ment excited jealousy, so he soon resigned and lost his justiceship 

 in consequence. Squire Horsfield lived in what was known as the 

 Oerter house, which stood on Market Street opposite the graveyard. 



In 1731 Timothy Horsfield was married to Mary, daughter of 

 John Doughty, a prominent butcher of Long Island, and a lineal 

 descendant of the Reverend Francis Doughty, who, in 1632, 

 preached the first Presbyterian sermon. Both Timothy and Mary 

 Horsfield died in 1773 on Long Island. 



Thomas Horsfield's best known uncle was Joseph Horsfield 

 who was chosen a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify 

 the Federal Constitution in 1787 and one of the signers of the rati- 

 fication. In 1792 he was appointed by President Washington to be 

 the first postmaster of Bethlehem. 



Thomas Horsfield's father was Timothy Horsfield, Jr., who 

 married Juliana Parsons at Philadelphia in 1738. She was the 

 daughter of William Parsons, surveyor general and founder of 

 Easton, Pennsylvania. Timothy Horsfield died April 11, 1789 and 

 his wife died January 17, 1808. 



Thomas Horsfield was born at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, May 

 12, 1773. He received his early education in the Moravian schools 

 at Bethlehem and Nazareth. Very early in life his tastes led him 

 to the study of botany, and a similar inclination to the pursuit of 

 all branches of biological science may have caused him to select 

 medicine as a profession. He pursued a course in pharmacy with 

 Dr. Otto of Bethlehem and devoted special attention also to botany. 

 This Dr. Otto was probably John Frederick Otto, M.D., of Halle 

 who arrived from Europe in 1750. He was widely known as physi- 

 cian and surgeon and died at Nazareth in 1779. 



Thomas Horsfield graduated in medicine at the University of 

 Pennsylvania in 1798 in the twenty-fifth year of his age and served 

 as "medical apprentice" in the Pennsylvania Hospital from 1794 to 

 1799. While at the University he was a pupil of Dr. Benjamin 

 Smith Barton. "His graduation thesis is remarkable for its pains- 

 taking clinical description of the toxic symptoms of the poisoning 

 produced by sumac and poison ivy, and for the record of well- 

 conceived experiments carried out upon himself and upon animals 

 concerning the pharmacological action of this interesting poison. 

 It ranks as a pioneer contribution in the history of experimental 

 pharmacology in America." 



