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Kay's Originals Vol. 1

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 41 NO. xv. THE THREE CAPTAINS OF THE CITY GUARD. GEORGE PITCAIRN. GEORGE ROBERTSON. ROBERT PILLANS. THESE three persons were all, as announced in the title, Captains of the Old Edinburgh City Guard. This appointment was not generally held by military men, and it was frequently conferred upon decayed burgesses, whose character recommended them tq the patronage of the Magistrates, and whose circumstances rendered this tolerably lucrative situation (which was ad vitum aut cukam) ah object of some moment. CAPTAIN PITCAIRN had originally been a cloth-merchant in the city, and had more than once served in the Magistracy. Having subsequently become embarrassed in his circumstances, he was appointed, on a vacancy occurring, to the Captaincy of the City Guard ; but, engaging some time afterwards in no very creditable speculation,’ he lost both his situation and his character. He was the author of a ‘I Treatise on the Fisheries,” Edin., 12m0, for which the Trustees of the Society for the extending the Fisheries awarded him a gold medal. He died at Edinburgh on the 17th September 1791. ROBERTSON, the second figure in the Print, had been an officer in the Dutch service previous to his appointment to a command in the City Guard, and was selected for the latter office with the view of improving the discipline and general military character of the corps. Of his private history nothing is known, nor was his professional career as a civic soldier, which was very brief, distinguished by any remarkable event. He died in Edinburgh in the year 1787, and was succeeded by another military veteran, Captain Gordon. PILLANS, the third figure, was originally a brewer in the vicinity of the city, and was for some time one of the resident bailies of the then suburban districts of Potterrow and Portsburgh. It is alleged that the gallant Captain was fully as dexterous at handling a bottle as a sword ; and a certain rotundity observable in 1 T ~wLas importing bad half-pence from England,-a species of traffic which was, about the latter end of the last century, carried to a great extent in this country. Whole barrels, and these in immense numbers, were brought down to Scotland, chiefly from Birmingham, and obtained for a considerable time a ready circulation ; no one ever thinking of questioning either the weight or quality of the copper coin tendered to them. The value, as subsequently sscertained by the Magistrates, was Q
Volume 8 Page 55
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