Thomas Young was probably born in 1726. He was apprenticed to the surgeon Alexander Simpson in 1711, and he was admitted to the Surgeons' Guild in 1719. He was awarded a medical degree from St. Andrews University in 1736, and in 1737 he became a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. By the summer of 1751, Young was practicing surgery in Edinburgh. In 1756 he was appointed Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh University - only the third holder of that Chair, after Robert Smith and Joseph Gibson, the first holder. Young was the first Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh to actually lecture on the subject of obstetrics. He also had an association with Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary. Professor Thomas Young died 5 February 1783 at the age fifty-seven.
From the guide to the Lectures of Professor Thomas Young (1726-1783), 1763-1780, (Edinburgh University Library)
