Latham was the eldest son of the Rev. John Latham, B.A. of
Oriel College, Oxford, and was born at
Gawsworth in the county of
Chester, 29 December 1761, in the house of his great-uncle, the Rev. William Hall, then Rector of that parish. He received his early education at
Manchester Grammar School, under Charles Lawson, A.M., Head Master, and entered Commoner of
Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1778, where, having gone through the previous degrees in arts, he was created M.B. 3 May 1786, and M.D. 10 October 1788. In London, he completed his medical education under
David Pitcairn at
St Bartholomew's Hospital. Latham passed the first years of his professional life at
Manchester and
Oxford, where in both places he was elected physician to the respective infirmaries. In 1788 he returned to London, and the next year was admitted Fellow of the
College of Physicians. In a few months he was elected physician to the
Middlesex Hospital, afterwards to the
Magdalen, and in the year 1792, succeeded David Pitcairn at St. Bartholomew's, about which time he settled in Bedford Row, and remained there until 1808, when he moved to
Harley Street. In 1790, he was appointed Physician Extraordinary to the
Prince of Wales, and afterwards re-appointed to the same office in the household of
George IV. On 12 April 1784, Latham married Mary, the eldest daughter and co-heiress of the Rev. Peter Mayer, B.A. Vicar of
Prestbury, in the county of Chester. They had four daughters and five sons, though only two daughters and three sons survived into adulthood. Among the surviving children were Sarah, John (who inherited the estate), Peter, and Henry. Latham's eldest daughter Sarah married
George Ormerod and their daughter
Eleanor Ormerod was the noted entomologist. In 1801, he bought the estate at Bradwall, in Sandbach and was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. Latham was a regular attendant at the College of Physicians, where he was elected censor (examiner) in 1790, delivered the
Gulstonian lectures in 1793, the
Harveian oration in 1794, and the
Croonian lecture in 1795. He was president of the college from 1813 to 1819. In 1816 he founded the Medical Benevolent Society. He retired in 1829. ==Diabetes==