Dr. John Armstrong was an eighteenth-century Scottish physician, poet, and satirist. Born in Castleton, Roxburghshire, he was the son of a minister. Armstrong pursued medical studies at the University of Edinburgh, where in 1732 he became the first student to graduate with distinction. Following his graduation, he relocated to London, where he established a successful medical practice while simultaneously engaging with the city's vibrant literary scene.
Armstrong became a close associate of prominent literary figures of his era, including James Thomson and David Mallet. He achieved significant literary recognition with his 1744 didactic poem, The Art of Preserving Health, which was praised for its graceful and ingenious treatment of a challenging medical subject. His other notable works include The Oeconomy of Love, an eighteenth-century guide to sex written from his dual perspective as a physician and poet, and a collection of essays titled Sketches, or, Essays on Various Subjects, published in 1758 under the pseudonym Launcelot Temple, Esq.
Though many of his other writings, such as the drama The Forced Marriage, fell into obscurity, Armstrong's literary influence persisted. Notably, certain lines from The Oeconomy of Love are believed to have inspired Thomas Gray's famous imagery in "Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard." Armstrong also contributed several stanzas concerning diseases caused by sloth to the first part of James Thomson's poem The Castle of Indolence. Today, he is memorialized alongside his brother George, a pioneer of modern pediatrics, in the now-vanished town of Castleton.