Portrait of Mr John Patch, Surgeon of Exeter, 1789

A portrait of Mr. John Patch, Surgeon of Exeter, engraved and published on 1st September, 1789, by E.A. Ezekiel, Engraver & Jeweller, Fore Street, Exeter, after John Opie R.A. 

Print depicts a middle-aged white male, wearing a black jacket, white necktie, and an eighteenth-century wig. He looks to the right of an oval frame, placed within an ornate stonework column. An engraved frieze underneath the oval shows someone tending to a sick man, and text below this reads: ‘Mr John Patch, Surgeon of EXETER’.

John Patch (1723-1787) was a surgeon born in Paul Street, in Exeter, Devon. His father, also named John Patch, joined the Devon and Exeter Hospital (now Dean Clarke House in Southernhay) in 1742 as a senior surgeon, while his son, John
Patch Junior, became a surgeon at the tender age of eighteen; his father had sent him to Edinburgh to develop his education in anatomy, surgery, and mathematics.

In 1769 he filled in the moat around Rougemont Castle to create a garden, and built a house, Rougemont House, on the site. site. The building was later purchased by Exeter City Council in 1912 and now exists as the Exeter Mathematics School. A plaque by the entrance notes John Patch’s creation of the building and garden. He was buried in St Paul’s Church, later demolished in 1936.

The original portrait on which this engraving is based, was painted by John Opie RA (1761-1807), a Cornish historical and portrait painter, and used to hang in the hospital board room. It is now held in the art collection of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. 

Ezekiel Abraham Ezekiel, the engraver (and later miniaturist and optician), was born in Exeter in 1757, one of the first Jews to be born in the city since the expulsion of Jews in England by King Edward I in 1290. Alongside his artistic work, he was also responsible for the creation of the Exeter Synagogue in 1763. His brother, Henry, donated items related to his work to the DEI after Ezekiel’s death in 1805.

Related Collections

Portraits