1914-15.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 381 



been a man of some position, for he was a Commissioner of 

 Supply for Fif eshire. 1 In view of aspects of our story that 

 will appear later, it is interesting to know that James 

 Cunningham of Barns, a lairdship near Elie, was appointed 

 Commissioner of Supply at the same time as Patrick 

 Arthur. William Arthur's mother, Margaret Sharp. 2 

 daughter of Dr. Sharp of Edinburgh, was related to Arch- 

 bishop Sharp, 3 whose daughter Isobel was the wife of John 

 Cunningham of Barns, father of James. The Arthurs and 

 the Cunninghams were therefore not only neighbours but 

 connected by very close family ties. The pedigree table 

 annexed gives such information of the family of Arthur as 

 I have been able to obtain. 



The Church, Medicine, and the Arm}' were the vocations 

 that attracted the sons of Patrick Arthur. William Arthur 

 chose Medicine and went to Utrecht, then at the zenith of 

 its reputation under Boerhaave, and obtained the diploma 

 of M.D. there, on 12th March 1707, as we learn from the 

 records of the Royal College of Plwsicians of Edinburgh, 

 of which incorporation he became in time a Fellow. 4 



I gather that on his return to Scotland William Arthur 

 engaged in medical practice at Elie, probably assisting his 

 father; at least that is the inference I draw from the 

 description of him in the record of Edinburgh marriages. 5 



1 Scot. Act Pari., August 1707. 



- Mr. Patrick Arthur and Margaret Sharp, both in the Parish of 

 Ellie, were contracted upon the 7th day of December 1672. They were 

 married upon the 17th of December 1672. (Elie Parish Register.) 

 Margaret Sharp was at the time widow of John Gourlay. second son to 

 Sir John Gourlay of Kincraig, who had died in 1660 and to whom she 

 was married in 1660. 



3 In this connection Wood says in the East Xeuk of Fife, ed. 2, 

 1887, p. 202 : " In May 1679 the archbishop's daughter, also Margaret 

 Sharp, afterwards Lady Salton. was paying a visit to Dr. Arthur in 

 this house, when the news reached her of the murder of her father on 

 Magus Muir. In her grief and anxiety, she set out without a moment's 

 delay e xpecting to get at Colinsburgh a conveyance to St. Andrews, and, 

 as tradition -ays, in order to make more speed, cast off her high-heeled 

 shoes at the ' White Yett' (the old entrance to Elie House, somewhat 

 south of the present one), and performed the rest of her journey 

 on her ' stocking soles.' " (See Elie Parish Register. Wood, East Xeuk 

 of Fife.) 



4 See copy of the Minute on p. 383. 



5 The entry runs : " Mr. William Arthur, Doctor of Medicine in 

 Elie Parish, in Fife, and Barbara Clerk, widow of John Lawson of 

 Cairnmore in North-West Parish. Pro. 12th Februarv 171U. M. 21st 

 February 1710." 



