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William McClelland, was born in the Shire of Galloway in Scotland, in the year 1769. He received his medical education at Edinburgh, and immediately afterwards came to America, and began his professional career in Albany. His talents and his medical attainments secured for him a large practice, and his position in his profession was deservedly eminent. His early advantages had been better than this country at that time afforded, and hence the position that education controls was acceded to him by his colleagues. In matters pertaining to the advancement of his profession, Dr. McClelland took an active part, and as he was present at the first meeting of the Medical Society of the County of Albany so he continued his attendance with regularity until the close of his life. At the first meeting of the Medical Society of the State of New York in 1807, he was the delegate from Albany, and was elected the first President of that body. Among the pupils who sought his instruction was Theodric Romeyn Beck, who afterwards became one of the most distinguished medical scholars of the age.
In January, 1811, Dr. McClelland formed a business partnership with Dr. William Bay, who had a few months previously returned to Albany to reside; but his social habits had led him into an extreme of living, not uncommon in those days, and that tended to shorten his life. He died on the 29th of January, 1812, having just completed the forty-third year of his age. Dr. Bay still survives him, at the advanced age of ninety-one years.
