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HERIOT, GEORGE, founder
of the excellent hospital in Edinburgh which bears his name, and jeweler
to king James VI., was descended from the Heriots of Trabroun in
East-Lothian. This respectable family was connected with some of the
most distinguished names in Scottish history. The mother of the
illustrious Buchanan was a daughter of the family, and it was through
the patronage of James Heriot of Trabroun, his maternal uncle, that the
future poet and statesman was sent to prosecute his studies at the
university of Paris. Elizabeth, daughter of James Heriot of Trabroun,
was the mother of Thomas Hamilton of Priestfield, first earl of
Haddington, president of the court of session, and secretary and prime
minister to James VI. But the family may, with more reason, boast of
their connexion with the subject of this memoir, who, though filling
only the unaristocratic rank of a tradesman, has been the means drawing
forth from obscurity some persons of high talent, and many
who have moved in the middle ranks with the greatest honour to
themselves and benefit to society.
George Heriot, senior,
was a goldsmith in Edinburgh and a person of wealth and consideration.
He filled some of the most responsible civic situations in the Scottish
metropolis: his name often occurs in the rolls of the Scottish
parliament as a commissioner for Edinburgh, in the parliaments and
conventions of estates, and he was frequently appointed a commissioner
by parliament for the consideration of important questions.*
George, his eldest son
(the subject of our inquiry) is supposed to have been born in June,
1563. He was destined to follow his father’s profession, at that time
one of the most lucrative and honourable among the burgesses. The
goldsmiths of Edinburgh were, in ancient times, classed with the
hammermen; at what time they were separated seems uncertain. They
received (in August, 1581) a charter of incorporation from the
magistrates, in which many privileges, amounting in fact to a monopoly
of their trade, were granted to them, and these were afterwards (1586)
confirmed by a charter from James VI. They were, besides, for a long
period, the only money lenders; and the high rate of interest, with
their frequent command over the resources of the court and the nobility,
rendered them persons at once of wealth and power.
At the age of
twenty-three George Heriot entered into a contract of marriage with
Christian Marjoribanks, daughter of Simon Marjoribanks, a substantial
burgess of Edinburgh. On this occasion, his father presented him with
1000 merks "to be ane begyning and pak to him," and 500 more
to purchase the implements of his trade and to fit out his shop. By his
wife he received 1075 merks, which appear to have been lent out at ten
per cent interest, the usual rate of that period. Their union does not
appear to have been of long duration, although the date of this lady’s
death is unknown; it is even doubtful if she had any children—if she
had, none of them survived her.
Master Heriot was
admitted a member of the incorporation of goldsmiths on the
twenty-eighth of May, 1588. In 1597 he was appointed goldsmith to the
queen by a charter from James VI., and this (to use the expression of a
contemporary chronicler, Birrel,) "was intimat at the crosse be
opin proclamations and sound of trumpet; and ane Clei, the French man,
dischargit, quha was the queen’s goldsmithe befor." Heriot was
soon after constituted goldsmith and jeweller to the king, with all the
emoluments attached to that lucrative office. It would appear that he
had already amassed a considerable fortune from his transactions with
the court, but no notice of his work occurs in the treasurer’s books
till September, 1599, when we have the following:
"Payit at his
majesties special command, with advyiss of the lords of secret counsal,
to George Heriot, younger, goldsmith, for a copburd propynit to Monsieur
Vetonu, Frenche ambassadour, contening the peces following, viz.: twa
basingis, twa laweris effeiring thairto, twa flaconis, twa chandilleris,
sex couppis with coveris, twa couppis without coveris, ane lawer for
water, ane saltfalt with ane cover; all chissellit wark, and dowbill
owirgilt, weyand twa stane 14 pund and 5 unces at aucht mark the unce,
£4160. Item, for graving of 28 almessis upon the said copburd
£14," Scots money.
No other notice of him
appears between this period and that of the removal of the court to
England, whither he soon followed it.
Heriot was now possessed
of large fortune, and determined upon forming a marriage connexion with
a family of good rank.
The object of his choice
was Alison Primrose, the eldest daughter of James Primrose, clerk to the
Scottish privy council; a gentleman whose industry and talents had
raised him to that honourable office, and who was the grandfather of the
first earl of Roseberry. Heriot was also destined to survive this lady,
who died, without leaving issue, on the 16th of April, 1612. "The
loss of a young, beautiful, and amiable partner, at a period so
interesting," Sir Walter Scott conjectures, "was the
probable reason of her husband devoting his fortune to a charitable
institution." She was interred in the south aisle of the choir of
Saint Gregory’s church, where her sorrowing husband erected a handsome
monument, bearing a Latin inscription, to her memory.
From the period of Heriot’s
settlement at London little is known of his history. Many of the
accounts of jewels furnished by him to the queen have been preserved,
and several are printed by Mr Constable in his memoir of Heriot. These
accounts, from 1605 to 1615, amount to many thousand pounds sterling,
but there does not appear to have been the same liberality towards all
the members of the royal family. We find the duke (then marquis) of
Buckingham, writing to his "dere dad, gossip and steward," the
king, from the Spanish court in the following manner relative to the
prince: "Hitherto you have beine so sparing (of jewels) that
whereas you thought to have sent him sufficiently for his one (own)
wearing, to present to his mistris, who, I am sure shall shortlie now
louse that title, and to lend me, that I to the contrarie have bene
forsed to lend him." About the same period Charles writes the
following letter from Madrid to his royal father:
"I confess that ye
have sent mor jewells then (at my departure) I thought to had use of;
but, since my cumming, seeing manie jewels worne here, and that my
braverie can consist of nothing else, besydes that sume of them which ye
have appointed me to give to the Infants, in Steenie’s oppinion and
myne are not fitt to be given to her; therefore I have taken this
bouldness to entreate your majesty to send more for my own wearing, and
for giving to my mistris, in which I think your majesty shall not doe
amiss to take Carlyle’s advice." ** It is said that Heriot
furnished these jewels, and that they were never paid for by James, but
that their price was deducted from the purchase-money of the barony of
Broughton when bought by the trustees of the hospital. *** If
this is the case, it is the last transaction in which we have found
Heriot engaged. He died at London on the 12th of February,
1624, and was buried at St Martin’s in the Fields on the 20th
of the same month.
Of Heriot’s private
character little unfortunately is known. He seems to have possessed
those strict business-like habits of accuracy for which he is so
distinguished in the novel of the Fortunes of Nigel. With his relations
he must have lived on amicable terms, for besides the munificent
provision made in his will for the establishment of an hospital, he left
considerable sums to many of his relations. Of these the nearest were
two natural daughters.
By his will, (dated 20th
January, 1623,) he left the whole of his fortune, after deducting the
legacies to his relations, servants, &c. to "the provost,
bailiffs, ministers, and ordinary council, for the time being, of the
said town of Edinburgh, for and towards the founding and erecting of an
hospital within the said town of Edinburgh, in perpetuity; and for and
towards purchasing of certain lands in perpetuity to belong unto the
said hospital, to be employed for the maintenance, relief, bringing up,
and education of so many poor fatherless boys, freeman’s sons of the
town of Edinburgh, as the means which I give, and the yearly value of
the lands purchased by the provost, bailiffs, ministers, and council of
the said town shall amount, or come to." The education of the boys
is superintended by able masters, and they are not only taught to read,
write, and cast accounts, (to which the statutes of the hospital
originally confined the trustees,) but Latin, Greek, Mathematics,
&c. If the boys choose a learned profession, they are sent to the
university for four years, with an annual allowance of thirty pounds.
The greater number are bound apprentices to tradesmen in the city, and
are allowed the annual sum of ten pounds for five years; at the end of
the apprenticeship they receive five pounds to purchase a suit of
clothes, upon producing a certificate of good conduct from their master.
The foundation of the
present magnificent structure (designed by the celebrated architect
Inigo Jones,) was laid on the 1st of July, 1628, but from the
disturbed state of the country continued unfinished till April, 1659.
From the rise in the value of their property, the yearly revenue at the
disposal of the trustees has very greatly increased, especially during
the last half century. A body of statues by which the institution is
governed was drawn up by Dr Balcanqual, dean of Rochester, the well
known author of a "Declaration concerning the late tumults in
Scotland," 1639, published in name of king Charles I.
* Acts of the Parliament
of Scotland (folio edition), iv. 181, 379.
** Stark’s Picture of
Edinburgh, p. 232.
*** Ellie’s Letters
Illustrative of English history, (first series) iii 145, 6. Buckingham
adds the following postscript in his usual style: "I your doge
(dog) sayes you have manie jewels neyther fitt for your one (own), your
sones, nor your daughters, wearing, but very fitt to bestow on those
here who must necessarilie have presents; and this way will be least
chargeable to your majesty in my poure opinion." |
