Administrative / Biographical History

Robinson Foxley, or possibly John Robinson Foxley, the son of Thomas Foxley, rector of St Mary's, was baptised in Manchester on 21 July 1754. He appears to have studied medicine in Edinburgh and was possibly a fellow of the College of Physicians there. He was appointed visiting apothecary at MRI in 1793 but later set up his own apothecary's shop at number 87, Deansgate. Foxley was surgeon to the Manchester and Salford Volunteers in 1803. Early in the nineteenth century he stopped selling drugs and became a physician in King Street and also a member of the medical committee of the Manchester and Salford Lying-in Hospital. It is not known when he gained his MD but he quickly gained a reputation and his practice was extensive. He was a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Foxley died at his home on King Street on 8 November 1815.