Volume 2 > Half-Volume 4

257
No other notice of him appears between this
period and that of the removal of the court to Eng-
land, whither he soon followed it.
Heriot was now possessed of large fortune, and
determined upon forming a marriage connection with
a family of good rank. The object of his choice
was Alison Primrose, eldest daughter of James
Primrose, clerk to the Scottish privy-council�a
gentleman whose industry and talents had raised
him to that honourable office, and who was the
grandfather of the first Earl of Roseberry. Heriot
was also destined to survive this lady, who died,
without leaving issue, on the 16th of April, 1612.
"The loss of a young, beautiful, and amiable part-
ner, at a period so interesting," Sir Walter Scott
conjectures, "was the probable reason of her husband
devoting his fortune to a charitable institution."
She was interred in the south aisle of the choir of
Saint Gregory's Church, where her sorrowing hus-
band erected a handsome monument, bearing a
Latin inscription, to her memory.
From the period of Heriot's settlement at Lon-
don little is known of his history. Many of the ac-
counts of jewels furnished by him to the queen have
been preserved, and several are printed by Mr. Con-
stable in his memoir of Heriot. These accounts,
from 1605 to 1615, amount to many thousand
pounds sterling, but there does not appear to have
been the same liberality towards all the members of
the royal family. We find the Duke (then Marquis)
of Buckingham, writing to his "dere dad, gossip and
steward," the king, from the Spanish court in the
following manner relative to the prince: "Hitherto
you have beine so sparing [of jewels] that whereas
you thought to have sent him sufficiently for his one
[own] wearing, to present to his mistris, who, I am
sure, shall shortlie now louse that title, and to lend
me, that I to the contrarie have bene forsed to lend
him." About the same period Charles writes the
following letter from Madrid to his royal father:
"I confess that ye have sent mor Jewells then (at
my departure) I thought to had use of; but, since
my cumming, seeing manie jewels worne here, and
that my braverie can consist of nothing else, besydes
that sume of them which ye have appointed me to
give to the Infanta, in Steenie's oppinion and myne
are not fitt to be given to her; therefore I have
taken this bouldness to entreate your majesty to
send more for my own wearing, and for giving to my
mistris, in which I think your majesty shall not doe
amiss to take Carlyle's advice."1 It is said that
Heriot furnished these jewels, and that they were
never paid for by James, but that their price was de-
ducted from the purchase-money of the barony of
Broughton when bought by the trustees of the hos-
pital.2 If this is the case, it is the last transaction
in which we have found Heriot engaged. He died
at London on the 12th of February, 1624, and was
buried at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on the 2Oth of the
same month.
Of Heriot's private character little unfortunately is
known. He seems to have possessed those strict
business-like habits of accuracy for which he is so
distinguished in the novel of the Fortunes of Nigel.
With his relations he must have lived on amicable
terms, for besides the munificent provision made in
1 Stark's Picture of Edinburgh, p. 232.
2 Ellis's Letters Illustrative of English History (first series),
iii. 145, 6.    Buckingham adds the following postscript in his
usual style: " I your doge (dog) sayes you have manie jewels
neyther fitt for your one (own,) your sones, nor your daughters,
wearing, but very fitt to bestow on those here who must ne-
cessarilie have presents; and this way will be least chargeable
to your majesty in my poure opinion."
VOL. II
his will for the establishment of an hospital, he left
considerable sums to many of his relations. Of these
the nearest were two natural daughters.
By his will (dated 20th January, 1623) he
left the whole of his fortune, after deducting the
legacies to his relations, servants, &c., to "the pro-
vost, bailiffs, ministers, and ordinary council, for
the time being, of the said town of Edinburgh,
for and towards the founding and erecting of an
hospital within the said town of Edinburgh, in
perpetuity; and for and towards purchasing of cer-
tain lands in perpetuity to belong unto the said
hospital, to be employed for the maintenance, relief,
bringing up, and education of so many poor fatherless
boys, freemen's sons of the town of Edinburgh, as
the means which I give, and the yearly value of the
lands purchased by the provost, bailiffs, ministers,
and council of the said town shall amount or come
to." The education of the boys is superintended by
able masters, and they are not only taught to read,
write, and cast accounts (to which the statutes of the
hospital originally confined the trustees), but Latin,
Greek, mathematics, &c. If the boys choose a
learned profession they are sent to the university for
four years, with an annual allowance of thirty pounds.
The greater number are bound apprentices to trades-
men in the city, and are allowed the annual sum of
ten pounds for five years; at the end of their appren-
ticeship they receive five pounds to purchase a suit
of clothes, upon producing a certificate of good con-
duct from their master.
The foundation of the present magnificent structure
(designed by the celebrated architect Inigo Jones)
was laid on the 1st of July, 1628, but from the dis-
turbed state of the country continued unfinished till
April, 1659. From the rise in the value of their
property, the yearly revenue at the disposal of the
trustees has very greatly increased, especially during
the last half century. A body of statutes, by which
the institution is governed, was drawn up by Dr.
Balcanqual, Dean of Rochester, the well-known
author of a Declaration concerning the Late Tumults
in Scotland, 1639, published in name of King
Charles I.
HERIOT, JOHN. This talented and industrious
writer in miscellaneous literature was the son of
the sheriff-clerk in East Lothian, and was born at
Haddington, on the 22d of April, 1760. He be-
longed to a literary family, his elder brother George
having been the author of a poem on the West
Indies, and Travels in Canada. At the age of
twelve the subject of this memoir was sent to the
high-school of Edinburgh, from which, after having
studied the usual course, he was transferred to the
university of Edinburgh. But whatever might have
been the profession for which he was educated, the
plan was frustrated by domestic misfortune, and the
consequent dispersion of his father's family. This
event obliged him, in 1778, to repair to London, and
afterwards to betake himself to the naval service, by
enlisting in the marines. In this capacity he first
served in the Vengeance, afterwards in the Preston,
and finally in the Elizabeth. During these changes
his experience of a nautical life was chiefly confined
to cruises upon the coast of Africa and the West
Indies; but in the Elizabeth, commanded by Captain
Maitland, he saw more active service, both at Port
Royal, and in the engagement of the British fleet,
commanded by Sir George B. Rodney, and that of
France under De Guichen, of the 17th of April, 1780.
On this occasion the action was indecisive; for al-
though the French line was broken, many of the
British captains hung back, from their political
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