Tobias George Smollett (1721-1771) was born at Dalquhurn, in what is now part of Renton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The son of a county landowner and Judge, he qualified as a Surgeon but followed his literary ambitions to London in 1739. He was however, not successful in the literary world and ended up having to take a commission as a naval surgeon on the HMS Chichester, on which he travelled to Jamaica, where he stayed for several years. He married a wealthy Jamaican, Anna Lascelles, and returned home to London to set up a practice in Downing Street.

He published several literary works with little public success until nearly ten years after his first attempt when The Adventures of Roderick Random was published in 1748 which finally made his name. Smollett was a great traveller. Amongst other places, he returned to Aberdeen (to qualify as an MD), and journeyed to France where his second great success The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle was researched. He lived for a while ion Scotland which inspired his last novel The Expedition of Humphry Clinker published in the year of his death.