Dr. William Drennan--his life in Georgian Ireland.

WILLIAM DRENNAN was born in Belfast in 1754, the last of 9 children, only three of whom survived childhood. His father was the Reverend Thomas Drennan, Minister of the First Presbyterian Congregation, Rosemary Street, Belfast and he was a Dissenter throughout his life. William was educated at the school of Belfast in Church Lane which had been in existence for nearly one hundred years when he went there. In 1769 he went to Glasgow University where two years later he obtained his M.A. at the age of seventeen. It is not known how or where he spent the next two years, but in 1773 he went as a medical student to Edinburgh a university which was popular amongst the Northern Irish at this time, principally because of its excellence, but also because of the low cost of tuition. Dublin University required a student to spend 12 years before obtaining his M.D. and was not favoured by the Ulstermen.