Author: Ainslie, Whitelaw
Biography:
AINSLIE, Whitelaw (1767-1837: ODNB)
pseudonym Caledonnicus
Physician and poet. Best known for his Materia Medica of Hindustan (1813; enlarged and published as Materia Indica in 1826), Ainslie was born on 17 Feb. 1767 (baptised 7 Mar.) at Duns, Berwickshire, to Robert Ainslie, a factor to Lord Douglas, and Catherine Whitelaw (or Whitlaw). His elder brother, Robert (1766-1838: ODNB), was a writer to the signet (solicitor) and a friend of Robert Burns (q.v.). Ainslie trained as a surgeon and, in that capacity, he was sent to Chingleput by the East India Company in 1788. On 15 Aug. 1799 at Madras, he married Janet Mary Cunninghame (called Mary), a daughter of Col. James Cunninghame (and likely a cousin of Ainslie’s through his mother). They had one child, a daughter. He returned to England in 1815 and devoted himself to writing. With the publication of his magisterial study of Indian medicine, he was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1829 and knighted by King William IV in 1835. Ainslie died at Queen Ann Street, Marylebone, London, on 29 April 1837 but he and his wife (d 1840) are buried in a cemetery at Aberdeen. His will left his own assets in "Russian funds" and an inheritance from his sister Rachel to his wife and daughter. (ODNB; ancestry.co.uk 30 Jan. 2018, 28 Jan. 2025) SR
Other Names:
- Sir Whitelaw Ainslie