What follows is a ‘timeline’ of Dr Alexander Wilkie Paterson [1822-1898] as ‘established’ from old newspapers.
Dr Paterson was doctor to the inhabitants of, and the visitors to, Bridge of Allan:
As a child, Robert Louis Stevenson regularly stayed in Bridge of Allan with his family.
In later life, Robert Louis Stevenson recalled that Bridge of Allan’s pharmacist, Gilbert Farie, was a “bogle” in the most vivid of his dreams:
Robert Louis Stevenson generally resisted making clear if his fictional characters were inspired by those that he had come across in life. So thankfully, we are left to the realms of imagination.
This was how Robert Louis Stevenson described ‘Dr Jekyll’:
Dr Paterson died a year short of a new millennium. In grief, the villagers of Bridge of Allan raised a clock made in iron:
Since his death, Dr Paterson’s clock has been moved at least once. The clock no longer has a mechanical mechanism and the original clock face has been replaced.
But Dr Paterson’s clock it is still with us!
Dr Paterson’s timeline is extraordinary, so please, do read on.
July 1856:
September 1866:
September 1871:
September 1872:
September 1873:
September 1873:
October 1874:
August 1878:
January 1880:
August 1880:
June 1881:
November 1881:
April 1882:
September 1882:
February 1883:
[sometime in] 1883:
July 1883:
September 1883:
November 1883:
January 1894:
July 1885:
September 1885:
October 1885:
December 1885:
July 1886:
March 1887:
August 1887:
September 1887:
October 1887:
June 1888:
November 1888:
February 1889:
April 1889:
September 1889:
September 1889:
October 1889:
October 1889:
July 1890:
August 1890:
October 1890:
October 1890:
January 1891:
February 1891:
June 1891:
September 1891:
November 1891:
November 1891:
January 1892:
May 1892:
August 1892:
October 1892:
October 1892:
January 1893:
February 1893:
June 1893:
September 1893:
October 1893:
January 1894:
April 1894:
July 1894:
August 1894:
September 1894:
December 1894:
July 1895:
August 1895:
July 1897:
April 1898:
April 1898:
April 1898:
April 1898::
April 1898:
May 1898:
June 1898:
September 1898:
January 1899:
March 1899:
