months, John Monro was involved in the arrangement that Charles Alston should become Professor of Materia Medica and that James Crawford should become Professor of Chemistry. These appointments and the lectures that resulted from them are regarded as the origin of the Edinburgh University medical school. The role played by powerful patrons such as Archibald Campbell, 1st Earl of Ilay (1682– 1761) and Lord Provost George Drummond (1688–1766) in these events, which remains the subject of controversy, has been explored at length by Emerson. Family, anatomy dynasty and death John Monro married twice. In 1694 he married his first cousin Jean Forbes, granddaughter of the first Duncan Forbes of Culloden. They had one son Alexander Monro primus (1697–1767). In turn his son, who would become Prof Alexander Monro secundus (1733–1817) also held the chair of Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh as did his son who would become Prof Alexander Monro tertius (1773–1859) Between them these 3 men occupied the chair of Anatomy for a total of 126 years, from 1720-1846. They were distant relatives of the 'Bedlam Monros' another dynasty, known for their treatment of insanity in London. Jean Monro died c 1710. In August 1721 John Monro married Margaret Main (née Crichton) and she outlived him. In later years he lived at Carolside near Earlston in Berwickshire, where he died in 1740. Further reading Morrell,J. The Edinburgh town council and its university, 1717–1766 in Anderson R. Simpson A. (eds) The early years of the Edinburgh medical school,Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Museum, 1976 Alison M. Stevenson, ‘Monro, John (bap. 1670, d. 1740)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 23 Sept 2017 Wright-St Clair R.E. Doctors Monro.London, Wellcome,1964. References 1670 births 1740 deaths Scottish surgeons Leiden University alumni British Army regimental surgeons 17th-century Scottish medical doctors 18th-century Scottish medical doctors Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh