Francis Willis

Francis Willis (17 August 1718 – 5 December 1807) was a Lincolnshire physician and clergyman, famous for his treatment of George III. Early career Willis was the third son of the Rev. John Willis of Lincoln. He claimed to be a descendant of the Willis family of Fenny Compton, Warwickshire, a kinsman of the George Wyllys who became Governor of Connecticut, New England, and the Willis baronets of Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire. After an undergraduate career at Lincoln College, Oxford and St Alban Hall he was elected a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford in 1740 and was ordained as a priest. Willis was Rector of the college living of Wapping 1748–1750. He resigned his Fellowship in 1750, as he was required to do on his marriage, and he and his wife took up residence at Dunston, Lincolnshire, where he looked after the local interests of Sir Francis Dashwood whilst apparently practising medicine. In 1755 he published 'The Case of a Shepherd near Lincoln' in the London Gazette, and in 1760 'An account of an extraordinary Case of a Lady who Swallowed Euphorbium'. Willis the physician