[Gent. Mag. xlii. 310, 311, and 292, 293, 296, 392, 434-6, xxxviii. 274, xl. 344, vol. lix. pt. ii. p. 866; Grenville Papers, iv. 539-43; Walpole's Letters, v. 393-6; Anderson's Scottish Nation.]
FORDYCE, DAVID (1711–1751), professor at Aberdeen, born at Broadford, near Aberdeen, and baptised 1 April 1711, was the second son of George Fordyce of Broadford, provost of Aberdeen. After attending Aberdeen grammar school he was entered of Marischal College in 1724, where he went through a course of philosophy under Professor Daniel Garden, and of mathematics under Mr. John Stewart. He took his M.A. degree in 1728. Being intended for the church he next studied divinity under Professor James Chalmers, and obtained in due time license as a preacher, though he never received a call. In 1742 he was appointed professor of moral philosophy in Marischal College. By Dodsley he was employed to write the article 'Moral Philosophy' for the 'Modern Preceptor,' which was afterwards published separately as 'The Elements of Moral Philosophy,' 12mo, London, 1754. It reached a fourth edition in 1769, and was translated into German, 8vo, Zurich, 1757. Previously to this Fordyce had attracted some notice by his anonymous 'Dialogues concerning Education,' 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1745-8. In 1750 he made a tour through France, Italy, and other countries, and was returning home in September 1751 when he lost his life in a storm off the coast of Holland. His premature end is noticed by his brother, Dr. James Fordyce [q. v.], in one of his 'Addresses to the Deity,' and a bombastic epitaph from the same pen will be found in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for 1796 (vol. lxvi. pt. ii. pp. 1052–1053). Fordyce's posthumous works are:
- 'Theodoras: a Dialogue concerning the art of Preaching,' 12mo, London, 1752, which was often reprinted, along with James Fordyce's ' Sermon on the Eloquence, and an Essay on the Action of the Pulpit.'
- ' The Temple of Virtue. A Dream [by D. Fordyce]. Published [with some additions] by James Fordyce,' 16mo, London, 1757 (other editions in 1759 and 1775).
[Chalmers's Biog. Dict. 1814, xiv. 468-70; Chambers's Eminent Scotsmen, ii. 54-5; Irving's Book of Scotsmen, p. 149; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
FORDYCE, GEORGE (1736–1802), physician, born at Aberdeen on 18 Nov. 1736, was the only and posthumous son of George Fordyce of Broadford, a small property near that city. His father was one of a family of twenty children, several of whom became well known, e.g. David, the professor of philosophy [q. v.]; James, the divine [q. v.]; Sir William, the physician [q. v.]; and John, also a physician. George Fordyce was sent to school at Fouran, and afterwards to the university of Aberdeen, where he became M.A. at the age, it is said, of fourteen. A year later he was sent to his uncle, Dr. John Fordyce of Uppingham, to prepare for the medical profession, and, after spending four years with him, entered as a medical student in the university of Edinburgh. Here he became a favourite pupil of Cullen, from whom he imbibed a fondness for chemistry and materia medica, as well as an insight into practical medicine. He graduated M.D. in October 1758 with a dissertation 'De Catarrho,' which shows considerable knowledge of chemistry and contains results which the author thought worth quoting in his public lectures thirty years later. Immediately afterwards he came to London, but in 1759 passed over to Leyden, where he studied anatomy under Albinus. Returning to London in the same year he resolved to settle there as a lecturer on medical science, a career which was at that time, owing to the absence of regular medical schools, a comparatively open oneBefore the end of the year he had commenced a course of lectures on chemistry, and in 1764 added courses on materia medica and the practice of physic. These subjects he continued to teach for nearly thirty years, lecturing on the three in succession from seven to ten on six mornings in the week the whole year through. Such arduous labour probably soon began to bear fruit, as we find that Fordyce married in 1762, and in after years his lectures were extremely popular, being attended successively by thousands of students, among them many who subsequently became distinguished. Several full copies of notes by his pupils still exist in manuscript.
Fordyce was admitted licentiate of the College of Physicians on 25 June 1765. Five years afterwards, a vacancy having occurred for a physician at St. Thomas's Hospital through the death of Akenside, Fordyce became a candidate, and, after a close contest with Dr. (afterwards Sir William) Watson, was elected on 11 July 1770 to that office, which he held till his death. In 1776 he was made F.R.S., and wrote several papers in the 'Philosophical Transactions.' In 1787 he was elected 'speciali gratia' fellow of the College of Physicians, the greater honour because at that time only graduates of English universities were generally eligible to the fellowship, and because Fordyce had been an active partisan of the licentiates in their
