David Martin

Susan was the eldest daughter of Dr. John Steedman (1710-1791) and his wife Margaret Wellwood, daughter of Robert Wellwood of Pitlivie in Perthshire and Garvock in Aberdeenshire.

John Steedman was physician, scholar and antiquary.  In the 1730s he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and obtained his M.D.  In 1740 he was appointed surgeon-major to the Scots Greys in Holland and was present at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743. By 1750 he had returned to Scotland, marrying in 1754.  From 1754 until 1763 the family lived in Dunfermline, where he built up a successful practice, before returning to Edinburgh. He was soon part of the intelligentsia of the Scottish Enlightenment.  He became a Fellow of the Philosophical Society and in 1769 of the Royal College of Physicians.  He served as surgeon to the Merchant Maiden Hospital and was later elected a physician-in-ordinary to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.  In 1783 he was one of the founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In 1767 Susan married David Wardlaw (1747-1790) of Netherbeath, Fife who was a prosperous merchant in Dunfermline.  They had two daughters, Margaret (1785-1795) and Agnes (born 1787) who in 1808 married Dr. John Abercrombie (1781-1844) a famous physician in Edinburgh.  The wealth which Agnes brought to their marriage helped him to spend more time on his academic research than would otherwise have been possible.

Our portrait was painted in 1788.  It is a good example of David Martin’s work, painted with care for an influential commission.  It illustrates the family link between these two historically important physicians who played notable rôles in the advancement of public health.  Susan died in 1803 and is buried at St. Cuthbert’s Churchyard in Edinburgh.

David Martin studied under Allan Ramsay whom he accompanied to Rome in 1756-57 before working under his supervision at the St. Martin’s Lane Academy.  He was the principal draftsman in Ramsay’s studio in the 1760s.  By 1770 he had established his own studio in London and in July 1771 he married Ann Hill (1743–1775). Following her death, probably about 1778, Martin settled in Edinburgh where in 1778 he was admitted to the Royal Company of Archers.  Ramsay died in 1784 and in 1785 Martin was appointed principal painter to the Prince of Wales in Scotland.

This portrait was painted in Edinburgh when David Martin was aged 51 and very highly respected.  It has an intimacy and classical simplicity which characterises the Enlightenment period in the Scottish capital.  Happily, it retains its original frame.

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