Dr Giles Roberts (1766-1834) was a prominent physician in Bridport. His family was part of the new merchant class, the rising middle class of its time. They were able to give him an education, and he instructed himself in a range of scientific topics by reading and experimentation. An early topic of interest was medical botany, and by the age of thirteen he had developed some early medicines. His interest in science, including electricity, and magnetism, continued until at the age of eighteen, when the time came for him to be apprenticed: to an apothecary, he hoped, but this was not possible, and he was apprenticed to a mechanic, and then an optician, or instrument maker. One of his fellow lodgers during his apprenticeship was a surgeon, who was able to further Giles’ medical studies.
In 1788 his parents took a house for him in Bridport, and Giles returned home and set up a chemist and druggist business, which proved popular and successful. In time he also began to practice as an apothecary, and his fame spread to both the local area, and Devon and Somerset, but he was criticised for his lack of formal qualifications. A friend persuaded him to seek medical training, and he went to London to study at Guys and St Thomas’s Hospitals, where he obtained certificates to practice as 'apothecary, surgeon and physician'. He returned to Bridport in 1795 and recommenced business but now as Chemist and Druggist, Surgeon, Apothecary and Accoucheer fully qualified and authorised. His fame and practice spread, and in 1797, aged 31, he was awarded an Honorary MD from the Royal College and University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
By the turn of the century Giles was well established as a successful doctor and chemist. Word spread throughout the area of his abilities, and of the patent medicines he developed for use with his patients. His commonplace book, in his own hand, contains many recipes for medicines such as ‘anti-spasmodic powder’, ‘Doctor Comer’s Lime Water’, ’Daffy’s Elixir’ and his own ‘Analeptic Pills’.
By the early 1800s he had developed his two famous medicines for skin disorders, Pilulae Antiscrophule and the Poor Man's Friend ointment, and in 1805 his shop moved to the old George Inn, which had been redeveloped the previous year. He remained active until his health deteriorated in the last year or so of his life, and he died died on 16 September 1834.