Historical sketch of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh : being an address delivered on 19th January 1860, at a conversazione in the hall of the college : with notes and documents / by John Gairdner, M.D.

  • Gairdner, John, 1790-1876.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Historical sketch of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh : being an address delivered on 19th January 1860, at a conversazione in the hall of the college : with notes and documents / by John Gairdner, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    11/36 (page 11)
    mise, on conditions satisfactory to both parties, received the sanction of a decision of the Court of Session on the 23d February 1722 ; and since then they have managed all their own interests, and given us no further trouble. The gain to them was even greater than to us; for, to avoid the most remote suspicion of being shedders of blood is the beau-ideal of their art; yet, if we may trust to Mait- land, the Town Council, unlike its modern representative, had the marvellous folly to compensate them for their imaginary loss, by allowing them to make aqua vita?,1 thus enabling them to act on the inner man instead of the outer, and by an agent compared with which the knives of the barber-surgeons were infinitely less perilous. On the gable of the Old Grey Friars church may be seen a re- markable monument. A skeleton is sculptured in the centre, and is festooned around with various surgical implements.2 It marks the resting-place of James Borthwick, whose picture is by much the oldest we possess.8 He entered the incorporation in 1645. He was an active member, and took a large share in controlling the irregularities of the barbers. He was also among the most active in counteracting the plot of 1657. He was a cadet of the Crookston Borthwicks, and nearly related to the Borthwick peerage ;4 and his mother, one of the Browns of Colston, belonged to a family much distinguished in Scottish history. He acquired the estate of Stow, which he planted, improved, and left to his family. James Borth- wick represented Edinburgh in the Scotch Parliament of 1661. His family is now extinct.5 20th May 1719 ; 27th January, 11th November, and 23d November 1720 ; and 23d February 1722 ; also the minute already quoted, 20th July 1743. 1 History of Edinburgh, p. 296. 2 The inscription is much injured, probably during the fire of the church, which occurred about sixteen years ago; but it may be found in Maitland, p. 193, and it bears that the monument was erected by the eldest son of James Borthwick. 3 See Appendix B. He must have died early in 1676, for his name is found in a quarterly list, 10th Feb. 1676, and not in a list of 15th June following. [Records of the Surgeons. ] 4 The following names are recorded as witnesses to the baptism of twin children of James Borthwick, in 1654.,—viz., John Lord Borthwick; William Borthwick of Crookston, elder and younger; George Borthwick, son to said William; and John and George Borthwick, brothers-german to said William of Crookston. fi James Borthwick inhabited a house at Stow winch had once been a palace of the Archbishop of St Andrews, and of which some part exists, or lately existed, near to the manse.