Andrew Sinclair (c1698-1760)

Andrew Sinclair (c1698-1760) was Professor of Institutes of Medicine at Edinburgh University from 1726 to 1747.

On 9 February 1726, the Town Council of Edinburgh issued an Act which is effectively the foundational charter of the Faculty of Medicine. It appointed two Professors of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and two Professors of Medicine and Chemistry, and granted Edinburgh University the right not only to teach medicine 'in all its branches' but to examine students and confer degrees in medicine. In October 1726, a meeting of the Senatus Academicus formally recognized the four newly created Chairs as constituting a Faculty of Medicine along with the Chair of Anatomy. Sinclair was named as one of the two 'Professors of the Theory and Practice of Medicine' and took Institutes of Theory of Medicine as his domain. He was forced to retire early on health grounds and was succeeded by Robert Whytt (1714-1766) in 1747.