Dr John Davy Morries Stirling of Blackgrange

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(1810–21 October 1858) was a 19th-century Scottish physician, inventor and chemist. He discovered elatorin in 1833, and in 1846 took out a patent on "Stirling's toughened iron". In 1854 he was the first person to cast metal pipes (rather than roll them and weld them) much improving their integrity and lifespan.

Life

He was born John Davie Morries in 1810 the son of Jane Davie and Captain Andrew Morries (1779-1856) of the Royal Navy. In 1820 the family was living at 4 Ladyfield Place in Edinburgh. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, gaining his doctorate (MD) in 1831. In 1834 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

, his proposer being

Sir Robert Christison ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only ...

. In 1841 he became a member of the Highland Society. He was then living at 4 Ladyfield Place off Morrison Street in Edinburgh. He then practiced for some years in London plus a brief time in Norway. In 1854 he was living in Birmingham. He died on 21 October 1858, and is buried in the churchyard of

Logie Kirk Logie Kirk is an isolated but operational church east of Stirling in central Scotland serving Church of Scotland pastoral duties in the areas of Cambuskenneth, Bridge of Allan, Causewayhead (eastern Stirling), and formerly the estate of Airthrey C ...

east of Stirling. He is also memorialised on his parents grave in New Calton Burial Ground.

Family

On 7 May 1840 in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

he married the heiress Mary Wedderburn Stirling of Blackgrange (1814–1893), daughter of Patrick Stirling of Kippendavie near Dunblane. After their marriage he adopted the surname Stirling. They had one son, John M. Morries Stirling of Gogar and Blackgrange (b.1851 in Edinburgh, d.1912 in Nairn). In 1861 he is recorded as living in Headtown in Clackmannanshire.

References

1810 births 1858 deaths Scottish inventors Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh {{UK-engineer-stub