John Freke, son of a surgeon of the same name, was born in London in 1688. He was apprenticed to Mr. Blundell, whose daughter he married. In 1726, he was made assistant-surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and the same year was made curator of the museum when it was started. This museum was in a single room under the "cutting ward," and among other things it contained the stones which surgeons had removed, which previously had been placed in the counting room when patients paid their bills. In 1727, he was put in charge of the blind patients, and the governors passed a resolution:
Through a tender regard for the deplorable state of blind people, the Governors think it proper to appoint Mr. John Freke, one of the assistant surgeons of this House, to couch and take care of the diseases of the eyes of such poor persons as shall