118 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
No, LVI.
CAPTAIN GEORGE GORDON,
CAPTAIN GEORGE ROBERTSON, AND
JOHN GRIEVE, ESQ.,
LORD PROVOST OF EDINBURGH.
CAPTAIN GORDOK, the first figure in the Print, is repre nted as in ttendance
on the Lord Provost. He was formerly an officer of the Scottish
Brigade’ in the service of Holland, and was appointed to his situation as
Captain in the Town Guard, on the death of Captain Robertson in 1787. He
lived in Bell’s Wynd, High Street, and was somewhat remarkable for his
forenoon or meridian potations, an indulgence by no means uncommon in his
day. He died on the 25th September 1803.
CAPTAIN ROBERTSON, who is in the attitude of receiving instructions
from the Lord Provost, has already been noticed as one of “ the Three Captains
of Pilate’s Guard,” No. XV.
JOHN GRIEVE, ESQ., the centre figure of this triumvirate, was a
merchant in the Royal Exchange, and held the office of Lord Provost in the
years 1782-3 and again in 1786-7. He entered the Town Council so early as
1765, was treasurer in 1’769, and Dean of Guild in 1778-9. Mr. Grieve possessed
a great deal of natural sagacity, to which he entirely owed his success in business,
The Scottish Brigade in Holland were a body of about six battalions, originally sent for the
purpose of assisting the Republic. They continued to be supplied with recruits from Scotland, and
kept in an effective state ; but under one pretence or other they were detained so long in the service
of the Dutch that it almost came to be a matter of dispute whether there existed a right to recall
them. In 1763 the chiefs or officers of the regiment addressed a strong remonstrance to the British
Secretary at War, expressing a desire to be removed from the provinces on account of indifferent
usage ; but, either from inability or neglect, their remonstrance was not sufficiently attended to. In
1779, they again made offer of their services to the British Government, being unwilling to loiter
away their time in garrison towns, “while the enemies of their country were uniting against her ; ”
but the States of the United Provinces resolved that the Scotch Brigade should, on and after the
1st of January 1783, be incorporated with the Dutch troops, and in every way similarly situated.
At that time the Scotch Brigade had been above 200 years in the service of the States, and in the
numeiwus battles and sieges in which they had been engaged they never lost a single colour, having
on all occasions defended them with the utmost bravery. “At Bergen-op-Zoom, in 1747, in particular,
General Marjoribank‘s regiment consisted of 850 rank and file, of which only 220 survived the fatal
storm of the place ; but these brave handful of men, although many of them were wounded, cut their
way through the grenadiers of France, and carried off their colours in triumph into the lines of the
Allied army of Steebergen.” On this conjunction of the Scotch Brigade with the Dutch regiments,
mauy of the officers refusing to subscribe the new oaths of allegiance, returned to their native country.