James Esdaile
British hypnotist (1808-1859)
James Esdaile, M.D., E.I.C.S., Bengal (1808–1859), an Edinburgh trained Scottish surgeon, who served for twenty years with the East India Company, is a notable figure in the history of "animal magnetism" and, in particular, in the history of general anaesthesia.
Family
The eldest son of the Rev. James Esdaile, D.D. (1775–1854), a minister of the Church of Scotland, and Margaret Blair (1781–1843), he was born in Montrose, Angus, Scotland on 6 February 1808. He died in Sydenham, Kent on 10 January 1859.
He had three brothers, David Esdaile, D.D. (1811–1880) — an ordained cleric, who, along with James Esdaile (his brother), founded Edinburgh’s Ministers’ Daughters’ College (later known as Esdaile School), dedicated to the education of the daughters of Ministers of the Church of Scotland, and of Professors in the Universities of Scotland — John Esdaile (1813–1877) and Robert Esdaile (1816–1882), both of whom migrated to Canada, and one sister, Janet (1818–1819).
He married three times.
His first wife, Mary Ann Christie, whom he had married on 6 June 1838, whilst on furlough in Scotland, died on 9 November 1838, "in her 18th year", on their voyage to India (they left England on 24 July 1838).
His second wife, Sophia Ullmann — daughter of the Delaware banker, John James Ullmann (1754–1811) and Jeanne F. Ullmann (née LeFranc), and the sister of lawyer and, later, (Union) General Daniel Ullmann (1810–1892) — whom he married on 17 November 1842 at Chinsurah, while stationed at Hooghly, died in Calcutta on 27 July 1850, aged 44.
He married his third wife, Eliza Morton (1807–1862) (née Weatherhead) in Calcutta on 3 February 1851.
Education
He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating M.D. in 1829.
The public source identifies “James Esdaile” as british hypnotist (1808-1859). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around James, Esdaile and British.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2744810. VIAF identifies the subject as 75357360. The Library of Congress control number is n86867585. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1808, 1859, 1775 and 1854.
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This entry incorporates text from “James Esdaile” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.