Patrick Abercromby

Patrick Abercromby
Born	1656 Forfar, Scotland
Died	c. 1716
Nationality	Scottish
Occupation	physician, historian, antiquarian
Known for	Physician to King James VII of Scotland; as a Jacobite, he opposed the Union in various pamphlets
Notable work	Martial Achievements of the Scots Nation

Patrick Abercromby (1656 – c. 1716), Scottish physician and antiquarian, noted for being physician to King James VII (II of England) and his fervent opposition to the Act of Union between Scotland and England.

Patrick Abercromby was the third son of Alexander Abercromby of Fetterneir in Aberdeenshire, and brother of Francis Abercromby, who was created Lord Glasford by King James II. He was born at Forfar in 1656 apparently of a Roman Catholic family.

Intending to become a doctor of medicine he entered the University of St Andrews, where he took his degree of M.D. in 1685, but apparently he spent most of his youthful years abroad. It has been stated that he attended the university of Paris, France. The Discourse of Wit (1685), sometimes assigned to him, belongs to Dr David Abercromby.

On his return to Scotland, he is found practising as a physician in Edinburgh, where, besides his professional duties, he gave himself with characteristic zeal to the study of antiquities. He was appointed physician to James II in 1685, but the revolution deprived him of the post. Living during the agitations for the union of England and Scotland, he took part as a Jacobite in the war of pamphlets inaugurated and sustained by prominent men on both sides of the Border, and he crossed swords with no less redoubtable a foe than Daniel Defoe in his Advantages of the Act of Security compared with those of the intended Union (Edinburgh, 1707), and A Vindication of the Same against Mr De Foe (ibid.).

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