John MacKenzie (Doctor)

John MacKenzie
Doctor John MacKenzie
Born	Ayrshire, Scotland
Died	4 January 1837 Edinburgh, Scotland
Occupation	Doctor

John MacKenzie was a native of Ayrshire, where he married Helen Miller d.1827, one of the "Six proper Mauchline belles" who is buried in Irvine's Old Parish church. He was a member with Robert Burns of the St James Lodge, Tarbolton. His house in Mauchline is now the 'Burns House Museum,' run by East Ayrshire Council. MacKenzie wrote "Origin of Morals and Common Sense."

John MacKenzie was an Army surgeon. He served as a burgess, a baillie, Treasurer and Dean of Guild on the Irvine Council. His grave is in the New Calton Burying Ground, Edinburgh, but there is a commemorative stone to him and his wife Helen Miller in Irvine Old Parish Churchyard. As stated, his wife was the Nell of "A Mauchline Wedding", a daughter of John Miller of Millockshill and of the Sun Inn, Mauchline. He met Nell when he stayed at the Sun Inn, marrying her in 1791. They had a son, John Whitefoord Mackenzie, W.S., Edinburgh, a literary and antiquarian collector, who died in Edinburgh in 1884.

James MacKenzie studied medicine at Edinburgh University, and, on the invitation of Sir John Whitefoord of Ballochmyle, set up in practice in Mauchline. In 1824, received from his Alma Mater the degree of M.D. for a thesis on "De Carcinomate," he retired to live in Edinburgh, where he died on 11 January 1837, at an advanced age.

In 1801, the 12th Earl of Eglinton, Hugh Montgomerie, persuaded Dr. MacKenzie to move from Mauchline to Irvine and live free of rent for life at Seagate House. In return, he acted as the Montgomerie's family doctor, retained at an annuity of £130 in full payment for his professional services. He retired in 1827.

Robert Burns first met Dr. MacKenzie when he attended the poet's father, William Burns, at Lochlea Farm in the early spring of 1783. Dr. MacKenzie related that: "The Poet seemed distant, suspicious, and without any wish to interest or please. He kept himself very silent in a dark corner of the room; and before he took any part in the conversation, I frequently detected him scrutinising me during my conversation with his father and brother. But afterwards, when the conversation, which was on a medical subject, had taken the turn he wished, he began to engage in it, displaying a dexterity of reasoning, an ingenuity of reflection, and a familiarity with topics apparently beyond his reach, by which his visitor was no less gratified than astonished."

Burns's move to Mossgiel Farm permitted a warm friendship to develop. In 1786 MacKenzie received a rhymed summons from Burns to attend: "a procession celebrating the Festival of the Nativity of the Baptist, Friday first's the day appointed". In "The Holy Fair", Dr. MacKenzie is personified as "Commonsense", who left the assembly to keep a dinner appointment with Sir John Whiteford at the home of the Earl of Dumfries as soon as "Peebles, frae the water-fit" began to preach.