father of the infirmary,’ and after his death there was placed in its hall his bust by Nollekens (since transferred to the New Royal Infirmary), with an inscription by Principal Robertson proclaiming that to him ‘this country is indebted for all the benefits which it derives from the Royal Infirmary.’ Drummond Street, in its vicinity, was called after him.
Drummond had married in 1707 a wife who died in 1718. His second wife, a daughter of Sir James Campbell of Aberuchill (his colleague on the board of customs), whom he married in 1721, died in 1732. These two wives bore him fourteen children. He fell into embarrassments in spite of his large income as commissioner of customs. They prevented him from marrying a morbidly pietistic lady of whose name only the initials ‘R. B.’ are given, to whom he was much attached, and in the efficacy of whose prayers and accuracy of whose predictions he had a superstitious faith. There is a great deal about her in the fragments of his manuscript diary, from the middle of 1736 to the last weeks of 1738, preserved in the library of the university of Edinburgh (see the account of it with extracts in Gordon, ii. 364–8). His circumstances were probably not improved by his surrender of his office of commissioner of customs and his re-appointment to a commissionership of excise, 1737–8, but in January 1739, having apparently broken off the singular connection with ‘R. B.,’ he was relieved from his money difficulties by marrying a third and wealthy wife.
With the rebellion of 1745 Drummond was foremost in calling for and organising resistance on the part of the citizens of Edinburgh to its occupation by the rebels. Through his efforts a body of volunteers was raised, and at his persuasion they were ready to march out of Edinburgh, and, with some regulars, meet the enemy in the open. Drummond, who was captain of the first or College company, found himself, however, unsupported by the authorities, and the zeal of the volunteers melted away until the only course left was to consent to their disbandment. Home (iii. 54 n.) has charged Drummond with simulating martial ardour in order to make himself popular in view of the approach of the usual time for the municipal elections, but this accusation is rebutted by Dr. Carlyle, who was himself a member of the College company of volunteers (Autobiography, pp. 119–20). Drummond's own account of the collapse is to be found in the report (State Trials, xviii. 962, &c.) of the evidence which he gave at the trial of Archibald Stewart, the then provost of Edinburgh, for neglect of duty, against whom he was a principal witness. With the surrender of Edinburgh Drummond joined Sir John Cope's force, and after witnessing its defeat at Prestonpans is said to have accompanied Cope to Berwick, and thence to have corresponded with the government. In 1745 the usual autumn elections had not taken place in Edinburgh. Those of 1746 the government ordered to be determined by a poll of the citizens instead of by partial co-optation Drummond was elected provost, both of the two lists of candidates which were circulated being headed with his name.
In 1750–1 Drummond was a third time lord provost, and in 1752 he prefixed a printed letter commendatory (Scots Mag. lxiv. 467) to copies of proposals for carrying on certain public works in the city of Edinburgh, which were drawn up by Gilbert Elliot (the third baronet), and which included one for an application to parliament to extend the ‘royalty’ of the city northward, where the New Town of Edinburgh is now. A portion of the scheme was sanctioned by an act of parliament passed in 1753 (26 George II, cap. 36), in which Drummond was named one of the commissioners for carrying it out. On 3 Sept. in the same year the works were begun by Drummond laying, as grand-master of the Scotch Freemasons, the first stone of the Edinburgh Royal Exchange, before what has been described as the greatest concourse of people that had ever assembled in Edinburgh (Lyon, p. 217). To promote this and other improvements Drummond became a fourth time lord provost, 1754–5. In 1755, his third wife having died in 1742, he married a fourth, a rich English quakeress with 20,000l., and then probably it was that he became the owner of Drummond Lodge, at that time an isolated country house on the site of what is now Drummond Place, also called after him, and in the heart of the New Town of Edinburgh. There, on stated days, he kept an open table. In 1755 he was appointed one of the trustees of the forfeited estates, and a manager of the useful Edinburgh Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Sciences, Manufactures, and Agriculture. Appointed lord provost for two years a fifth time in 1758, he took in hand the extension of Edinburgh northward, necessary steps to which were the draining of the North Loch and the erection of a bridge over its valley. The extension of the royalty northward met, like most of Drummond's schemes of improvement, with much opposition, and a bill authorising it which was introduced in parliament had to be abandoned. With the second year of Drummond's sixth and last provostship, 1762–3, the draining of the North Loch was effected, and the erection of the bridge with funds derived
