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XXVI.—Memoir of General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, G.C.B., &e., 
President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. By ALEXANDER Bryson, Esq., 
P.R.S.S.A. 
(Read 4th Jannary 1861.) 
Sir Toomas BrisBANE was born at Brisbane House, Largs, on the 23d July 
1773. He was descended from the Brisbanes of Bishopton, one of whom, according 
to Hailes, “held the office of Chancellor of the kingdom of Scotland in 1332.” 
They possessed a large tract of country, extending from Erskine Ferry to Largs; 
and had this estate been still in their possession (consisting, as it did then, of 
Bishopton, Greenock, Ardgowan, Skelmorlie, Largs, and Brisbane), its revenues 
would have been princely ; but Sir Tuomas only inherited the smaller portion of 
the possessions of his ancestors, Largs and Brisbane. 
The father of Sir THomas served under the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden 
in the rank of a Captain, as Aide-de-camp to the Earl of Home, along with the 
Duke of Argyll. He died in 1812 at the age of 92, distinguished not less by his — 
bravery than by his scholarship. It is worthy of remark, that the father of our 
late president and the grandfather of the distinguished nobleman who now 
occupies the chair were at the same battle, and of equal military rank in 1746. 
Sir Toomas’s mother was a daughter of Sir Wint1am Bruce, Baronet, of Sten- 
house, and was thus a descendant in a direct line from RosBert the Bruce. 
In youth, Sir Tuomas was educated under tutors at home, and then at the 
University of Edinburgh, from whence he went to an academy at Kensington, 
where, in mathematics and astronomy, he maintained a high position. Sir THomas 
entered the army as an ensign in the 38th infantry in 1789, although his 
commission is dated in 1782 (a practice common at that time), he being then 
only in his ninth year. He was thus at his death the oldest officer in the British 
army, having held his commission for seventy-eight years, and been in actual 
service for seventy-one. In 1790, he joined the 38th Regiment in Ireland, where 
he formed an intimate acquaintance with the future Duke of Wellington, then a 
lieutenant in a regiment of cavalry. Both of the young heroes were at this 
period distinguished only by their love of field sports. 
When the war broke out in 1793, Sir THomas raised an independent company 
in Glasgow, and joined the 53d Regiment, then quartered in Edinburgh. The 
53d formed part of the army of the Duke of York, and served in Holland under 
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