James Phipps James Phipps James Phipps (1788 – 25 April 1853) was the first person given the cowpox vaccine by Edward Jenner. Jenner knew of a local belief that dairy workers who had contracted a relatively mild infection called cowpox were immune to smallpox. Phipps was born in Berkeley parish in Gloucestershire to a poor, landless labourer working as Jenner's gardener. He was baptised in St Mary's parish church, Berkeley, when he was 4. On 14 May 1796 he was selected by Jenner, who took "a healthy boy, about eight years old for the purpose of inoculation for the Cow Pox". Jenner
Edward Jenner He was buried in the Jenner family vault at the Church of St. Mary, Berkeley. He was survived by his son Robert Fitzharding (* 1797; † 1854) and his daughter Catherine (* 1794; † 1833), his elder son Edward (* 1789; † 1810) having died of tuberculosis aged 21. Neither fanatic nor lax, Jenner was a Christian who in his personal correspondence showed himself quite spiritual; he treasured the Bible. Some days before his death, he stated to a friend: "I am not surprised that men are not grateful to me; but I wonder that they are not grateful to