William Borthwick (surgeon)

[2] On 16 June 1679, Borthwick was commissioned as "Chirurgeon Major of His Majesty's Forces in Scotland" and he was listed as surgeon to the 21st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots Fusiliers) in 1682.

[4] In 1677, he was appointed with Robert Sibbald, Andrew Balfour and Archibald Stevenson, (all of whom were to be made Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh when it was founded in 1681), to be ‘visitors’ of the ‘phisicall gardin’.

Some 300 years later it was bought by Sir Henry Wade who left it in Trust to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

In addition to his property at Pilmuir, Borthwick owned a stone house in Edinburgh which had a dining room, "four bedchambers a dark closet and a kitchen", which had cost 6600 merks Scots (£330 sterling).

Monro returned to Scotland, inspired and determined to set up a medical school in Edinburgh based on the Leiden model.