The last will and testament, with the inventory of the estate, of Maister Peter Lowe, founder of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow / by James Finlayson.

Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The last will and testament, with the inventory of the estate, of Maister Peter Lowe, founder of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow / by James Finlayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Reprinted from the “ (Jlasgoxo Medical JournaV’ for October, 1898.\ THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT, WITH THE INVEN- TORY OF THE ESTATE, OF MAISTER PETER LOWE, FOUNDER OF THE FACULTY OF PHA'SICIANS AND SURGEONS, GLASGOW. By JAMES FINLAY80N, M.D., Honorary Librarian to the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Gllasgow. When I published An Account of the Life and Worhs of Maister Peter Lowe (Glasgow, 1889), I had to leave the date of his death uncertain; at that time no trace of his will had been found. While searching the “ Commissariat of Glasgow, Testaments, Vol. 7,” for some other purpose, Mr. A. W. Gray Buchanan noticed, about two years ago, the will of the founder of the Faculty of Pliysicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, and he kindly directed my attention to it. A transcript of the IMS. was easily obtained from the Register House, Edinburgh. It is headed “ The Testament Testamentar, latter will and Inventar of the guidis and geir perteining to vmquhile Mr. Petir Low doctour chyrurgin within the towne of Glasgow quha deceist upoun the fyftein day of August the zeir of God jiu vjc and ten zeiris.” This, then, fixes the date of liis death beyond all doubt; but the confusion which beset former inquiries still haunts us. When we were disposed to trust to the “Index Funereus” of the Surgeons of Paris, which gave his death as occurring on 30th June, 1617, we subsequently discovered that his widow was married again about two years before his death ! For tlie date of this marriage there were clear records. Now that we know that he died on 15tl\ August, 1610, we are con- fronted with the difficulty that he died more than two years before he wrote the preface to the second edition of his Ckyriuyerie ! His preface, he states, is given from “my house in Glasgow, the 20. day of December in the yeare of our Lord God. 1612,” and it is signed with his own name. The explanation is, no doubt, to be sought in the IMS. of the