Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lindsay, Patrick (d.1753)

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1441055Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 33 — Lindsay, Patrick (d.1753)1893Thomas Finlayson Henderson

LINDSAY, PATRICK (d. 1753), lord provost of Edinburgh, was descended from a younger branch of the Lindsays of Kirkforthar, Fifeshire, and was the only surviving son of Patrick Lindsay,rector of the grammar school of St. Andrews, by Janet, only daughter of John Lindsay of Newton. He served with Sir Robert Riche's regiment of foot in Spain until the peace of Utrecht in 1713. He was admitted to the freedom of the city of St. Andrews, 10 Sept. 1722. His grandfather was a joiner in St. Andrews, and he appears to have learned the same trade, for after leaving the army he settled as an upholsterer in Edinburgh. Prospering in his business he was chosen a magistrate of the city, and became successively dean of guild and lord provost, being elected to the latter dignity in 1729, and also in 1733. From 1734 to 1741 he represented Edinburgh in parliament. He was served heir to his father 10 May 1741. In 1728, while he was dean of guild, his shop was entered by thieves, his apprentice murdered, and his cash-box stolen (Private Letters chiefly to Robert Wodrow, 1694–1732, pp. 64–5, 1829). During the Porteous riots in 1736 he succeeded in reaching the quarters of the Welsh fusiliers with a verbal message from the authorities asking their assistance against the mob, but the officer, on the ground that Lindsay manifested evident signs of conviviality, declined to act on it. On a bill being introduced into parliament to disfranchise Edinburgh on account of the riot, Lindsay delivered a convincing speech against the proposal. After retiring from the representation of the city he was appointed by the Duke of Atholl governor of the Isle of Man, but on account of indisposition resigned that office some time before his death, which took place at the Canongate, Edinburgh, 20 Feb. 1753.

Lindsay was the author of ‘The Interest of Scotland, considered with reference to its Police, Agriculture, Trade, Manufacture and Fishery,’ Edinburgh, 1733; 2nd edit. London, 1736.

By his first wife, Margaret, daughter of David Montier, merchant in Edinburgh, he had three sons—Patrick, appointed deputy-secretary at war in 1741; John, a lieutenant-colonel in the army; and James, captain of a ship at war belonging to the East India company—and two daughters: Mary unmarried, and Janet, married to James Anderson of Monthrieve, Fifeshire. He married as his second wife Janet, daughter of James Murray of Polton, and as his third wife Lady Catherine Lindsay, daughter of William, fifteenth earl of Crawford, but had no issue by his second or third marriage.

[Douglas's Baronage of Scotland; Gent. Mag. 1753, p. 148; Scots Mag. xv. 101; Forster's Members of the Scottish Parliament, p. 215; Lord Lindsay's Lives of the Lindsays; Lindsay Pedigree, by W. A. Lindsay, in the College of Arms.]

T. F. H.