Physician Jean [John] Colladon was born on 19 March 1608 in Geneva. His father Esaïe Colladon was Professor of Philosophy at the Geneva Academy; his grandfather Germain, a celebrated jurist, had been an assistant of Jean Calvin.
Colladon was invited to England in 1631 by another native of Geneva, the Royal physician Theodore Turquet de Mayerne. He took up the study of medicine at Cambridge with the aim of becoming Mayerne’s partner. In 1640, living in the parish of St Paul’s, Covent Garden, he was chosen as physician to Charles, Prince of Wales.
Mayerne and Colladon were leading members of the French-speaking Calvinist congregation which met in the chapel of Durham House in the Strand. Under the ministry of Jean Despagne, the church attracted many peers and MPs who preferred its traditional liturgy to the more austere Anglican worship.
Following the death of Mayerne in March 1655, Colladon took over the representation of Genevan interests in England. Commissioned by the Republic in January 1659 to convey its respects to the new protector Richard Cromwell, Colladon reported a cordial reception. Eighteen months later, in June 1660, he quickly adapted to the new political reality of the Restoration. He died in December 1675.
