Edward Rigby

Edward Rigby (27 December 1747 – 27 October 1821) was an English physician, writer, and local politician. Life The son of John Rigby, by his wife Sarah (d. 1773), daughter of John Taylor, he was born at Chowbent, Lancashire, on 27 December 1747. One of his sisters married Dr. Caleb Hillier Parry, and became the mother of Sir William Edward Parry. Educated at Norwich School and Warrington Academy, Rigby was apprenticed in 1762 to David Martineau (1726–1768), surgeon, of Norwich. He then studied in London. Admitted a member of the Corporation of Surgeons on 4 May 1769, he married in the same year, and settled in Norwich. In 1786 Rigby took the lead in establishing the Norfolk Benevolent Society for the relief of the widows and orphans of medical men. In July 1789 he visited France and other parts of the continent, witnessing the storming of the Bastille. A practical agriculturist, he was the friend of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester of Holkham. Rigby experimented on his own farm at Framingham Earl, about five miles from Norwich. In 1783 Rigby became a member of the corporation of guardians of Norwich, and promoted the economical administration of the Poor Laws. Meeting with much opposition, he resigned in the following year. He became alderman in 1802 in a very tight contest for the North Ward, sheriff in 1803, and mayor of Norwich in 1805, presiding over a meeting addressing the issue of smallpox in the city. Rigby is said to have made known the flying shuttle to Norwich manufacturers, and to have introduced vaccination.