Family and Education
He was born in Kirkpatrick-Fleming, in Annandale, Dumfriesshire, a son of the minister, the Reverend James Currie, and Jane, the only daughter of Robert Boyd, of Dumfries. The Curries were an old Scottish family, descended from the Curries of Dunse, Berwickshire, and originally from the Corrie family of Annandale. James's first school was in the nearby parish of Middlebie, in Annandale, where his father had become Minister, and from age 13 he attended the grammar school in Dumfries, run by Dr George Chapman.
After a period in America, described below, he returned in 1776 to Scotland to study medicine at Edinburgh. During his first year at university he contracted rheumatic fever, a disease which recurred periodically throughout his life. He obtained his degree of M.D. in Glasgow and in 1780 settled in Liverpool, where he was appointed as one of the physicians at the infirmary.
He married Lucy Wallace in 1783, with whom he had five children. Her father was a prosperous merchant, a descendant of William Wallace, nicknamed The Hero of Scotland by Sir Walter Scott.
Read more about this topic: James Currie (physician)
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