John Lorimer (287)

John Lorimer (1732– July 1795) was a surgeon, mathematician, cartographer, land-speculator, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1769. He studied medicine at the University of Saint Andrews, earning an M.D. in 1764. Beginning in 1758, Lorimer served as a surgeon for the British Army, relocating to North America in 1758 or 1764. He served until 1784: treating British soldiers during both the French and Indian War as well as the Revolutionary War. During this time, he also worked as a surveyor and land-speculator and acquired a considerable amount of land in Mississippi. In 1774, he joined an expedition to map the Western boundary of the colony of West Florida, contributing not only his medical knowledge but also his notable skill with mathematics in calculating longitude and latitude (in 1766 he was the first to correctly calculate the coordinates for Pensacola harbor). The following year he published his A Concise Essay On Magnetism, which summed up his years of studies on geomagnetism (which had led to his earlier creation of a compass that could remain accurate even on a boat in rough waters). For his work in the fields of surveying, science, and mathematics, Lorimer received many honors: the Governor of West Florida appointed him as the province’s resident botanist (1778), The Coffee House Philosophical Society elected him a member (1784), and he joined the Royal College of Physicians at Edinburgh as a fellow (1791).