Son of a London Merchant Taylor, Jerry Peirce was born at Ludgate Hill, London in 1696. Little is known of his early life until 1731 when he was made Freeman of the City of Bath. This suggests that he was taking surgical students as apprentices
He was appointed as the first surgeon to the Bath Gen Hospital when it first opened in 1740 and was also a governor from 1739. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society and presented a paper there on amputation of the lower limb
He commissioned the Bath architect, John Wood, to design him a country villa on Lansdown. It was called Lilliput Castle and was visited by the Prince of Wales in 1750. It has since been incorporated into a larger house called Battlefields
Peirce also had a town residence at 9 Gay Street in 1766 and had 3 stables in John Street. He was interred in St Swithen’s church, Walcot, Bath
(From "Diseased Douched and Doctored - Thermal Springs , Spa Doctors and Rheumatic Diseases" by Roger Rolls - reproduced by permission)