Wedderburn book > History

SIR JOHN OF GOSFORD. 135
(Bl. 81 ut sup.). He now had evidently considerable influence at Court. There Part n -
is at Pitfirrane a letter to him from the Marquis of Argyle, then in prison and ctla,p - m -
condemned to death, which is dated from Edinburgh 11 May 1661., fifteen days
before Argyle's execution, and is as follows : —
Goad Maister
Your nephew S r Peter is going to London I am confident he can doe very much if he pleas
in relation to my business for if his Ma ties prejudice wer laid asyd my accusations otherways are
the common failing of the nation which I doe not excoose but desyre to shelter my self under his
Ma s gratious and naturall inclination to clemeueie [with] which he has covered every subject in
all his Ma s dominions except a few Murderers of his Royal father therfor I expect so much of
your favour and kyndness at this tym as to recieve information from my sonnes and to let your .
Nephew know how much his kyndness to me may oblige you and tho I be not abll (sic) to requyt
your kyndness yit I still rest confident of your favor upon ane mor reall and antient accompt being
Your old pupil and most humbll
Servant Argyll.
Below the signature Sir John has written the reason why he could do nothing,
thus : —
Powerful order was sent before I recieved this and before my Nephew arriving, so that I
could not meddle.
The following letter, addressed by the Earl of Southesk " ffor my right
loveing and much honoured Cusin 1 Doctor Wedderburn Phisician at London," is
also at Pitfirrane : —
Right loveing and much honoured Cusin, Our Merchands trade pntlie at London is so small
that I have had difficulties eneugh to get exchange for these monneyes my sonne took up be yor
assistance at London before he parted from you. I have lately agreid with ane very honest
Merchand in yis Towne Hew Hamiltoun who has undertaken to pay at London these sex huudreth
twenty foure Pounds Englishe money before the first of September to any you shall direct him that
will delyver back to him my sonnes band of the lyke soume for I know not from whom my sonne
borrowed the monneys. Therefore I intreat you to let me or your Nephew Petter know be yo r
L re the Gentleman's Name that lent my sonne these moneyes. You have been put to greater
feshrie and paynes be me and my sonne then we will ever be able to acquit albeit I may confidentlie
promise that I shall ever be willing and readdy at all occasions to approve myself
Yo r most affectionate and most obliged
Cusin to serve you Southesk.
Edinb. 17 July in hast [no year given].
His eminence as a physician is testified by various references to him by his
contemporaries. Thus, in the Diary of Alexander and James Brodie of Brodie,
1652-85 (Aberdeen, ed. Spalding Club 1863, p. 210) is an entry 27-31 Aug. 1661,
in which Brodie, writing in London, says, " I had a fit of sickness . . . sent for
Dr. Wedderburn ... as it were by a miracle I was healed." Perhaps disease and
remedy were equally simple. 2 So again he is eulogized, both for his skill and his
character, by the famous Jeremy Taylor, who, in a postscript to a discourse on
friendship addressed to Mrs. Katharine Phipps (Collection of Polemical Discourses,
folio, London, 1676), says : —
Madam, If you shall think fit that these papers pass further than your own eye and closet I
desire that they may be consigned into the hands of my worthy friend D 1 ' Wedderburne ; for I do
not only expose all my sicknesses to his cure, but I submit my weaknesses to his censure ; being
as confident to find of him charity for what is pardonable, as remedy for what is curable. But
indeed, madam, I look upon that worthy man as an Idea of Friendship, and if I had no other
notices of friendship or conversation to instruct me than his, it were sufficient. For whatsoever
I can say of friendship I can say of his and as all that know him reckon him among the best
physicians, so I know him worthy to be reckoned among the best friends.
Sir John acquired considerable wealth, and having no children, for he never
married, benefited by his fortune his two nephews, sons of his brother James,
viz., Sir Alexander Wedderburn of Blackness, the famous clerk of Dundee, and
Sir Peter Wedderburn, one of the senators of the College of Justice, under the
title of Lord Gosford. It was largely thus that Sir Alexander was able to purchase
Blackness, and Sir Peter (in 1659) the estate of Gosford in the parish of Aberlady,
1 I do not know how they were related, and perhaps " Cusin " is only a complimentary term.
2 Doctor Wedderbourne is named as subscribing from London, April 1661, to the Marischal College,
Aberdeen (Records of the Marischal College, &c, ed. P. J. Anderson, 1889. New Spalding Club
Public, p. 304).
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