364 OLD .AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Heriot?s Hospital.
as being in the vicinity of St. Giles?s church. There
he acquired an extensive connection as a goldsmith
and money-lender, and soon recommended
himself to the notice of his sovereign, by whom
he was constituted, as Birrel records, on the 17th
of July, goldsmith to his consort the gay Queen
Anne, which ?was intimat at the crosse, be opin
proclamatione and sound of trumpet ; and ane Clic,
the Frenchman, dischargit, quha-was the Queen?s
Goldsmythe befor.?
Anne - was extravagant, fond of jewellery and
splendour, thus never had tradesman a better ~ustomer.
She ioved ornaments for the decoration of
her own person, and as presents to others, and when
desirous of procuring money, it was no uncommon
..
banker. On the 28th of May, 1588, he ,;as admitted
a member of the corporation of Goldsmiths.
The first material notice of George Heriot is
connected with his marriage, when his father furnished
him with the means of starting in business,
by ?ye setting up of ane buith to him.? In all he
received from his father, and the relations of his
wife-Christian, daughter of Sirnon Marjoribanks,
burgessof Edinburgh-asum ofabout Az 14 I IS. 8d.
sterling, and the buith we have noticed already
~50,000 sterling-an eaornous sxm for those
days.
Imitating the extravagance of the Court, the
nobles vied with each other in their adornment
with precious jewels, many of which found theh
way back again to ? Jingling Geordie;? and Anne?s
want of discretion and foresight is shown in one
of her letters found by Dr. Steven, when she
lacked money, on the occasion of having to pay
a humed visit to her son the Duke of Rothesay
and Crown Prince of Scotland, at Stirling :-
?GECJRDG HERIOTT, I ernestlie dissyr youe present tc
send me twa hundrethe pundis vithe ail expidition becaus.1
man hest me away presentlie.?
When James became king of England, Heriot
ANNA R.?
thing for her to pledge the most precious of her
jewels with Heriot, and James was often at his wits?
end to redeem the impledged articles, to enable the
queen to appear in public
On the 4th of April, 16or, Heriot was appointed
jeweller to the king, and it has been computed,
says Dr. Steven, that during the ten years which
immediately preceded the accession of James to the
Crown of Great Britain, Heriot?s bills for Queen
Anne?s jewels alone did not amount to less thao
Heriot's Hospital.] HERIOT'S WIVES. 565
followed him to London, and transferred his double
business from his Krame by St. Giles's, to somewhere
in Cornhill, opposite the Exchange, where his business
became so great that on one occasion, by
royal proclamation, all the mayors of England, and
in the flower of her days, leaving Xeriot once more
a childless widower. He felt her death keenly,
and a scrap of paper has been preserved, on which
he traced, two months after, the brief, but signi6-
cant sentence, never meant for the public--"shc
justices of the peace, were required to assist him in
procuring workmen at the current rate of wages.
Here, amid his prosperity, his wife died, without
children.
Five years afterwards he married Alison, one of
the nineteen children of James Primrose, who for
forty years was clerk to the Privy Council, and
ancestor of the Earls of Rosebery ; but Alison,
who brought him a dowry of A333, died soon after
cannof be foo mrifch Zimenfed, zdo cuZd not k foo
mufch Zmed" Her death occurred on the 16th
April, 1612.
He nom devoted himself entirely to the prose-
' cution of his greatly extended business, and in devising
plans for the investment of his property at his
decease j and having no relations for whom he felt
any regard, save two natural daughters, and friends
to whom he left legacies, his mind became filled
