Alexander Pennecuik M.D. (1652–1722) was a Scottish physician and poet.
Life
He was the eldest son of
Alexander Pennecuik of Newhall, Edinburgh, who had been a surgeon under
Johan Banér
Johan Banér (23 June 1596 – 10 May 1641) was a Swedish field marshal in the Thirty Years' War.
Early life
Johan Banér was born at Djursholm Castle in Uppland. As a four-year-old he was forced to witness how his father, the Privy Councillo ...
in the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...
, and afterwards in the Scottish army of the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...
in England. After foreign travel, he cared for his father, who lived to age 90.
Pennecuik was in practice as a physician in
Tweeddale
Tweeddale (Scottish Gaelic: ''Srath Thuaidh/Tuaidhdail'') is a committee area and lieutenancy area in the Scottish Borders council area in south-eastern Scotland. It had also been a province in the Middle Ages. From 1975 to 1996 it was a local ...
, and on good terms with a number of Scottish men of letters. In 1702 his elder daughter married, and Pennecuik gave with her the estate of Newhall. Her husband, however, got into debt, and in 1703 Newhall was sold to Sir David Forbes, father to John Forbes, Pennecuik's friend and
Allan Ramsay's patron. Pennecuik lived at Romanno until his death in 1722. He was buried in the churchyard at Newlands, by his father's side.
Works
Pennecuik published poetical pieces:
* ''Caledonia Triumphans'', broadside, 1699, reprinted in
David Laing's ''Various Pieces of Fugitive Scotch Poetry'', 1823.
* ''A Panegyric to the King'', broadside, 1699.
* ''The Tragedy of Graybeard'', 1700.
* ''Lintoun Address to his Highness the Prince of Orange'', broadside, 1714; this piece was first printed in the first part of
James Watson's ''Choice Collection of Scots Songs'', 1706.
At the request of
Sir Robert Sibbald, who was writing about the counties of Scotland, Pennecuik wrote a description of Tweeddale with his friend the advocate John Forbes of Newhall; it appeared as ''A Geographical, Historical Description of the Shire of Tweeddale, with a Miscellany and curious Collection of Select Scottish Poems'' (1715). Pennecuik corresponded with the botanist
James Sutherland. Pennecuik's works were reprinted at Edinburgh in 1762, as ''A Collection of curious Scots Poems … by Alexander Pennecuik''; at Leith in 1815, with notes; and again at Edinburgh in 1875. The poems are sometimes in
Scottish dialect
Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...
.
He has been confused with another Alexander Pennecuik (died 1730), said to be his nephew, a writer of verse.
Notes
Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pennecuik, Alexander
1652 births
1722 deaths
17th-century Scottish medical doctors
Scottish poets