James Inglis

Dr. James Inglis, 1844 Portrait by David Octavius Hill, National Portrait Gallery, London James Inglis (1813-1851) was a Scottish medical doctor, writer and geologist.

Early life James Inglis was born in Glasgow on 6 September 1813, the son of James Inglis, a merchant and his wife, Charlotte Spalding, the daughter of Charles Spalding, improver of the diving bell. Through his mother, Inglis was a member of the Smalls of Dirnanean, a Perthshire family that included direct ancestor, James Small, factor of the forfeited Robertson estates after Culloden.

After early schooling in Musselburgh, Inglis became a student at the University of Edinburgh. While a student in Edinburgh, he received the Hope prize for chemistry for his paper, Essay on iodine and bromine. Receiving his medical degree in 1834, he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians of England in that same year. which he named after Christopher Rawson, the founder of the Halifax Literary & Philosophical Society.

Interested in phrenology, Inglis researched the brain of Eugene Aram, an infamous English murderer.

Personal life Inglis married Louisa Rawson (ca. 1826-1909), the daughter of Jeremiah Rawson, Esq., on 3 May 1842 at St. John the Baptist Church in Halifax. The couple had the following children:

Charlotte Hannah Louise Inglis (1843-1875), married Priestly Haigh Norris Major James Argyll Spalding Inglis (1848-1883), British District Commissioner of Nicosia, 1882-1883 Charles John Inglis (b. 1850), a solicitor (father-in-law of Charles Hylton Stewart)

A great-granddaughter of Inglis was Surrealist performance artist Sheila Legge. A brother-in-law of Inglis, and a fellow physician, was Dr. Charles Ransford. Dr. Inglis and his wife were buried in Holy Trinity Churchyard in Halifax, which unfortunately has been converted into a car park.