23. _Robert Hamilton_, M.D. F.R.S. and F.R.C.P. Edinb. was another of the former inhabitants of Lynn who deserved well of his fellow townsmen and of the public at large. He was born at Edinburgh Dec. 17. 1721; and was a younger son of James Hamilton, who was bred to the law, and was at one time deputy keeper of Holyrood-House, under James Duke of Hamilton, its hereditary keeper. He was educated at the High School in his native city, and was there at the time of the memorable affair of captain Porteus. When of a proper age he was placed with a surgeon and apothecary at Leith, where he remained three years. After having attended the lectures of different professors at the university, upon the materia medica, pharmacy, botany, anatomy, surgery, &c. he was at length obliged to quit these studies, and procured a birth on board the Somerset man of war in 1741, having previously undergone the usual examination at Surgeon’s Hall, London. He continued in that line, or as a navy-surgeon, for about seven years, when the peace of Aix-la-chapelle put him out of employment. He came to Lynn in 1748, to see a brother who was married here and settled as a merchant; and having heard of, and engaged a situation at the neighbouring village of Great Massingham, where there was a vacancy for a surgeon and apothecary, he settled there in August that same year, but continued there only till October 1749, when he removed and settled at Lynn: and not long after he married a Miss Hawkins, the sister of his brother’s wife. He now went into business, in partnership with Mr. Young, a grandson of Dr. Hepburn. A vacancy for a physician happening here in 1765 by the death of Dr. Lidderdale, he was advised to procure a doctors degree, in order to become his successor, which advice he at length complied with, and in May 1766 received that honour from St. Andrew’s, the diploma being signed by no less than ten professors.—Not long after he relinquished the practice of pharmacy, and pursued those of physic and midwifery, which he followed the remainder of his life, with considerable applause, and general approbation. He died Nov. 9. 1793, and was buried in St. Nicholas’ chapel, regretted by a large portion of the community. {1081} * * * * * Before we entirely close this part of the work, and proceed to the _conclusion_, or to give a _view of the present state of the town_, it may not be improper here, by way of _Postscript_, to rectify some slight mistakes, and to supply certain omissions that have been discovered in different parts of the preceding sections, since the sheets have been printed off.