Robert Bird Selby and William McDowall Selby

Robert Bird Selby and his son William McDowall Selby were medical practitioners in Port William, Wigtownshire.  Like many local doctors they were able to acquire a large collection of archaeological artefacts found by friends and patients as they visited farms and cottages in the parish of Mochrum.   Robert Bird Selby was born in 1836.  In 1857 he enrolled at Edinburgh University to read medicine and in 1868, at the age of 32, he was appointed Medical Officer of Health in the parish of Kirkcowan.  He moved to Port William in 1878. Robert Selby appears to have been on good terms with the families at Blairbuy near Monreith and Chapel Heron near Whithorn. Many of the items in the collection came from those two farms.   William was Robert's eldest son and he joined his father's practice in Port William in 1897. He also inherited his father's interest in antiquities and continued to build up the collection. He added objects from outwith Wigtownshire including flints from the Borders and even some stone axes from Bolivia.  William Selby died in 1933 aged 60.   Much of this collection is now in Stranraer Museum.