George Heriot

George Heriot (1539/40 – 1610) was a Scottish goldsmith and member of the Parliament of Scotland. He is perhaps best known as the father of the philanthropist George Heriot, his eldest son.

He was the son of the goldsmith George Heriot, who had moved to Edinburgh around the start of the sixteenth century, and Christian Kyle, an Edinburgh native. Heriot was a member of an established Haddingtonshire family; his grandfather, John Heriot, had been given four hundred acres of land at Trabourn by the Earl of Douglas in return for military service.

He had become a freeman of the Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh by 26 June 1561 and was elected to be a quarter-master of the Incorporation on that date [Edinburgh Goldsmiths' Minutes vol.I, A22, f.8r.]. He became a burgess of the City of Edinburgh on 4 August 1562. He was elected Deacon of the Incorporation for the years 1565–67, 1575–76, 1579, 1583–85, 1586–87, 1589–91, 1594–96, 1603–04 and 1607–08 [ibid, various refs.]. He was also elected deacon-convener of the Incorporated Trades of the city on five separate occasions. Heriot represented the City of Edinburgh in the Parliament of Scotland on a number of occasions between 1585 and 1607. In 1596 he was one of the representatives from Edinburgh sent to meet with King James VI to placate him after a major riot that December which had caused the king to flee the city. In 1597 he was appointed to a commission to set the value of foreign gold and silver money brought into the country, and in 1599 to one which studied how to reissue the circulating coinage. His last parliamentary act was in 1607, when he was appointed to a commission to assess a tax for the purpose of printing Regiam Majestatem, an edition of the old laws of Scotland.

He is buried against the eastern wall of Greyfriars Kirkyard and has a highly elaborate monument.

He married Elizabeth Balderstone, his first wife, sometime before 1563; their first son, George, was born on 15 June 1563, followed by a second son Patrick and a daughter Margaret. A natural son, David, was legitimated in Edinburgh on 24 May 1593.Heriot later remarried, to Christian Blawe, with whom he had sons James and Thomas (born 1603), and four daughters, Christian, Sybilla, Janet and Marion. Christian survived him, and remarried in 1626; she was still alive in 1637. On his eldest son George's marriage in 1586, Heriot gave him 1500 merks, in order that he could establish his own shop; he would go on to become jeweller and goldsmith to Queen Anne and King James VI, and amass a large fortune, which he bequeathed to establish Heriot's Hospital in Edinburgh.

Of his other children, Patrick moved to Genoa, where he married into an Italian family and died sometime before 1623. whilst Margaret married twice. David also took up his father's business, and his son, also David, would become known as a "celebrated" goldsmith; the elder David died before 21 January 1623/4, and the younger David in 1661. James succeeded as court jeweller after his brother's death, and married Elizabeth Jossey or Joyce, the daughter of Robert Jousie, Keeper of the Robes, in January 1624/5. Christian, Janet and Marion were all married by 1623, whilst Sibylla married in 1626.