David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ The college employed him in 1618 to write the dedicatory epistle to the King, which was prefixed to the first Pharmacopoeia. The Queen died in 1619, and De Mayerne became first physician to the King; on 13th September his own annuity was fixed at £600, besides £75 for house rent, and £300 a-year to his wife for twenty-one years after his death. In this year his father, a steadfast Protestant, who had obtained celebrity as a political and historical writer, died in Paris. Dr. De Mayerne was now joined by his mother, who spent the rest of her life in England. ”

“ Theodore Turquet de Mayerne received his early education in Geneva, and then studied at Heidelberg. He chose the medical profession, for which he was educated at Montpellier, where he took his Bachelor’s degree (M.B.) in 1596, and the degree of M.D. in 1597. He is said to have come to Paris immediately thereafter. Certainly he obtained eminence in that metropolis at an early date as a physician and a lecturer. He was an accomplished chemist ”

“ The youngest daughter, Adriana, was Sir Theodore’s only surviving child and heiress. She and her mother, Isabella de Mayerne, were appointed his executrixes, his nephew, John Colladon, M.D , being assured of the testator’s “confidence of his affection, assistance, and fidelity to my wife and daughter after my decease.” ”

“ His wife had been provided for by the marriage settlement, as to which the will says:— “whereas by virtue of an agreement between me and my beloved wife, upon contract of marriage, there are many conditions I am engaged to keep and observe, it is my will and pleasure that all the said conditions in the said agreement, by me made and assented unto under my hand and seal, be to her inviolably kept and observed ”

“ Sir Theodore was the greatest chemist in his generation, and a discoverer and patentee in the departments of distillation, artists’ colours, &c. On 24th March 1636 (n.s.) , there was a grant of a patent to Sir Theodore De Mayerne and Dr. ”