San Diego County Biographies
 
DR. THOMAS DOCKING

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


Of San Diego, was born in Brigg, Lincolnshire, England, July 12, 1826. His 
father, Richard Docking, was a native of. Milden Hall, Suffolk, England, horn in 
1791. He was a journeyman miller of high reputation. His grandfather, Thomas 
Docking, who was born in Linden Hall, Suffolk, England, was a lime manufacturer,
having several kilns. He left a record of straightforward honesty. He had three 
sons in the British army. Dr. Docking's father married Miss Taylor, who also was 
born in 1791, in Linden Hall. They were shop-keepers and both belonged to the 
Church of England at first and afterward became Wesleyan Methodists. They had 
seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second.
        Dr. Docking earned the money for his small book education himself, and 
at fourteen years of age had charge of a flour windmill. When sixteen years old 
he had finished his book education, and at eighteen years of age he went to 
Australia in charge of emigrants as surgeon. Falling in with a captain there who 
had a work and a chest of homeopathic remedies, he thought it to he a ridiculous 
outfit, but promised to try them on himself, and soon after, being taken 
violently ill with red dysentery, he thought he would die on the way home. At 
1:00 o'clock A. M., he took a globule, and at 8:00 o'clock the same morning he 
found the difficulty checked, with some fever remaining. He took a similar dose 
of another remedy, and at 4:00 P. M., he was out visiting his patients. Thence 
forward he began practicing homeopathy. In 1860 he returned to England and 
prosecuted his medical studies at a university college and hospital, critically 
comparing homeopathy with allopathy in the hospitals of London, Edinburgh and 
St. Andrews, Scotland. He finally received ten diplomas from leading 
institutions in Great Britain and America, which now ornament the walls of his 
office at San Diego, in which city he has been practicing for three years. He 
aided in the organization of the Homeopathic Medical Society of San Diego, and 
is now its secretary and treasurer; he is also a member of the American 
Institute of Homeopathy. He has been a Sunday-school scholar and teacher both in 
the Church of England and among the Wesleyans. In 1850 he joined the 
Sweden�borgian Church at Milden Hall, helping to form a new church there, 
becoming a local minister and remaining with them until 1860, when he came to 
California, for the purpose of investigating Spiritualism. After giving it close 
study for ten years, he now thanks God that he is not a so-called Spiritualist, 
as he cannot agree with the Spiritualists in regard to the source of the
peculiar phenomena they produce. He is now a member of the Theosophical Society 
of Universal Brotherhood, and is president of the society. The Doctor has been a 
life-long student of men, creeds and books. The motto which he has posted in his 
office is, "Self not wanted here." His medical registration certificate reads: " 
M. D., St. And: 1868 L. R. C. P. Edinburg, 1867. L. Med: Edinburg, 1867. L. S. 
A., Lon: 1868. M. R. C. S., Eng: 1866." The Doctor is also a member of the 
orders of Foresters, Odd Fellows, both English and American, Janissaries of 
Light and Free Masons.
        At the age of eighteen years he married Miss Mary Ann Wright, who was 
born in 1818, and by that marriage there was one daughter, who was born 
September 2, 1847, named Mary Susan, and married John Wilson of Edinburgh, 
Scotland, in 1873; and they have one son and two daughters still living. Mr. 
Wilson is a master printer, having an office of his own.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  275-276