Early Dundee Doctors
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EARLY DUNDEE DOCTORS, By Dr J. KINNEAR, O.B.E., T.D., M.D., F.R.C.P.Ed., D.L. Royal Infirmary, Dundee ^His paper is a brief history of the medical profession in Dundee from its earliest records in the Burgh annals at the end of the fifteenth Century to the latter half of the eighteenth century, some three hundred years. I want to try to build up a picture of what kind of men these early doctors were, how they worked, how they behaved, and what their influence was on the life of the Burgh and its influence on theirs. our local historians there are three I want to mention. ^ Amongst shall refer to them again. A. Maxwell sixty or more years ago Wrote two large volumes on the history of old Dundee before and after the Reformation from material he collected from the Burgh rec?rds, but he was not specially interested in doctors and it is often n?t possible to be certain when he is referring to one if, as often happens, he only gives a name without mentioning the occupation. The late r R. C. Buist again searched the same records up to 1600 but with express purpose of finding out all he could about Dundee doctors, the lecture he delivered as a result was published in the Edinburgh ^edical Journal in 1930. The late Dr A. H. Millar, City Librarian, Wr?te much about Dundee and edited many local records, but as he Xvas not always accurate in his statements they had to be verified Wherever possible. Still he proved very useful. In those days Dundee was a small walled town not much more than a mile long by half a mile wide and it suffered from our various Wars more than any other Scottish town. It is said that Dundee was always on the right side at the wrong time and the wrong side at the right time. At any rate it lost practically all its records under Edward I, and again when it was sacked by the English in 1548. Its worst disaster came in 1651 when it fell to Monk's seige ; it took 200 years to recover, ar*d this was not helped by its being taken by Montrose nor by the Mentions of Prince Charles's army in 1745. The population was probably never above 10,000 to the end of the period we are considering and from about 8000 after Monk's seige gradually fell to 5203 in 1746, though it more than doubled itself during the next decade. At first the only medical practitioners in Dundee of whom we have records were barber-surgeons, called indifferently by either name, the first physician is mentioned late in the sixteenth century and we have no trace of any apothecary before the middle of the seventeenth century. The early records are mainly civic ; offences against the ?^urgh or actions between neighbours or between doctor and patient vol. lx. no. 4 169 l 2 170 J. KINNEAR or records of trading activities and such like, and the earliest mention we have of a barber-surgeon is of Robert Johnson who, in 1495, paid " ' xxs for a lair in the kirk for himself and Jonat Alanson his spouse ; that is all we know of him for certain but perhaps he was the man " referred to by the High Treasurer in 1497 when he records paid ixs to the barbor that brought aquavite to the king in Dundee." A royal visit was an annual event in those days. The principal records of James Man are of his troubles due to an impetuous nature. In 1521 the Burgh Court Records show an entry " anent the troublance be fisichis Man contair J hone Butte. " " Fisichis is an unusual but apt appellation. Friends were ordered to patch up the quarrel but James Man had to answer to the Bailies for his breach of the peace. In July 1523 he was again in trouble, this time for refusing to take up the collection in church : "on his awn confession for the wrongeous denial to pass with the haliblut " burd (holyblood board) he was given the appropriate penalty of a " fine equivalent to the previous collection, vis iijd." The altar of the Holy Blood was the particular care of the Guildry and its finances were augmented by a duty on imports to the town which, after the " " " Reformation, was known as the Gild Silver instead of the Holy Blood Silver" and the proceeds were devoted to Guild charities. The objection of James Man to taking up the collection was evidently not an isolated one as special pains and penalties were laid down for " those who refused to pass with the haliblut burd." James was duly succeeded by his son James, also a surgeon, who in 1551 was admitted burgess by right of his father and whose record goes on till 1592. We shall hear of him again. Robert Pypar practised for long in Dundee, his record runs frorn " 1527, when as barbitonsor" he was admitted burgess, till i5^9 when his grandson was served his heir. He had a booth under the old Tollbooth in the High Street, and was important enough to have " " a close named after him when Wm. Shippert's Close at the west " end of the High Street changed its name to Robert Pypar's Close.' His story shows his various activities, collecting his bills, supplying" " James Caraill, surgeon, with drugs, suing Thomas Fetly over xv dusson of bedes of sybowis for xiis the dussone ", getting a deal in hides completed, or having to pay his share to the clerk of the ship " " " as part venturer in the George or the James." Doctors in those days did not confine their activities to the practice of their profession, as many entries show. " On 5th September 1550 Pypar sued Gibbe Saidler for the curing " of Riche Saidler's heid hurt be ynglismen apparently in the i54^ invasion. The balance due was about 7s. 6d. In 1563 he had a dispute with his next-door neighbour about mutual rights of their respective booths and Robert had to take down a wooden erection which he had put up which interfered with the booth next door. About this time two local men attained fame as doctors outwith EARLY DUNDEE DOCTORS 171 the " " Burgh, the earliest records of a long line of medical exports from Dundee. Dr Michael Durham seems to have come from the family of Durham of Grange of Barry, he was physician to James V and " attested his last will. His brother Henry was renter of the Great " Customs of Dundee and Captain of Broughty Castle when it surrendered to the English in 1547. Both were graduates in Arts of ^t Andrews University. " " James Watson was admitted yeman or attendant to James V ln *539, he had property in Dundee where his widow, Mariota Rollock, Was living in 1554. Sir David Lindsay mentions him in one of his Poems :?. " James was a man of greit intellegence, Ane mediciner ful of experience, . ." Records of medical services to the wounded in the frequent wars of those days are very scanty but one relates how the Dundee contingent which set out in 1560 under Provost Haliburton to help fight the rench troops brought over by the Queen Regent was accompanied y its surgeons. In 1567 James Caraill, whom I have mentioned already, asked testimony from the Bailies that he and other Dundee Surgeons had never been paid by the Earl of Moray as they had been " Promised for their grite labours and costs upon the curing and ealing of Inglismen and Scotismen there hurt and wounded ", that ls at the seige of Leith, where for once Scots and English were on the same side. I don't know if the surgeons were ever paid. Duncan is the first Dundee doctor recorded who founded a Findlay famous family and it is interesting to trace its rise. Along with another surgeon, John Brown, he was one of the 193 burghers tried artd acquitted of rioting at the sack of the monasteries in 1543. At ne time he had owned a house at the top of Long Wynd, but he 1Ved on the south side of the Overgate just west of Tally Street. He ^vas admitted burgess in 1550 but Millar is wrong in describing his as the first of the medical faculty to appear on the Roll. Probably ^ame " " " tillar did not realise that barber" and surgeon were then Anonymous. Duncan's admission was for services rendered to the c?mmonweal, probably during the troubled Reformation period. His Practice was wide enough to include the laird of Balmashanner at ?rfar, and he was a person of some importance in his own Burgh. Was a member of several courts of referees set up by the magistrates |? settle disputes between surgeon and patient. In 1562 a dispute " etween Matthew Wedderburn and Patrick Walker, surgeon, anent " " healing of the said Mathew's thome was referred to Findlay uncan and John Kinloch, surgeons." In November 1564 the assess- ment " " of Patrick Walker's labour done upon Gilbert Ramsay was " Referred to Robert Pypar, Findlay Duncan, James Man and John rown, chirurgeons." This case must have included practically the Whole medical strength of the Burgh, which Buist estimates at 6 or 7 Iri those days. In December 1566 Thos. Smyt was ordered to pay 172 J. KINNEAR " Patrick Walker for his lawbors the sowme that Robert Pypar, Finlo Duncan and James Man would make him pay." The amount was " assessed at xls." Patrick Walker must have had a grievance against Findlay Duncan " for in August 1576 he was convicted of invasion of Findlaw Duncane, s chirurgeon, with ane drawn quhinger yestrene in Robert Lovell " " house (Lovell was also a surgeon) and was ordered to pass fore- anent Robt.