[1][a] Duncan Napier was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1831, the illegitimate son of a widow who gave him up for adoption soon after his birth.

Recent research into parish records and census returns has identified his mother as Helen Alexander (née Paterson), who owned a grocer's shop in Home Street, in the Tollcross district of Edinburgh.

He was physically abused by his adoptive mother, who was a heavy drinker and who probably resented the boy's presence in a household that already supported three young children.

[4] One of the customers at the Crown Inn was a farm worker named Andrew Nelson who worked for Sir George Clerk of Penicuik.

[5] In 1846, Napier became apprenticed to a Mr Binnie, a baker in Coltbridge (then a small village on the western outskirts of Edinburgh), at a salary of "three pounds per annum and a pair of shoes".

It was on this early-morning bread round that he made the acquaintance of one of the customers, a Mr John Hope, a wealthy lawyer and noted philanthropist.

A deeply religious man, Hope campaigned for education and total abstinence from alcohol among the poor of Edinburgh.

In 1854 at the age of 23, Napier proposed marriage to Joan McKay, a 20-year old lady whom he had known in Coltbridge but who now lived in the west of Scotland.

Napier had suffered from a chronic cough for many years, possibly from breathing flour dust in the bakery where he worked.

[11] Encouraged by this success, he bought more medical and herbal textbooks, and experimented with various herbs, many of which he collected himself from sites around Edinburgh.

One evening, while foraging near Craigmillar Castle, he got into a long conversation with a Mr. Haiskey, an Edinburgh herbalist of Polish extraction.

Although still working as a baker, he was spending an increasing amount of time in treating sick people with his herbal remedies.

He worked very long hours, often rising before dawn to collect herbs and plants, returning in time to open the shop.

[14] Its aims are to champion herbal medicine, promote the expertise of its members, safeguard the public and maintain standards.

[c] His refusal to have his own children vaccinated led to his being prosecuted several times by Edinburgh's Medical Officer of Health, Henry Littlejohn.

[21] When Duncan Jnr joined the army to fight in World War I, his place in the shop was taken by his brother Walter (born 1872).

Like his father and grandfather, John was a qualified herbalist, having served an apprenticeship as a chemist and obtained a qualification from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Edinburgh.

[24] It was then acquired by Jan de Vries, a Dutch naturopath who owned a chain of health food shops that still bears his name.