Robert Spotswood (1637 - 1688)

Born 17 Sep 1637 in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland

Ancestors

Husband of Catharine (Maxwell) Spotswoode — married 22 Feb 1670 in Tangier, Morocco

Descendants

Died 1688 at about age 50 in Tangier, Morocco

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Magna Carta Surety Baron Descendant (see text). Join: Magna Carta Project Discuss: magna_carta

Robert Spotswood is in trails badged by the Magna Carta Project to several surety barons (see text below).

Biography

Robert was born 17 September 1637, the third son and heir of Robert Spottiswoode, Knt, and Bethia Morrison.^[1][2]

He was appointed by King Charles II to the position of physician to the governor and garrison of Tangier, and traveled to his new post in company with the earl of Middleton, Tangier's new governor.^[3][4][5]

Marriage and Children

Dr. Robert Spottiswoode married at Tangier 22 February 1670 Katherine, the widow of Dr. George Elliot, the garrison's previous physician.^[2][3][5] There was one child from this marriage:

• Alexander Spotswood; b. 1676;^[6][3] m. 11 Mar 1724 Butler Brayne;^[6][5] d. 7 Jun 1740^[6][7]

Not much is known of Robert's life during his posting in Tangiers but he appears to have had a successful medical practice, and pursued as an avocation the collection and identification of local medicinal plants. In 1673 he published a work on "Plants within the Fortifications of Tangiers."^[8][9]

Death

Dr. Robert Spottiswoode died in Tangiers in 1688.^{[10][3][5][11]} (see Research Notes)

His widow married (third) George Mercer, the schoolmaster at Tangier. She eventually moved to Middlesex, England and then to Waterford, Ireland where she died shortly before 14 March 1709/10.^[2]

Research Notes

Date of Death

Douglas Richardson gives Robert's date of death, apparently in error, as 1680 and states that his widow remarried for a third time before 15 October 1683, without providing any sources for either of these dates.^[2] The Army Lists and Commision Registers indicates that Robert actually died in 1688,^[10] and that is the date used for this profile. Stevens-17832 22:14, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

Sources

1. ↑ Alexander Spotswood Papers. 1646: Sir Robert Spotiswoode to his children, with a list of their births (written on the eve of his execution),folder 4, no. MS48.02.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham. (Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2013), vol.5, p. 4, SPOTSWOOD 19. Robert Spottiswoode.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} Campbell, Charles, Genealogy of the Spotswood Family in Scotland and Virginia. Albany: J. Munsell (1868), pp. 11-13.
4. ↑ Lawson, John Parker. The Episcopal Church of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution. Edinburgh: Gallie (1844), p. 610.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3} Kennedy, Mary Selden. Seldens of Virginia and Allied Families. New York: Frank Allaben Genealogical Co. (1911), vol. 2, p. 101.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2} Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham. (Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2013), vol.5, pp. 4-5, SPOTSWOOD 20. [Major-General] Alexander Spotswood.
7. ↑ Doyle, John Andrew. Spottiswood, Alexander. Dictionary of National Biography online edition (29 Dec 2020).
8. ↑ Brock, R.A. Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood. Richmond, VA: Virginia Historical Society (1882), p. viii.
9. ↑ Spottswood, Robert. "A catalogue of plants growing within the fortifications of Tangier, written in the Year 1673 by Mr. Spottswood (a surgeon, who lived there, and gathered plants and seeds for Mr. Balaam and Dr. Morison) which by the author was given to Dr. Love Morley, who communicated it." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. (May, 1996), vol. 19, issue 220.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Dalton, Charles (ed). English Army Lists & Commission Registers. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode (1892), vol. 1, p. 195
11. ↑ Morgan, Gwenda. Spotswood [Spottiswoode], Alexander (1676-1740). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edition (23 Sep 2004), available here by subscription.

See Also:

• Cappon, Lester (ed). Correspondence of Alexander Spotswood with John Spotswood of Edinburgh. Virginia Magazine of History & Biography, 60, 2 (1952), pp, 211-240.

• The Spottiswoode Miscellany. Edinburgh: printed for the Spottiswoode Society (1844), pp. 187-188.

• Von Arni, Eric Gruber. Hospital Care and the British Standing Army 1660-1714. England: Ashgate Publishing Limited (2006), p. 26.

• Virginia Magazine of History & Biography. 18 (1910), pp. 194-195;

• Wikipedia entry for Alexander Spotswood

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

This profile was re-reviewed for the Magna Carta Project by Jen Hutton on 2 April 2023.

Robert Spotswood appears in project-approved/badged trails from Gateway Ancestor Alexander Spotswood to Magna Carta Surety Barons Gilbert de Clare, Richard de Clare, Hugh le Bigod, Roger le Bigod, Saher de Quincy, and Robert de Vere. Each of these trails can be viewed in the Magna Carta Trails section of the Gateway's profile.

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".