Alexander Pennycuik

According to Gairdner, around 20 of the first 150 members of the Incorporation were from landed families, many of whom took their name from the family estate. Alexander Pennycuik was one such. Like many Scots of the time he joined the Standard of Gustavus Adolphus and his daughter Queen Christina, in the Thirty Years' War and went on to fight in the English Civil War. Surviving both these conflicts he lived for a remarkable 90 years. His son, in a fond posthumous tribute described him as “ The oldest Aesculapian of his age…who flattered not the rich nor scourged the poor”. He went on:

“From old forebears much worth he did inherit
A gentleman by birth but more by merit”

Alexander Pennycuik was a member of the family, which had owned the estate of Penicuik, just south of Edinburgh. He was left the estate of Romanno, north of Peebles. In 1647 he sold the family estate of Penicuik and bought that of New Hall on the southern borders of Midlothian and in the College records is often referred to as Alexander Pennycuik of New Hall.

Like many Scots he felt drawn to serve in the Thirty Years War. He was surgeon to General Banner, who led one of the armies of Queen Christina, the Daughter of Gustavus Adolphus. He was admitted to the Incorporation of Surgeons and Barbers in 1640 in consideration of his "literature and qualifications" and on the payment of the sum of £200 Scots.

He saw further military service as a Surgeon General of the Scots forces in Ireland during the English Civil War. His loyalty to the Crown over this period resulted in the loss of his land, which was plundered by the Parliamentarian Army. Well after the war in 1663 he petitioned Parliament for the balance due to him for services as a military surgeon.

For all his involvement in conflict, he went on to live to about 90. His son Alexander achieved some fame as a poet and naturalist and his estate of New Hall became famous as the scene of the "Gentle Shepherd", Alan Ramsey's celebrated pastoral poem.