James Laidlaw Maxwell

Maxwell studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, completing his degree in 1858 with the thesis The Chemistry and Physiology of the Spleen.

[2] First his mission centred in the then-capital Taiwan Fu (now Tainan City); in 1868 he moved near Cijin (now part of Kaohsiung) where his work, both medical and missionary, became more welcomed.

In early 1872 he advised Canadian Presbyterian missionary pioneer George Leslie Mackay to start his work in northern Taiwan, near Tamsui.

He married Mary Anne Goodall (died January 1918) of Handsworth on 7 April 1868 in Hong Kong.

They had two sons, John Preston and James Laidlaw Maxwell Jr., both of whom later also became medical missionaries.