Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, was born in 1682 to Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll and Elizabeth Talmash. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1726. He also held a number of major political posts, such as Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. He died in 1761.

Jean Baptiste de Sénac was born near Lombez, France in 1693. He began practicing medicine in Paris in 1723, when was elected to the Academie des Sciences as an anatomist. In 1733, he moved to Versailles and became the physician at the royal hospital of Versailles. In 1752, he became the chief physician to Louis XVI. He was then appointed councillor of the state and superintendent of the mineral waters and medicinals in France. He is best known for his publication on cardiology, ‘Traité de la structure du coeur’ (1749), which remained a popular work into the 19th century. He died in Paris in 1770.

John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, was born in Edinburgh on 25 May 1713 to James Stuart and Anne Campbell. In 1761 he became Secretary of State, and was Prime Minister from 1762-1763. In that time, he successfully led negotiations to end the Seven Years War. After leaving politics, he engaged himself in intellectual pursuits and became a patron of science and the arts. He supported several chairs at the University of Edinburgh, including the chair of botany and materia medica, and donated his private library of 1300 volumes to Marischal College, Aberdeen. He died on 10 March 1792.

James Mounsey was born in Skipmire, Dumfriesshire in 1709/1710 to Thomas Mounsey and Mary Steel. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh but did not complete his degree. He was apprenticed to the surgeon Thomas Wood in Edinburgh in 1731. Mounsey travelled in Russia in 1736 and worked there as a surgeon to the Russian army. He graduated from Rheims University with an MD in 1739. When he returned to Edinburgh he brought samples of medicinal rhubarb seeds, for which the College made him an Honorary Fellow. He died in 1773.

Patrick Hume, 1st Earl of Marchmont was born in Berwickshire in 1641 to Patrick Hume and Christian Hamilton. A Scottish statesman and surgeon, he initially studied law in Paris before becoming a prominent defender of the Covenanters in the Scottish parliament. Forced to flee to the Netherlands, Hume lived under the alias 'Dr. Wallace'. He returned to Scotland with William of Orange in 1688, resuming his political career. Hume was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1696 and became Earl of Marchmont in 1697. He died on 2 August 1724.

James Scougal, Lord Whitehill, was born around 1652 to Patrick Scougal, Bishop of Aberdeen, and Margaret Wemyss. In 1687 he became an advocate, and in 1696, on the death of Lord Pressmennan, was appointed an Ordinary Lord of Session with the title of Lord Whitehill. Scougal, who was at one time a commissary of Edinburgh, appears to have studied medicine, as he translated from the French a work on anatomy and published a treatise entitled 'The Country Physician'. He resided at Roseburn House in Edinburgh. Scougal died in 1702.

William Anstruther, Lord Anstruther, was the eldest son of Sir Patrick Anstruther, a royalist whose lands were sequestrated under Cromwell, and Christian Lumsdem. William Anstruther was himself a royalist and a supporter of the Treaty of Union with England. He first served as a parliamentary commissioner for Fife from 1681, returning repeatedly to the role hereafter. In 1692, he was appointed as a member of King William's privy council. In 1705, he received ratification of the land and barony of Anstruther and the surrounding area. He died on 24 January 1711.

David Gregory was born in Aberdeen in 1659. He entered Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1671. In 1679 he matriculated as a medical student at Leiden University and then travelled throughout Europe. He was granted an MA from the University of Edinburgh in 1683 and shortly after took up the position of professor of mathematics there. Gregory was elected professor of astronomy at Oxford in 1691 and was awarded the degrees of MA and MD at Oxford the following year. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1692. Gregory died in London in 1708.

Robert Gray was a friend of William Pitcairne, and frequently exchanged letters with him. One of these letters contained politically sensitive material which led to Pitcairne being charged with contravening the statutes against 'leasing making'. Little else is known about Gray.

Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, was born in County Down in 1660. He moved to London in the 1680s to study chemistry, anatomy, physic and botany, before obtaining his MD at the University of Orange in 1683. In 1687 Sloane went to Jamaica with its governor, the second duke of Albemarle, to act as his personal physician. During this time he amassed a large natural history collection. He returned to London in 1689, where he set up a private medical practice. He also married Elizabeth Langley Rose, widow of Falke Rose and inheritor of Rose’s fortune, which came from sugar plantations in Jamaica. Sloane used this income to expand his collections, which numbered around 71,000 items. He bequeathed the collections to Great Britain, on the condition that anyone be allowed to see them, which led to the foundation of the British Museum and the British Library. He died in Chelsea in 1753.