Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lowe, Peter
LOWE, PETER (1550?–1612?), founder of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, was born about 1550. He styled himself ‘Arellian,’ which seems to point to Errol as his birthplace. The assumption that he was born in Glasgow rests chiefly on the fact that in later life he resided there. He left Scotland about 1565 and studied at Paris, where he became a master in the Faculty of Surgery. He says that he was in practice in France, Flanders, and elsewhere ‘the space of 22 yeeres: thereafter being chirurgian maior to the Spanish Regiments at Paris 2 yeeres;’ the Spanish regiments were at Paris in 1589–90. After this he says he followed ‘the French king my master in the warres 6 yeeres,’ but it seems from the French archives that he never was physician to Henri IV, and probably had an honorary appointment, which was not at the time uncommon. From the publication of his books it is clear that he was in London in 1596–7, and settled in Glasgow in 1598. On 17 March 1599 a contract between Lowe and the corporation of Glasgow was renewed, according to which Lowe undertook to attend the poor of the town, and received a salary of eighty marks a year. In 1598 he was twice ordered to stand in the ‘piller’ for ecclesiastical offences.
In the course of extensive practice in Glasgow Lowe noticed the want of a governing body of medical men such as existed at Paris, and brought the matter in a petition before the king. He appears to have acted as ‘chirurgiane’ to the king, and was described as ‘chief chirurgiane to’ Prince Henry, but he was not regularly appointed one of the royal physicians. The Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow was founded by charter dated 29 Nov. 1599, and by its terms Lowe was directed, with the assistance of Robert Hamilton, to supervise medicine and surgery in the west of Scotland, and also to regulate the sale of drugs. The faculty thus founded did not begin its labours until 3 June 1602, owing probably to Lowe's absence as medical attendant to the embassy of the Duke of Lennox to France in 1601. Subsequently Lowe was often quartermaster of the faculty, but never president. He probably died at the end of 1612 or beginning of 1613. The preface to the second edition of his ‘Chirurgerie’ is dated from his house in Glasgow 20 Dec. 1612. The theory that his death took place later rests on an entry in the ‘Index Muerius Chirurgorum Parisiensium,’ ‘M. Petrus Louvet Scotus … ob. 30 Jun. 1617.’ But this entry refers to another person. Lowe's widow remarried Walter Stirling, and had a son by her second husband on 11 Jan. 1614–15.
A fine portrait of Lowe is in possession of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons at Glasgow; it has been reproduced as a frontispiece to Dr. Finlayson's ‘Account.’ He married, before 1604, Helena Weymis, daughter of David Weymis, the first presbyterian minister in Glasgow after the Reformation. By her he had a son John, admitted a member of the faculty in 1636, but he was probably not a doctor. His son James, an Edinburgh lawyer, was similarly admitted in 1677.
Lowe wrote: # ‘An Easie, Certaine, and Perfect Method to Cure and Prevent the Spanish Sicknes,’ London, 1596, 4to. # ‘The Whole Covrse of Chirurgerie,’ London, 1597, 1612, 1634, 1654, 4to. With this was printed ‘The Presages of Hippocrates,’ translated for the first time from the French version by Canape (Lyons, 1552). To the ‘Chirurgerie’ are prefixed verses by Norden and Churchyard. Lowe also alludes to other works by him, ‘The Poore Mans Guide’ and a ‘Treatise on Parturition,’ which may have been published, and to ‘The Booke of the Plague,’ which was not published.
[Finlayson's Account of the Life and Works of Maister Peter Lowe; cf. Reg. Privy Council of Scotland, viii. 377.]