A lot of the time, when I start investigating some direct ancestor, I find myself following their siblings and their descendants and finding some pretty interesting people!
I am lucky that on my direct paternal line, I can trace my ancestors back to Edinburgh, and to the Canongate, to be specific. Lucky in that records from the 17th century there have been preserved and this is where this story starts, with my 7 x great grandfather, Patrick Mcarra, who was a Baillie in the Canongate. I have written about him and his position previously here.
I descend from Patrick and his second wife, Helen Wilkie. His first wife had died leaving him with two daughters, Mary and Margaret. Mary did well for herself. In 1698, she married the Reverend John Andersone, minister at West Calder.
Now, normally I might have left Mary and John alone at this point, but I was intrigued by the pairing, simply because my dad (McAra) had married my mum, an Anderson! So I kept investigating! They had a daughter, Mary, named after her mother, who married John Russell of Braidshaw in 1719. The couple had a son, whom they named Patrick, in 1726. Mary was John Russell's third wife and Patrick was his fifth child. Patrick is a far out cousin of mine - a second cousin, six times removed! And a famous one at that! In fact, another two of their sons also held prominent positions and all three were abroad at various times sending back writings detailing their work.
Patrick Russell (1726-1805) was a famous physician and naturalist. According to the Dictionary of National Biography, he graduated M.D. at Edinburgh and in 1750 he headed out to Aleppo in Syria to join and succeed his brother Alexander who was a physician there. The Pasha, a high ranking official there, was so impressed with his work that he granted him the privilege of wearing a turban!
His brother Alexander had already written a 'Natural History of Aleppo' and Patrick carried on this work amending it. Patrick also wrote about the plague which swept Aleppo in the early 1760s and the earthquakes of 1759 and 1768, as well as about the methods of inoculation practised in Arabia. He left Aleppo in 1771, coming back to Scotland via France and Italy, where he investigated the 'lazarettos' or quarantine stations, found on islands and and ships off the coasts.
Back in Scotland, he had intended to remain in Edinburgh and practise medicine, but was persuaded to move to London, where he was appointed FRS (Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians) in 1777. But he was not there for long.
His younger brother Claud had been appointed Administrator of Vizagapatan in India and Patrick accompanied him there in 1771. In 1775 Patrick became the Chief Botanist/Naturalist in the East India Company there. In this capacity he collected specimens of native plants, fish and reptiles and his writings from this time also include texts on poisonous snakes and useful plants. His writings were sent back to Scotland.
When he himself returned to Britain in 1789, he left his collection of specimens to the museum in Madras. From this time on until his death he published his life's work : Treatise on the Plague(1791), revised versions of the Natural History of Aleppo (1794), Account of Indian Serpents.. (1796) amongst others.
He died, unmarried, in London in 1805. He bequeathed his collection of Indian plants to the University of Edinburgh and those to the East India Company are now at Kew Gardens in London.
Patrick Russell - my second cousin six times removed - wrote a lot and a lot has been written about him. He is a fitting subject for the topic of 'Written' in my humble opinion.
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