William George Maton

William George Maton M.D. (31 January 1774 – 30 March 1835) was an English physician, a society doctor who became associated with the British royal family. He published on natural history and antiquarian topics.

Life The son of George Maton, a wine merchant, was born at Salisbury, 31 January 1774. He attended Salisbury grammar school, and in July 1790 entered The Queen's College, Oxford. While there he became interested in botany, and encountered John Sibthorp.

On 18 March 1794 Maton was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society, came to know the botanist Sir James Edward Smith. He became vice-president of the society; and the members showed their regard for him by calling a woodpecker, a shell-fish, and a genus of plants after him. In that year he graduated B.A. at Oxford, and in 1797 M.A. In 1801, in the Medical and Physical Journal, he published a paper titled "Experiments and Observations Relative to Medicinal Barks", in which he described his discovery of the alkaline principle in Peruvian bark. He published on history: he wrote an account of a conventual seal found at Salisbury in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1792, and parts of the Salisbury Guide, and John Hutchins's History of Dorset, as well as a paper on Stonehenge in Archæologia for 1794. He published also three papers in the Transactions of the College of Physicians. His library was sold at auction in London by Wheatley on 21 May 1835 (and two following days); a copy of the sale catalogue is held at Cambridge University Library (shelfmark Munby.c.153(4)).