BLACKWELL, Alexander, son of a dealer in knit-hose at
Aberdeen, where he received a liberal education. He afterwards studied physic under Boerhaave at Leyden, took the degree of doctor of physic, and acquired a proficiency in the modern languages. Happening to stay some time at the Hague on his return home, he contracted an intimacy with a Swedish nobleman. Having married a gentleman's daughter in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, he proposed practising professionally in that part of the kingdom; but finding his expectations disappointed, he went to London, where he met with still less encouragement as a physician, and commenced corrector of the press for Mr Wilkins, a printer. After some years spent in this employment he set up as a printer himself, and carried on several large works till 1734, when he became bankrupt. In what manner he subsisted for a considerable time after this event we are not informed, though it was probably by the ingenuity of his wife, who published "A curious Herbal, containing 500 Cuts of the most useful Plants which are now used in the Practice of Physic, engraved on folio Copperplates, after Drawings taken from the Life, by Elizabeth Blackwell; to which is added a short Description of the Plants, and their common Uses in Physic, 1739," 2 vols. folio. About the year 1740 he went to Sweden, and renewing his intimacy with the nobleman whom he had met at the Hague, again assumed the medical profession, in which he was tolerably successful; but turning projector, he laid before his Swedish majesty a scheme for draining the fens and marshes, which was well received, and many thousands employed in prosecuting it under the doctor's direction, while some small allowance was made to him by the king. This scheme succeeded so well, that he turned his thoughts to others of greater importance, which in the end proved fatal to him. Suspected of being concerned in a plot with Count Tessin, he was put to the torture; and this not producing the desired confession, he was beheaded on the 9th of August 1748. Soon afterwards appeared "A Genuine Copy of a Letter from a merchant in Stockholm to his correspondent in London, containing an Impartial Account of Doctor Alexander Blackwell, his Plot, Trial, Character, and Behaviour, both under Examination and at the Place of Execution; together with a Copy of a Paper delivered to a Friend upon the Scaffold." Blackwell possessed good natural genius, but was somewhat flighty, and not a little conceited. His conversation, however, was facetious and agreeable; and although an indiscreet man, he was allowed to have been a well-bred and accomplished gentleman.