Charles Thomas Pearce

Charles Thomas Pearce (1815–1883) was an English physician and early opponent of mandatory vaccination. A member of the Royal College of Surgeons, he was a homoeopath with an interest in medical astrology, and opposed to vivisection.

Born in Westminster, London, he was the son of court tailor Richard David Pearce (1780–1820) and Sarah 'Sally' Bouchet (1777–1855). His mother was of Huguenot descent, her father and brother being noted Southwark brassfounders. Charles married a woman ten years his senior named Elizabeth Eagles at St. George's, Hanover Square, the daughter of a Pimlico carpenter and sister of James Eagles, Shoreditch organ builder, who restored the great instrument in Canterbury Cathedral, in addition to furnishing a number of new churches in Tasmania and Australia. Together, Charles and Elizabeth had four children.

Charles was a Philosophical Instrument maker in 1840, the year his second son Alfred John Pearce (1840–1923) was born. Alfred would become a celebrated medical astrologer and popular almanacist, who worked in collaboration with his father as his assistant in the early 1870s.

Charles Thomas Pearce lived for some time at St. Dunstan's Villa, Regent's Park, the home of his sponsor, Sir Richard Rawlinson Vyvyan (1800–1879), Tory politician, Fellow of the Royal Society, a geologist and a metaphysician. Charles was "for some years engaged with him in scientific experiments and researches on light, heat, and magnetism." Notes taken by Charles whilst thus "engaged with Sir R. Vyvyan ... in researches on the magnetism of the Moon's rays," were later recorded in a volume entitled "The Weather Guide Book", published by Charles's son, Alfred John Pearce, in 1864.

In 1849, as a medical student, Charles patented an "Apparatus for obtaining light by electric agency," a system published in various journals, including the "Repository of Arts" (vol.14, page 193) and the "Mechanics' Magazine" (vo.51, page 189), as well as being registered at the Enrolment Office.

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