William Charles Wells

William Charles Wells FRS FRSEd (1757–1817), was a Scottish-American physician and printer. He lived a life of extraordinary variety, did some notable medical research, and made the first clear statement about natural selection. He applied the idea to the origin of different skin colours in human races, and from the context it seems he thought it might be applied more widely. Charles Darwin said: "[Wells] distinctly recognises the principle of natural selection, and this is the first recognition which has been indicated".

Wells was the second son of Robert and Mary Wells. Wells' parents were both Scots who had settled in South Carolina in 1753. He is the brother of Helena Wells. Wells was born in Charleston, and sent to school in Dumfries, Scotland at the age of eleven. After he completed his preparatory school studies he attended the University of Edinburgh.

Wells returned to Charleston in 1771 and became a medical apprentice under Dr. Alexander Garden, a naturalist and physician, who himself was a pupil of Charles Alston, Director of the Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh. In 1775, soon after the commencement of the American war, he left Charleston suddenly, and went to London. He had been called upon to sign a paper the object of which was to unite the people in a resistance to the claims of the British Government. This he would not do. Between 1775 and 1778, Wells studied medicine and passed the preliminary exams at Edinburgh, but did not yet take his degree. In the autumn he returned to London, and attended a course of William Hunter's lectures, took instructions in practical Anatomy, and became a surgeon's pupil at St Bartholomew's Hospital.

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