Letter 2327

Blair acknowledges how much Sloane has done for him and laments that he must ask for another favour. He has an opportunity to ‘settle at Newcastle’ and needs money to begin a life there. He thanks Sloane for helping him when he was sick and during his troubles in Scotland. Patrick Blair was a botanist and surgeon whose papers were published in the Transactions. In 1715 Blair joined the Jacobite rebellion as a battle surgeon but was captured and condemned to death. He was visited by Sloane in prison in the hopes the latter might secure a pardon. Sloane was successful and the pardon arrived shortly before Blair’s scheduled execution (Anita Guerrini, Blair, Patrick (c.16801728), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2568, accessed 31 May 2011]).