Lad Plovosts] PROVOST DRUMMOND. 281 -
fluence of the Duke of Lauderdale. in return for
ment of Colonel Gordon, who with Leslie and
Walter Butler of the Irish Musketeers, slew the
great M?allenstein, Duke of Friedland.
Sir Hugh Cunningham was provost when Anne
was proclaimed by the heralds at the Cross, on
the 8th of March, 1702, Queen of Scotland ; and
she in her first letter to Parliament pressed them
to consider the advantages which might accrue to
of the city. A cadet of the noble house of Perth, he
his view of the city-a work wonderful for its ? got a protection to enable him to appear in this
I minuteness and fidelity-to provost Tod and the matter. ? Thus he was brought to the street again.?
Council, who made him a free burgess, and paid him His predecessor in 1676 was a Sir William Binny,
A333 6s. 8d. Scots, or A27 16s. 8d. sterling for who, in 1686 had a curious case before the Court I the drawing, which was engraved in Holland by of Session, against Hope of Carse, on the testa-
De Witt, and dedicated to the provost and magisi
trates, who appear by the city accounts to have had
a collation on the occasion.
The provost who was present at and presided over
the barbarous execution of Montrose, in 1650, was
Sir James Stewart of Coltness, who suffered therefor
a long imprisonment after the Restoration,
and was only rescued from something worse by
his having obtained for his Grace L6,ooo as the
price of the citadel of Leith. Sir Andrew while in
the civic chair conducted himself so tyrannically,
by applying the common good of the city for the
use of himself and his friends, and by inventing new
employments and concessory offices within it, to
provide for his dependents, that the citizens, weary
of his yoke, resolved to turn him out at the next
election ; but he having had a majority the burgesses
were forced to ?intent a reduction of the
election.?
This case being submitted to the Chancellor and
President, they ordered an Act to be passed in the
Common Council of the city, declaring that none
should hereafter continue in office as provost for
more than two years. But this regulation has not
been strictly observed, and the Lord Prwosts of
the city are now elected for three years.
In 1683 Sir George Drummond was Lord Pre
vost ; but in August, 1685, he became a bankrupt,
and took refuge in the Sanctuary at Holyrood, the
first, says Fountainhall, ?that during his office has
broke in FAinburgh.? A week or two afterwards, a
riot having taken place at the Town Guard-house,
the Lord Chancellor, the Earl oi Perth, who was
bound to do what he could to protect the provost,
84
was born in 1687, and when only eighteen years
of age was employed by the Committee of the
Scottish Parliament to give his assistance in the
arrangement of the national accounts prior to the
Union; and in 1707, on the establishment of the
Excise, he was rewarded with the office of Accountant-
General, and in I 7 I 7 he was a Commissioner
of the Board of Customs. In 1725 he was elected
Lord Provost for the first time, and two?years afterwas
named one of the commissioners and trustees for
improving the fisheries and manufactures of Scotland.
Hewasthe principal agent in the erection of the
Royal Infirmary ; and in I 745 he served as a volunteer
with Cope?s army at the Rattle of Prestonpans.
As grand-master of the freemasons he laid the
foundation-stone of the Royal Exchange, and in
1755 was appointed to that lucrative-if dubious
-office, a trustee on the forfeited estates of the
Jacobite lords and landholders. We have related
(in its place) how he laid the foundation-stone of the
North Bridge. He died in 1766 in the eightieth
year of his age, and was honoured, deservedly,
with a public funeral in the Canongate. To
Provost Drummond Dr. Robertson the historian
owed his appointment as Principal of the University,
which was also indebted to him for the institu
