John Lorimer (surgeon)

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John Lorimer (1732–1795) was a Scottish surgeon, mathematician, politician and mapmaker. He was born on his father’s farm at Alnaboyle in Banffshire, Scotland, the son of John Lorimer and Isobel Green. He died on 15 July 1795 at his home in Portland Place, London.

Lorimer served as a surgeon for the British army in North America from 1758 to 1784, taking part in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. He was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and wrote A Concise Essay on Magnetism; with an Account of the Declination and Inclination of the Magnetic Needle; and an Attempt to ascertain the Cause of the Variation thereof, published in 1795.

He was also a land speculator, owning about 1,000 acres on Thompson’s Creek, Mississippi, and another grant north of Natchez. He held a magistrate position at Pensacola when it surrendered to the Spanish, and in 1778 Governor Peter Chester appointed him as a botanist for the Province of West Florida.

In 1774 he joined an expedition up the Mississippi River to map the western boundary of West Florida, from the Yazoo River mouth to Bayou Manchac, alongside George Gauld and Thomas Hutchins. Lorimer’s measurements helped determine latitudes for Yazoo, Natchez, and Manchac, aiding the mapping project. Hutchins later published works based on their data, and Gauld and Lieutenant Pittman’s materials were used by Bernard Romans. There were copyright tensions, with Gauld’s maps circulated under restrictions.

Lorimer was a member of several learned societies, including the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, the Coffee House Philosophical Society, and the Royal Icelandic Literary Society. He spent his final years in London.