THE EDINBURGH SOCIETY. 3 1 



The nine ordinary managers of the Edinburgh Society 

 appointed in 1755 were: 



Lord Deskford. Mr Alex. Munro, senior, P. A. 



Lord Dalmeny, Dr Whytt. 



Sir Alex. Dick. Mr \Vm. Johnston, Advocate. 



Sir David Dalrymple. Mr Al. Wedderburn, Advocate. 



George Clerk, Esq. of Drumcrieff. 



Lord Deskford, afterwards Earl of Findlater and Seafield, 

 was the pioneer in agricultural advance in Banffshire, in 

 which his memory is yet held in honour for the impetus 

 he gave to improvement. Lord Dalmeny was the eldest 

 son and heir apparent to the Earl of Rosebery. He died 

 of a fever in Edinburgh the nth April 1755. Sir Alex- 

 ander Dick (paternally Cunynham) of Prestonfield was in 

 the year 1756 chosen President of the Royal College of 

 Physicians, which office he held for seven or eight years. 

 Sir David Dalrymple was afterwards a Lord of Session, 

 under the title of Lord Hailes. He died in 1792. Mr 

 Alex. Munro, senior, P.A., was Professor of Anatomy in 

 the University of Edinburgh. He died in 1802, Dr 

 Robert Whytt was Professor of Medicine in the University 

 of Edinburgh, and at one time President of the Royal 

 College of Physicians. He died on 15th April 1766 at 

 the age of fifty-one. Mr William Johnston, advocate, 

 was afterwards better known as Sir William Pultene)', 

 M.P. He was the founder of the Chair of Agriculture in 

 the University of Edinburgh. Mr George Clerk was after- 

 wards Sir George Clerk of Penicuik, Bart., Member of the 

 Boards of Trustees for Manufactures and Fisheries. Mr 

 Alex. Wedderburn was, of all those on the list of managers, 

 the person who rose to the highest eminence. He was 

 eldest son of Peter Wedderburn, Esq. of Chester Hall (after- 

 wards a Lord of Session, as Lord Chesterhall), and was 

 called to the Scottish Bar when only nineteen years of 

 age. We have .seen that he presided at the first meeting 

 of the Select Society. The circumstances under which in 

 1757 he left Scotland are well known, and are fully detailed 

 in Lord Campbell's ' Lives of the Chancellors.' Lockhart,* 



* Afterwards Dean of Faculty and a judge under the title of Lord Covington. 



