Peter Crompton

Peter Crompton (1765–1833) was an English physician, political radical and brewer. Early life Crompton was from a Derby family, the third son of Joshua Crompton (died 1770), a banker there, and his wife Elizabeth Colthurst. He attended Warrington Academy from 1781, and was given some early medical training. He went on to become a medical student at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Leyden. In Leyden he shared lodgings with Robert Darwin. On the death of his elder brother, Crompton came into property, and in the end did not pursue medicine as a profession. He did give free medical care to the poor. Family properties included the manor of Mapplewell at Woodhouse Eaves in Leicestershire, acquired by Joshua Crompton. The Derby Addresses and societies The "Derby Address" of September 1791 from the Derby Philosophical Society, of which Crompton was a member, was signed by Erasmus Darwin, and was sent to Joseph Priestley, as a reaction to the Birmingham "King and Country" riots of July that year. The issue was divisive in the society, and resulted in the expulsion of the Rev. Charles Hope, vicar of St Michael and St Werburgh, Derby.