanded in 1827. His sense of duty found yet another outlet after his appointment as a justice of the peace in 1810.
    • Public awareness of health issues began to increase in the 1820s, especially after a serious epidemic of typhus and smallpox in 1827. Responsibility for providing health care to the less fortunate lay with the commissioners of the poor, but during the epidemic they had seen their prime duty to be towards the inmates of the asylum for the poor. Head and other justices attempted to have the magistrates assume responsibility for dealing with any future epidemic. These efforts were successful to the point that on the appearance of smallpox in 1831 the magistrates ordered a vaccination of children of the poor.
    • Nova Scotia escaped without an epidemic of cholera in 1832, but the magistrates nevertheless became the objects of popular wrath because it was their duty to raise taxes to finance sanitation projects. Indeed, criticism of local policies generally extended to them regardless of whether or not they were to blame. This tendency was especially evident during the cholera epidemic which did come in 1834. These attacks were partly the result of the fear and frustration created by the epidemic. In another, more basic, sense the epidemic merely crystallized a resentment against the magistrates which had been developing for some years.
  • Son of Proven Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=9753
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/164096671/samuel-head