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James Hamilton
Fellow
Date of Fellowship admission: 3 November 1772
James Hamilton was a prominent Edinburgh physician associated with the Royal Infirmary, the Trades Maiden Hospital and George Heriot's Hospital. His work 'Observations on the Utility and Administration of Purgative Medicines' (1805) ran to multiple editions. He served as President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1792 to 1794. In later life he was nicknamed 'Cocky Hamilton' for his continued adherence to eighteenth-century dress, including a three-cornered hat.
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Nathaniel Spens
Fellow
Date of Fellowship admission: 7 July 1774
Nathaniel Spens was a Scottish physician and archer born in Fife. He studied medicine at the University of St Andrews before moving to Edinburgh to practise. He joined the incorporation of Surgeons in 1751, and in 1794 he became President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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Robert Hamilton
Fellow
Date of Fellowship admission: 1 February 1774
Robert Hamilton was born in 1721 in Edinburgh. Hamilton was apprenticed to a surgeon in Leith before entering the navy as a surgeon's mate in 1741. He then set up practice in Norfolk before receiving his MD from the University of St Andrews in 1766. Hamilton died in Norfolk in 1793.
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Edward Spry
Fellow
Date of Fellowship admission: 3 May 1774
Edward Spry was born in Plymouth and studied theology at University of Oxford before returning to Plymouth to apprentice as a surgeon. He received an MD from King's College, Aberdeen, in 1759, became a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1767, and obtained a second MD at Leiden in 1768. After a brief period in Edinburgh he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, then practised in Plymouth until about 1796.
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James Hunter
Fellow
Date of Fellowship admission: 14 July 1774
James Hunter received his MD from St Andrews in 1747. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1774 and served as Fiscal Officer from 1779 to at least 1783.
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Robert Langlands
Fellow
Date of Fellowship admission: 7 May 1776
Robert Langlands earned his MD from the University of Edinburgh with a thesis on dropsy. He lived and worked in Edinburgh, but owned land in Roxburghshire and was an acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott. A member of the Aesculapian Club and the Royal Company of Scottish Archers, Langlands died in 1792. It is possible that Langlands was the last chief of clan Langlands, as he is often referred to as 'Langlands of that ilk', and the clan became armigerous soon after his recorded death. He died in 1792.
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Daniel Rutherford
Fellow
Date of Fellowship admission: 6 May 1777
Daniel Rutherford graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1772, travelled for three years, and began practice in Edinburgh in 1775. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, serving as Secretary for eleven years, Censor for six, Councillor for eighteen, and President from 1796 to 1798. In 1786 he was appointed Professor of Medicine and of Botany and Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.
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James Gregory
Fellow
Date of Fellowship admission: 6 May 1777
James Gregory was born in Aberdeen in January 1753. After studies at Edinburgh and Oxford he graduated MD at Edinburgh in 1774, then studied in Leiden, Paris, and Italy. In 1776 he became Professor of the Institutes of Medicine at Edinburgh. His 'Conspectus Medicinae Theoreticae' became a standard text. From 1790 he was joint professor with William Cullen, with right of succession. Gregory served as President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1798 to 1801 and died in 1821.
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Arnold Bartholomew Beerenbroek
Fellow
Date of Fellowship admission: 3 February 1778
Arnold Bartholomew Beerenbroek was born in Antwerp in 1751. He studied at Louvain and Leiden, where he took an MD with a thesis on the diet and diseases of children. He worked in British hospitals, including St Bartholomew's under Percivall Pott, then returned to Antwerp, translating medical works including Pott's treatise on paralysis and William Cullen's 'First Lines of the Practice of Physic'. Sympathetic to the French Revolution, he was elected to the legislature of the Batavian province of Deux-Nethes.
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Matthew Powell
Fellow
Date of Fellowship admission: 4 August 1778
Matthew Powell received an MD from the University of St Andrews in 1773 and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1778. He entered the army and served as Physician to the garrison in Kingston, Jamaica. He died in November 1780.