Edward Jenner humans a cowpox vaccine against smallpox. For example, Dorset farmer Benjamin Jesty successfully vaccinated and presumably induced immunity with cowpox in his wife and two children during a smallpox epidemic in 1774, but it was not until Jenner's work that the procedure became widely understood. Jenner may have been aware of Jesty's procedures and success. A similar observation had also been made in France by Jacques Antoine Rabaut-Pommier in 1780. Noting the common observation that milkmaids were generally immune to smallpox, Jenner postulated that the pus in the blisters that milkmaids received from cowpox (a disease similar to smallpox, but
Robert Francis Jenner Robert Francis Jenner Robert Francis Jenner (13 January 1802 – 8 April 1860) of Wenvoe Castle was High Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1828. The name "Jenner" is said to be the same as Genor or Genore. The Jenners of Wenvoe traced their ancestry back to Thomas Jenner of Northam, Sussex, who died about 1640. His grandson was Sir Thomas Jenner of Petersham, Surrey (1638–1707), a barrister and member of parliament for Rye in 1685. Thomas Jenner's grandson was Charles Jenner (1707–1770), Archdeacon of Huntingdon, Rector of Buckworth and Chaplain in Ordinary to King George II of Great Britain. Charles Jenner's