Physician
He was born in Ayr 24 September 1727 the son of Dr John Stevenson and Marion Rodger. His family was from Dalgain in Ayrshire near Mauchline. He studied in Glasgow gaining a doctorate in 1746. He would later set up practice in Glasgow. The Cullen Project notes that Stevenson was Dr William Cullen’s (1710-1790) most regular correspondent. Most likely as a result of his father John Stevenson being an associate of Cullen. The letters are illuminating in their detail. Stevenson would appear to be Cullen’s counterpart in the west. Residing in Virginia Street he is tending and treating not just his neighbours such as John Glassford of Dougalston and John Dunlop of Rosebank but would appear to be willing to travel to tend to his patients. The one thing that struck me reading about the merchants ailments was how mortal they appeared and suffering from stress indicators with stomach ailments and ulcers. They were not the bullet proof ‘gods’ that folklore would have us believe. However their ailments pale into insignificance when measured against the suffering and barbaric treatment of indentured and chattel enslaved whose lives were sacrificed on the alter of commerce.
William Cullen
William Cullen was born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland, 15 April 1710. His father was a lawyer, on special retainer to the Duke of Hamilton. Following an interest in medicine he studied at Edinburgh University before being apprenticed as surgeon apothecary to John Paisley of Glasgow. By 1729 he is surgeon to a West Indies merchant vessel, and 1730 and 1731 as assistant apothecary to Mr Murray of Henrietta Street, London. Returning to Scotland in 1732 he started general medical practice in Shotts, Lanarkshire near Glasgow.
Circa 1740 having set up as a physician in Glasgow he also took up a teaching position lecturing on medicine at Glasgow University, then situated on the High Street. Taking an interest in the new field of chemistry he was convinced that it could benefit agricultural and industrial growth. In 1747 he was appointed lecturer in chemistry at Glasgow University. This was the first chemistry post anywhere in the United Kingdom.
It was Cullen the teacher who shone brightest. He was deeply entrenched in Lockean empirical philosophy, his practical lectures in English, with student-led, hands-on demonstrations, made his courses famous as far away as Philadelphia.
Alexander Stevenson
Stevenson was twice president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (1752 1773) and was also Regius Professor of Medicine (1766-1789) Was elected Clerk of Senate 1777. He also co-founded the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783.
On 29 October 1773 he was one of the professors who breakfasted with James Boswell & Samuel Johnson at the Saracens Head Inn Glasgow. He persuaded the university in 1786 to subscribe £500 to the building fund for Robert Adam’s Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
He resided at 34 Virginia St. between 1755-91. Indeed he was one of the first residents of the street buying his plot directly from Archibald Buchanan of Silverbanks. This plot was situated due south of present number 42, the old Gas Light Offices lying between it and the Thistle Bank. The Black Bull Inn completed the street’s eastern extremity to the south.
His sister, Juliana Stevenson, was mother to Thomas Charles Hope. Hope succeeded his uncle in his role as Professor of Medicine following his retirement in 1789. On his uncle’s death Hope moved into his property at 53 Virginia Street. Hope would go on to discover Strontium and also followed his uncle in pursuing an academic career. Darwin would attend some of his lectures describing them as a ‘highlight’ of his time in the north.
Later his uncle’s property would be taken over by the Glasgow Apothecary Company in 1803, appearing in the Glasgow Directory at 53 Virginia Street (1826 renumbered to 34 Virginia Street). This makes sense as no doubt both Stevenson and Hope would have tended the large rear garden to service their medical practices. The location in the heart of the business district would have been ideal to an Apothecary business wishing to sell to the increasingly affluent and knowledgeable mercantile populace of Glasgow New Town. Indeed a rival ‘The New Glasgow Apothecary Co’ set up around the corner at 57 59 Glassford St in 1829. The Virginia Street apothecary business flourished but in June 8th 1878 there was a fire at 34 Virginia St in the Apothecary causing £24,000 damage. It survived and would celebrate it’s centenary at 34 Virginia Street in 1903. However, in 1919 T & H Smith Ltd* acquired the business of Glasgow Apothecaries Co, which had been established on the plot of Alexander Stevenson.
The Soane have an unexecuted series of drawings by Robert Adam for a Mr Stevenson Esq. dating from 1783 to 1794. Two possible patrons are in the frame. Alexander Stevenson and Nathanial Stevenson. Nathaniel was a merchant and partner of James Dunlop Esq. The nephew of John Dunlop of Rosebank. He seems the more likely given his mercantile success. However, Alexander Stevenson has not been ruled out given his links with the building of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Further research is required as another Nathaniel Stevenson gets married in Dunlop. However, this Nathaniel is linked with Paisley.
*1827 Company est. by brothers Thomas and Henry Smith.
1840 Having bought Blandfields Chemicals in Canongate they developed the first liquid essence of coffee,
1851 Company discovered Aloin.
1855 The first Morphine injection was developed. T and H Smith was the first company to produce commercial quantities of Apomorphine, and then Diamorphine in 1887.
Meaning that at one time in Virginia Street you could buy either morphine and/or glycerine(dynamite)… you took your pick of how you wanted to get high. Sadly the addicts are still here; the glycerine not.
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