Archibald Pitcairne (1652-1713)

Physician

Archibald Pitcairne was born in Edinburgh on Christmas Day 1652. He was an eminent physician whose reputation did much to enhance that of Edinburgh as a centre of excellence in medicine in the early years of the 18th century. He was a man of great intellect and was in turn mathematician, poet, dramatist, bibliophile and latinist as well as doctor.

Death in 1713

Mr Archbald Pitcairn, Doctor of Medicine, died on 23 October 1713. The entry in the Old Parish Register - a record of interments in Greyfriars Burying-Ground, Edinburgh - shows he was 60 and the cause of death was 'a decay'. The date and place of burial was 26 October and north of Morton's stone.

Death and burial entry for Archibald Pitcairn (36 KB jpeg)
National Records of Scotland, OPR 685-1/86

A second entry in the next volume repeats some of the details - name, designation, date and place of burial.
(National Records of Scotland, OPR 685-1/87, page 105)

Testament of Dr Archibald Pitcairne

National Records of Scotland, CC8/8/87 pp 821-838

Archibald Pitcairne amassed an extensive library of some 1500 books - this collection survives intact in St Petersburg - which is the principal item in the inventory of the doctor's 'guids and gear' listed towards the end of his testament. Unfortunately, there is no catalogue of the collection. The inventory goes on to itemise his other possessions and states that much of the furniture in his house did not belong to him. It was owned by his wife, Elizabeth Stevenson, who had inherited it from her late father, Sir Archibald Stevenson.

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