Trahair B, Peters L (2020). James Lind’s descendants. 2nd edition (supersedes Peters L 2006).

© Biddy Trahair, Linda Peters,E-mail: biddytrahair@gmail.com


Cite as: Trahair B, Peters L (2020). James Lind’s descendants. 2nd edition (supersedes Peters L 2006). JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation (https://www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/james-linds-descendants/)


Note: The 2nd edition of this article incorporates new information which has come to light since the first draft was published in 2006 (Linda Peters, 2006. James Lind’s descendants. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation). 

James Lind married Isobel Dickie, a cousin, in 1748.  Their children were:  Margaret, (1749-1832) who married Dr. Thomas Meik, a physician in Portsmouth; John, (1750-1831, see below) succeeded his father as First Physician at Haslar; James (1752 -1823) was a Captain in the Royal Navy, knighted in June 1805 on his return from the East Indies in the ‘Centurion’; Grace (1753-5) and Joseph (1757-83), a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, who was lost at sea.

John Lind married Elizabeth Lydia Player, of Catisfield, Hants. in 1789. Her great-grandfather, Henry Player, had bought the Ryde estate on the Isle of Wight in 1705. After retirement, John Lind  built Westmont in Ryde, 1819-21 (now Ryde School.) John and Elizabeth Lydia had one son, James Player and then five daughters – Elizabeth, Mary and Louisa, (twins, Louisa died aged 7 after burns) Caroline (died aged 25 of typhus fever) and Anne, who built The Lawn, Spencer Road, Ryde in 1845, after the death of her mother.

James Player Lind, (1790-1860) like his father and grandfather, trained as a doctor in Edinburgh. He settled in Ryde with his wife, Mary Ann nee Reeks, but had no children, so the name Lind died out among the direct descendants of Dr. James Lind.

Mary Lind, (1793-1844) wrote a journal of her travels in France, Switzerland and Italy with her sister Elizabeth, September 1814-December 1815, which gives fascinating social and historical insights into European life and travel before and after the battle of Waterloo. Mary had a lifelong interest in education and they spent months in Yverdon, where Pestalozzi had his schools.

Elizabeth Lind, (1792-1867) met a Swiss colonel, Antoine Beat Albert du Thon, (Albert) during these travels and they were married at St. George’s, Hanover Square, London in 1820, then lived in Switzerland with regular long visits to England, (and Albert became a naturalised Englishman,) until some years after his death in 1838. They had four sons, each known by their second name, and they all died young: William Oscar at 19, Edmond at 3 1/2 months, Jean Rodolfe at almost 16 and Charles Albert at 12, the latter two both in 1843, at Ryde. Their two daughters, Juliette Blanche, (1823-92) and Elizabeth Geraldine, (1832-1921) married brothers Edmund and Samuel Peters. Elizabeth moved to The Lawn after her sister Anne’s death in 1861.

Elizabeth Geraldine du Thon married Samuel Peters in 1858. They lived in various houses on the Isle of Wight and, for some years, in the Cotswolds, and had six children: Albert Lind, (Elizabeth) Catherine, Blanche du Thon, Edmund Ernest du Thon, John Colclough and Grace Amy.

Edmund Peters, married Charlotte Barker in 1894. They had two daughters, Elizabeth Marjorie and Vera Blanche, both of whom died childless and two sons, Edmund Lind and John Samuel (Jack), all of whom also had the name du Thon.

Lind Peters married Raymonde Svemser in 1935 and had one son Michael born 1939. Lind died in 1986.

Jack Peters married Mabel Palmer in 1934 and had two daughters, Jacqueline (1937-2010) and Frances (1942-1990.) Jack died tragically in a road traffic accident only weeks after the family emigrated to South Africa, 1948.

John Colclough Peters (1868-1951) married Ethel Binney in 1914. They had three sons: John Henry Colclough, (1916-2012), Ernest Gerald Eardley, (1918-1992) and Arthur Hewer Lind, (1920-1989).

Their descendants, especially those of Lind and John Peters, now to great-grandchildren, meet annually. The family is scattered but the Isle of Wight remains dear to them all. In October 2016, many descendants of John Colclough Peters gathered in Portchester Church to commemorate the tercentenary of Dr. James Lind’s birth.