The P⸺s.
This ancient and truly amiable family were long resident in the county of Fife. D. P. the brother of Dr. W. P. and father of Dr. D. was a Minister of the Church of Scotland, and for more than fifty years presided over the Church of Dysart, where he was a most exemplary parish priest, and universally beloved, for he was indeed the father of his flock.
His original destination was the profession of medicine, and he had visited foreign countries with such intention; but he afterwards went into the church, and officiated among his parishioners both as pastor and physician. He was a man of extraordinary abilities, possessed much wit and humour, and was indeed remarkable for the variety of his talents. He had a very fine person, and the most agreeable and amiable manners.
One of his brothers went into the army. Poor Major P.! he lost his life at the age of fifty-two, at the unfortunate battle of Bunker’s Hill, where he commanded the corps of marines. When he fell, every man of those whom he commanded cried out, “We have lost our father!” He was carried off the field on the shoulders of his son.
His next brother, Dr. W. P. was, as is well known, very high in the profession of physic. Perhaps it may be asserted without fear of dispute or contradiction, that a more excellent and benevolent character never existed. On the melancholy death of his brother, the Major, he instantly became the father of his children: notus in fratrem animi paterni.—He was, in every respect, their protector, their guardian, and their friend.
The fate of the Major’s family was somewhat singular. Mrs. P. the mother of Dr. David P. lived to a very advanced age, and survived five sons. Of these, four reached manhood, and all obtained credit in their several professions.
One of them was in the navy, and Lieutenant of the Aurora frigate, which was lost in her passage to the East Indies, having on board many distinguished personages, and among them the Judges, Mr. Vansittart, Mr. Scroften, &c. Two more were in the army, both of whom certainly died in consequence of fatigues and hardships suffered in America.
Of Dr. D. P. a great deal more is to be said.
D. P. was the eldest son of Major P. and was brought up in the High School, at Edinburgh, whither his mother removed after the death of her husband. He there got great credit; and Mr. French, the master under whose instruction he went through the first four classes, ever retained the sincerest attachment to him. When he left school, he removed to the University of Glasgow, where he continued for a number of years. From Glasgow he again revisited Edinburgh, where, for some time, he attended lectures. From Edinburgh he proceeded to Cambridge, and was a member of Benet College. On taking his degree, he went to London, and became an inmate in the house of his uncle, Dr. W. P. After the death of his protector, he progressively rose to the eminence and fortune which his abilities deserved, and which, from a very early period, they promised. Unfortunately, and at the very period when his practice was almost as extensive as it well could be, he ruptured a blood vessel in the lungs, and, for the benefit of a milder climate, proceeded to Lisbon. Here he continued for two years, but, though he returned convalescent, he deemed it expedient and necessary to circumscribe his practice, and, indeed, almost altogether to limit it to the families of his older friends and connections, which alone were sufficiently numerous. The reputation, however, which he universally obtained for sagacity and sound judgment, compelled him, in a manner, gradually to extend his circle, when, alas! his career was lamentably shortened. He was constitutionally subject to sore throat, and generally slept with leeches by his side, to be ready to apply in case of any unfavourable symptoms. But, at a moment when his friends and he himself thought his health effectually restored, and he was again rising fast to the very head of his profession, he complained of a soreness in his throat. He thought very slightly of it at first, but, though attended by Dr. Baillie and Sir Everard Home, both of whom were attached to him by the strongest possible ties of esteem and friendship, in three days he was a corpse.
There seems to have been some misapprehension of his case; and perhaps his own suggestion on the subject of his malady, written by himself with a pencil, when he was unable to speak, might not receive the attention it deserved. Be this as it may, nothing could exceed the grief of those who attended him, at the loss of one who, for a long series of years, had been their counsellor, their companion, and their friend.
What opinion his medical friends entertained of his professional skill, may best be seen by the tribute of esteem and respect paid to his memory by Dr. William Heberden, in one of the best Harveian orations ever delivered at the College.
In one year the world was deprived of the skill and sagacity of Dr. John Hunter and Dr. David Pitcairn, which Dr. Heberden thus emphatically deplores:
“Quibus autem lamentis, quo luctu Te Huntere, et te Pitcairne prosequemur? quos vigentes adhuc mors occupavit, atque ambos unus annus nobis eripuit? Cognitione, prudentia, moderatione animi prope æquales fuerunt. Fama quoque utrique par, sed alia alii. Alter militiæ, domi alter clarus factus est.
“Quod si Hunterus in castris et infamibus Indiæ Occidentalis locis, magna medendi diligentia celebritatem consecutus sit, non minus Pitcairnus de patria bene meritus est, qui Valetudinario Sancti Bartolomæi plures annos singulari laude præfuit: in quo pauperes pene innumerabiles cura sublevavit, multosque discipulos præceptis ex re natis, ad medicinam faciendam optimè instituit. Nam fuit in illo gravitas et autoritas quanta magistrum decet, simul gratia et probitas quibus discentium animos mire ad se allexit.
“Postea relictis publicis muneribus cum ad privata totum se converterat, inter summi ordinis ægros occupatissimus vixit, donec adversa valetudo ut sibi caveret, monuisset. Tum sine mora Ulyssiponem se subduxit, ubi otium perinde ac salutem reciperet. Inde ut rediit, paucos modo curare constituit, neque ut antea, mediis negotiorum fluctibus se implicari sivit. Medicinam tamen adhuc exercebat, crescente etiam ætate vegetior factus, cum hominem temperantem, summum medicum, tantus improviso morbus oppresserit, ut præclusis inflammatione et tumore faucibus, vix diem unum atque alterum superesset Lugeamus amici sortem humanam! lugeamus socios amissos! vel potius eorum sic meminerimus ut quotiescumque de clarissimis et beatissimis viris cogitemus, nosmetipsos ad virtutem accendere, et ad omnem fortunam paratiores præstare videamur.”
There could not possibly be given a more accurate, or more faithful portraiture of the man, than is exhibited in the above truly classical extract: of his professional knowledge, skill, and sagacity, it cannot, therefore, be necessary to add a syllable.
But be it permitted to one of those who knew him in the recesses of private life, with no ordinary intimacy, for almost forty years, to add yet a few sentences more. If he had not been precisely the character he was, he would not have resembled those from whom he descended. He was of the same family as the celebrated Dr. Archibald Pitcairn, the wit, the scholar, and the poet. Perhaps he never wrote any thing with the view of publication; but he very easily might, for his knowledge was extensive, his discernment acute, his judgment profound. He employed every leisure hour in reading, and was more particularly fond of voyages and travels. He was familiarly acquainted with the modern languages, but these, with numerous other endowments, entitled him merely to respect and esteem; but all who knew him intimately, and enjoyed the benefit and happiness of his friendship, loved him with no common affection. More particularly did he merit the application of the motto applied to the picture of his uncle, Dr. William Pitcairn; for a more generous, affectionate, kind-hearted brother never existed: truly might he be said to be “notus in fratres et sorores animi paterni.” He was occasionally warm in his temper; but in domestic society, gentle, amiable, facetious, and very much enjoying conversations in which wit, humour, and vivacity predominated.
In the most disinterested manner, and with the greatest promptitude, he attended his more intimate friends, their children, and children’s children.
Nor was he always contented with thus benevolently giving them his valuable time; in matters of particular urgency and exigence, his purse was equally at their service. Indeed, his generosity and kindness to those whom he knew, or thought, to be in need of his assistance, rendered his fortune far less considerable, than his very extensive and successful practice, might be presumed to have accumulated.
Farewell, Pitcairn! May the turf lie lightly on your ashes. This tribute is not paid without great mental emotion in the writer, arising from the combined feelings of sorrow, affection, esteem and gratitude.
Και τουτο γουν σοι προσφερω πανυστατως
Ηδη προσεγγισασ’ αθταις ᾳδου πυλαις.
O Demea isthuc est sapere, non quod ante pedes modo est videre, sed etiam illa quæ futura sunt, prospicere.