A Play by Allan Bennett, A Physician to a King and a Queen.

The village of Greatford in Lincolnshire sits between Bourne in the north, Market Deeping in the south east and Stamford in the south west.

Film Buffs will no doubt remember The Madness of King George where Nigel Hawthorne played King George III and Ian Holm the physician Dr Francis Willis or devotees of Allan Bennett who wrote the play that the film was based on where Charles Kay played the eminent doctor.

Dr Willis moved to Greatford Hall in the year 1776 it became his home and also a private sanatorium for patients in his care. Frederick Reynolds the English Dramatist visited Dr Willis in Greatford and was impressed by the sartorial elegance of his patients while working and maintaining the estate which was all part of the therapy , he also commented that the Doctor also kept a good table. 

The Doctor kept an excellent table, and the day I dined with him, I found a numerous company. Amongst others of his patients, in a state of convalesence, present on this occasion, were, a Mrs. B—,  a lady of large fortune, who had lately recovered under the Doctor’s care, but declined returning into the world from the dread of a relapse; and a young clergyman, who occasionally read service, and preached for the Doctor. Nothing occurred out of the common way, till soon after the cloth was removed; when, I saw the Doctor frown at a patient, who immediately hastened from the room, taking with him my tail, which he had slyly cut off. Others laughed, but I did not; for I remembered. 

“Quem Deus vult perdere, priùs demental.”

From The Life and Times of Frederick Reynolds Viloume 1

You will not find the original Greatford Hall today as it was destroyed by fire 1922 long after Dr Willis had died in 1807 at the age of 90 and laid to rest in Greatford Parish Church of Thomas Becket.

The current Hall was rebuild in a similar style by Major Cuthbert Fitzwilliams.

There is a memorial to The Revd. Francis Willis MD in Greatford Parish Church of Thomas Becket.

Sacred to the memory of
The Revd. Francis Willis MD
Who died on 5 December 1807
In the 90th year of his age
He was the third son of the Revd. John Willis of Lincoln
A descendant of an ancient family of the same name
That resided formerly at Fenny Compton in Warwickshire
He studied at Oxford; was Fellow and sometime Vice-Principal of Brazen Nose College: Where in obedience to his father, he entered into holy orders. But pursuing the bent of his natural taste and inclination he took the degree of Doctor of Physic in the same University and continued the practice of the profession to the last hour of his life.
By his first wife Mary, the youngest daughter of the Revd. John Curtois of Branston in this County, he had five sons who survived him. By his second wife he had no issue.
Initiated early into habits of observation and research, he attained the highest eminence in his profession and was happily the chief agent in removing the malady which affected his present majesty
in the year 1789. On that occasion he displayed an energy and acuteness of mind which excited the admiration and procured for him the esteem of the Nation. The kindness and benevolence of his disposition were testified by the tears and lamentations which followed him to the grave.