He was able to return to Scotland in 1747 or 1748 under the Act of Indemnity of 1747. He resumed his practice as a physician in Edinburgh and was elected president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on 4 December 1766. When his father died in 1746 he became d"e jure" the third baronet of Fingask but was technically unable to use the title during his lifetime. He lived at Fountain Close, close to the site of the first Hall of the Royal College of Physicians, and from 1771 in Chessel's Court in the Canongate. In later years he spent his summers at his villa at Moredun, south of Edinburgh and the winter months at his apartment in Horse Wynd, off the Canongate. Later he stayed at the Bishop's Land, a large dwelling in the High Street. His practice was a successful one and enabled him in 1783 to buy back most of the family estates in Fingask and Kinnaird that had been confiscated in 1715.