The William Heberden papers, 1790-1837 (inclusive), consist of Heberden's reports on the health of King George III of Great Britain to the Committee Appointed to Examine the Physicians who have Attended His Majesty during His Illness, and reports generated by that committee; manuscripts and article drafts by Heberden on management of the sick, classification of skin diseases, nervous disorders, the weather, and education; and a thesis on medical history and dropsy.

William Heberden (1767-1845), M.D., 1795, St. John's College, Oxford, was a London physician. For most of his life he was physician in attendance to the king and queen of England, and he was chief consultant to George III in his last illness. William Heberden was born in London on March 23, 1767, to Mary Wollaston and William Heberden (1710-1801), also a physician. He was educated at Charterhouse and St. John's College at the University of Oxford, where earned his B.A. in 1788 and M.D. in 1795. He also studied medicine in London at St. George's Hospital and was a physician there from 1793 to 1803. Heberden was one of the physicians attending George III in 1811-1812, and he reported his observations on the king's mental illness and treatment to the British Parliament's Committee Appointed to Examine the Physicians who have attended His Majesty during His Illness. He retired from active public practice in 1812 after the death of his wife, which left him widowed with nine children. He was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (1796) and belonged to the Royal Society. Heberden's published works include Observations on the increase and decrease of different diseases, particularly of the plague (1801), An epitome of the diseases incident to children (1807), and On education. A dialogue after the manner of Cicero's Philosophical Disquisitions (1818). Heberden died in London on February 19, 1845.