William Oliver was born near Penzance on the 4th August, 1695, being the second son of John and Mary Oliver of Trevarnoe, a house in the parish of Sithney, Cornwall
At the age of 19, he entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating M.B. in 1720. He also attended the University of Leyden, which was then the principal resort of ambitious postgraduate medical students from England. After some years abroad he returned to England and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1729
He first practised as a physician in Plymouth, where in 1724 he benefited the citizens of that town by introducing smallpox inoculation, still a relatively new technique at the time. In 1728, at the age of 33, he came to Bath with his Cornish cousin, the Rev. Walter Borlase
On arrival, he probably resided in Westgate Street but as he became more successful he acquired a grand house set back on the west side of Queen Square. The house was later demolished and the Bath Literary and Scientific Institute now occupies the site
Not long after coming to Bath, Oliver became a friend of Ralph Allen, a fellow Cornishman. As a result of this friendship he met Alexander Pope and other famous people of the day
He did not write a great deal about his medical cases, though he published an essay on gout in 1751, which ran to three editions. In 1753 he published a “pastoral” called Myra and he was the anonymous author of A faint sketch of the life, manner and character of the late Mr. Nash which was praised by Goldsmith as “written with much good sense and still more good nature.” Oliver’s “compassionate and benevolent nature” motivated his interest in founding the Bath General Hospital (now Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases) with Ralph Allen, John Wood and Richard (Beau) Nash
He was elected physician to the Hospital on 1st May, 1740, and retired on 1st May, 1761, dying three years later in 1764. He is buried in the churchyard of All Saints, Weston (where he owned the Manor House with members of his family). He is said to have bequeathed to his coachman Atkins the recipe for the famous Bath Oliver biscuit, together with a sack of flour and a sum of money. Atkins set up in business at 13 Green Street and became rich by making the biscuit
Later the business passed to a man named Norris who sold out to a baker called Carter. At length, after two further changes of ownership and a period of 120 years, the Oliver biscuit recipe passed to James Fortt. In 1952 the Fortt family business was still baking 80,000 biscuits a day in Bath. Although the biscuits are no longer made in the city, they are still available and are excellent when eaten with cheese
(From "Diseased Douched and Doctored - Thermal Springs , Spa Doctors and Rheumatic Diseases" by Roger Rolls - reproduced by permission)