William Gourlay

William Gourlay was born in 1765, a member of the Gourlays of Kincraig, an old Fifeshire family. His father was John Gourlay, a wine merchant in Haddington, and his mother was Elizabeth Plenderleath. William apprenticed with the Royal College of Surgeons in 1777 and became a medical student at the University of Edinburgh in 1778. He was a Member of the Royal Medical Society and graduated in 1782 with a dissertation on erysipelas. He practised as a physician in Madeira, Portugal, and in 1792 succeeded his cousin as laird of Kincraig. He first married Catherine Van Cortlandt, with whom he had five children, and later Mary Macintosh, with whom he had two. Gourlay died on 18 November 1827 aged 61 and is commemorated on a mural tablet at Kilconquhar churchyard.