“M” is for Moultrie, John (ca.1699-1771)

“M” is for Moultrie, John (ca.1699-1771). Physician. Moultrie was born in Culross, Fifeshire, Scotland and apparently studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He spent some time as a surgeon in the British Navy before coming to Charleston in 1728. Moultrie soon established a successful practice and served as physician to Saint Philip's Parish hospital and as a quarantine officer for the province. Over time his practice increasingly emphasized male midwifery, and he may have focused on it exclusively in his later years. In the eighteenth century, first in Britain and then in the colonies, medical men began to encroach on the traditional female preserve of midwifery. Moultrie seems to have been a popular and highly sought after physician, especially among expectant women. John Moultrie was apparently one of the first American physicians to specialize in obstetrics.