Benjamin Rush (1746-1813)
Benjamin Rush was a signatory of the American Declaration of Independence, a physician, and an alumnus of the University of Edinburgh.
Background
Benjamin Rush was born in 1746, near Philadelphia, USA.
After graduating from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), Rush travelled to Europe.
He studied at the University of Edinburgh from 1766 to 1768, graduating with a medical degree.
He returned to America and went on to become the first Professor of Chemistry at Pennsylvania College (now University of Pennsylvania).
During the American revolutionary period, he became involved in the Sons of Liberty, a secret society that undertook a number of patriotic political protests, including the Boston Tea Party.
In 1776, he became one of the 56 signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence.
In his later years, while reflecting on his life, Rush remarked:
The two years I spent in Edinburgh, I consider as the most important in their influence upon my character and conduct of any period in my life...perhaps there is at present no spot upon the earth where religion, science, and literature combine more to produce moral and intellectual pleasures than in the metropolis of Scotland.
The plaque
Benjamin Rush's plaque is located on the main facade of 57 George Square.
In honour of Benjamin Rush
1746-1813
Signatory, American Declaration of Independence, medical graduate of the University