filling only the unaristocratic rank of a tradesman, has been the means of 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.[1]
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 fatner 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 proclamatione 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:
"Pay it 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 detei'mined upon forming a marriage connexion with a family of good rank. The object of his choice was Alison
- ↑ Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland ( folio edition), iv. 181, 379.
