Lionel Lockyer

Lionel Lockyer, sometimes spelled Lionel Lockier, (c.1600 – 26 April 1672) was a 17th-century quack doctor famous for his miracle pills that he claimed included sunbeams as an ingredient. He has a tomb in Southwark Cathedral.

Life and work

Little reliable information exists about Lockyer's life and work. Contemporary sources primarily consist of promotional material written by Lockyer and his supporters and also of a far less flattering account given by George Starkey, an Alchemist and rival pill maker.

Starkey provides an unflattering account of Lockyer's early career: Lockyer was a tailor and a butcher before turning to medicine, that he was a poor student, and that his first "invented" medicinal concoction was to add colouring to an existing common medicine. It is claimed that he also worked on making the philosopher's stone. His medical licence required his practice be at least 8 miles outside of London. The epitaph reads:

Following Lockyer's death, his pills continued to be sold by Lockyer's nephew, John Watts, in partnership with Thomas Fyge, an apothecary. The pills were sold wholesale in tins of 50 or 100 at a price of 4 shillings for 100.