Royal Physicians in Scotland, 1568–1853

There are many purposes for which historians may need to know who have held appointments in the Medical Households of British sovereigns. On the one hand this is a part of the history of the monarchs and their courts; on the other it is part of the history of the medical profession and, more widely, of medicine. Unfortunately many mistaken statements are handed down from one writer to another, so that any list of royal physicians compiled from even the best available printed authorities is bound to omit names which ought to be there and to include others which ought not. In an attempt to sort out some confusions of this kind, I recently addressed an enquiry to the Scottish Record Office and received not only a full reply but complete lists of H.M. Ordinary Physicians and H.M. First Physicians, with references to the sources and to other relevant materials. From these lists I have already been able to settle several doubts; but evidently they would be useful to many other workers besides myself, and the Scottish Record Office has most kindly given me permission to publish them here.* They speak for themselves, and I have nothing to add by way of introduction except that there is no information on any office exercising supervision over the medical offices of the Household comparable to that of the Lord Chamberlain in England; and that the Scottish Record Office has no record of the medical appointments made after 1847. G. N. CLARK