James Rae (surgeon)

James Rae (1716–1791) was a Scottish surgeon, known as a teacher in Edinburgh.

The only son of John Rae (1677–1754), a barber-surgeon with a background in Stirlingshire, he was born in Edinburgh. He became on 27 August 1747 a member of the Incorporation of Surgeons of Edinburgh, where in 1764–5 he filled the office of deacon or president.

Rae was the first surgeon appointed to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on 7 July 1766. There he gave practical discourses on cases of importance. In October 1776 his fellow surgeons made a determined attempt to found a professorship of surgery in the University of Edinburgh, and to appoint Rae the first professor. They were defeated by Alexander Monro secundus, who then managed to convert his own chair of anatomy into one of anatomy and surgery.

Rae did in Edinburgh what Percivall Pott did in London, in establishing the teaching of clinical surgery. He died in 1791, and was buried, as was also his wife, in the tomb of his forefathers in Greyfriars Kirk.

Rae married, in 1744, Isobel, daughter of Ludovic Cant of Thurstan. By her he had two sons and several daughters. The elder son William joined the Incorporation of Surgeons on 18 July 1777, settled in London, where he married Isabella, sister of Robert Dallas, and died young. John, the younger brother, was the first fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, where he was admitted on 14 March 1781. He became president in 1804–5, and was known as a dentist. Among Rae's daughters were: Elizabeth Keith, who founded the Edinburgh Association for Incurables; Elizabeth (Isabella), mother of Marjorie Fleming; and Margaret, mother of William Fettes.

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