Famous Scots: E-H

Mary Erskine
(1629-1707)

Businesswoman · Educationist

Mary Erskine was a businesswoman and an early proponent of female education. Her first husband was Robert Kennedy, a writer, who died in 1671. After the death of her second husband James Hair in 1633, who had owned a chemists shop in Edinburgh's High Street, Mary set up in business as a private banker.

In 1694 she generously donated to the Edinburgh Merchant Company's foundation of the Merchant Maiden Hospital, which became the school for daughters of Edinburgh burgesses. In 1896 the hospital was transformed into Edinburgh Ladies' College and in 1944 its name was changed to Mary Erskine School. The will reveals the extent of Mary's business dealings and shows the amounts of the rents of the various properties she let.

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Thomas Erskine
(1732-81)

Musician · Composer

Thomas Alexander Erskine, sixth earl of Kellie was a musician and composer of considerable talent. After his father was incarcerated in Edinburgh castle for his support of the Jacobites in 1745, Thomas left for Mannheim in Germany to study under the elder Johann Stamitz. He returned to Scotland in 1756 a virtuoso violinist and composer.

Often referred to as 'fiddler Tam', Thomas acted as deputy governor of the Musical Society of Edinburgh and composed music for the delectation of polite society. The earl was fond of his drink and even went so far as to set up his own club for that purpose. An acquaintance remarked that his nose was so red it could ripen cucumbers. Unfortunately, much of his music has been lost due to his tendency to compose on the spot and to his own absent-mindedness.

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Adam Ferguson
(1723-1816)

Academic

Adam Ferguson was born in Logierait in Perthshire. He gained his first degree from St Andrews and went on to study divinity at Edinburgh. He served as a chaplain in the Black Watch regiment and was present at the battle of Fontenoy in 1745. After a spell as librarian in the Advocate's Library in Edinburgh he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy in 1759 and of Moral Philosophy in 1764 at the university there. Ferguson almost lost his position, due to his prolonged absences in Italy and France, where he made the acquaintance of Voltaire. In 1778 he was appointed secretary to the commission sent by Lord North to Philadelphia to treat with the colonists.

As a native Gaelic speaker Ferguson realised the Ossianic poems of James MacPherson were not a hoax, as was believed by many in British society. David Hume said that he would not believe they were genuine, even if 'fifty bare arsed Highlanders' claimed them to be so.

Ferguson's academic output included the History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic (1783), Principles of Moral and Political Science (1792) and his Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767). His insights have been seen as the origin of the subject of sociology.

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Further reading
Merolle, Vincenzo, (ed.): The Correspondence of Adam Ferguson (1995) Jack, Malcolm: Corruption & progress: the eighteenth-century debate (New York, 1989)

Sir Alexander Fleming
(1881-1955)

Scientist

Born on a farm near Darvel in Ayrshire, Fleming was the third of the four children of Hugh Fleming (1816-1888) from his second marriage to Grace Stirling Morton (1848-1928). His mother was the daughter of a neighbouring farmer. Hugh Fleming had four surviving children from his first marriage. He was 59 when he married for the second time and died when Alexander (known as Alec) was seven.

Fleming served throughout World War I as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and was Mentioned in Dispatches. He and many of his colleagues worked in battlefield hospitals at the Western Front in France. In 1918 he returned to St. Mary's Hospital, which was a teaching hospital. He was elected Professor of Bacteriology in 1928.

Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 although its anti-bacterial properties were not fully exploited until World War II. It is one of the most important developments in modern medicine and Fleming shared the Nobel Prize in 1945.

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Born Lochfield near Darvel, Ayrshire, 6 Aug 1881 (ref 603, 104)

Foulis brothers
(1707-1776), (1712-1775)

Printers · Booksellers

Robert was appointed printer to the university of Glasgow in 1741 and took his younger brother, Andrew, into partnership. They produced very accurate editions of Latin and Greek works, including an 'immaculate' Horace with only six misprints. In 1753 the brothers founded an academy of art in Glasgow. This was the first of its kind in Scotland, and students received tuition in drawing, painting, engraving and sculpture. The academy was forced to close due to financial difficulties after the death of Andrew in 1775, and Robert had to sell off all the artwork in London. Original copies of the brothers' books now sell for over 2,000 pounds sterling.

Glasgow Commissary Court (CC9/7/70 pp. 505-523)

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Duncan Forbes
(1644-1704)

Landowner

Duncan Forbes of Culloden was educated at Bourges and became provost of, and later MP for, Inverness. Because of his opposition to the succession of James VII and II, his estates at Culloden and Ferintosh were harried by Jacobite soldiers under Viscount Dundee in 1688. As recompense, the Scottish Parliament exempted him from paying duty on the whisky he distilled.

He was a keen genealogist and published The Familie of Innes for his wife, Mary, who was from that family. In his Plan for Preserving Peace of the Highlands he recognized the need for the integration of the people of the Highlands into British society in order to prevent them being used as a tool of the exiled Stuart dynasty. His son, also Duncan, continued to pursue his father's ideas. He was also an MP for Inverness and rose to become Lord Advocate.

He proposed the establishment of Highland regiments and was personally responsible for ensuring many of the most powerful Highland chiefs did not join Charles Edward's campaign in 1745. The younger Duncan, however, became unpopular for his appeals for lenient treatment of the rebels.

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Hugh Fraser
(1815-73)

Retailer

Fraser was born in 1815, the son of John Fraser, a Dunbartonshire farmer and Elizabeth. He was apprenticed to Stewart & McDonald, a drapery warehouse in Glasgow. After becoming a manager there, he went on to form a partnership with James Arthur, a shop owner. They opened a drapery shop in Glasgow's Buchanan Street.

The business quickly expanded, particularly developing on the wholesale side. Arthur took over the wholesale side completely in 1865, while Fraser went into partnership with Alexander McLaren to develop the retail side. Their venture saw the store expand into one of the largest in the city.

When Fraser died in 1873 his three eldest sons, James, John and Hugh, took over the family business, allowing it to continue to develop. By 1891 the shop was known as Fraser and Sons. The famous stag's head was added to the logo in 1909. After continuing prosperity the firm was first listed in the London Stock Exchange in 1948 under the name House of Fraser.

From those humble origins as a Buchanan Street drapers shop, the business was acquired by the Al Fayed family in 1985 for £615 million. House of Fraser remains a flagship retail store in Edinburgh's West End and various other locations throughout the UK.

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Died Partick, 12 Feb 1873 (ref 646/3, 99)

Simon Fraser
(1773-1852)

Fiddler

Captain Simon Fraser was born in Ardachie in Inverness shire. He became a talented fiddler, like his father and grandfather. It was from them that he learned and collected more than 230 tunes in The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland, published 1816. His will reveals his interest in traditional music as well as in the language and welfare of the people of the Highlands.

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James Geikie
(1839-1915)

Geologist

Born in Edinburgh, James was the younger brother of Sir Archibald Geikie (1835-1924) who was to become an eminent geologist and the Murchison professor of geology and mineralogy at Edinburgh University. His early education was at the High School in Edinburgh, followed by Edinburgh University where he followed his brother Archibald into geology. He served on the Geological Survey until 1882 when he succeeded Archibald as Murchison professor at Edinburgh University. He was elected F.R.S. in 1875.

His interest lay in the unraveling of the origins of surface features, in particular the role played by glacial action, and here the landscape of Scotland was an ideal playground for Geikie's brilliant academic mind. His studies led to the publication of perhaps his most important work in this area: The Great Ice Age and its Relation to the Antiquity of Man (1874; 3rd ed., 1894). At this time there was a great debate about how the landscape had been formed, with many arguing pack-ice and icebergs were responsible. Geikie concluded it was actually down to huge, slowly moving sheets of land ice. Continuing this line of investigation in his Prehistoric Europe (1881) he maintained the hypothesis of five inter-glacial periods in Britain and argued the Palaeolithic deposits of the Pleistocene period were not post- but inter- or pre-glacial. He also published Fragments of Earth Lore: Sketches and Addresses, Geological and Geographica' (1893) and Earth Sculpture (1898).

From 1882 Geikie became the leading figure in Scottish geology, primarily because of his position as sole professor of Geology in the country. He developed a keen interest in the advancement of geological research and teaching and with his help the Scottish Geographical Society (S.G.S.) was founded in 1884. Geikie helped to draw many men and women into the new society, both from geology and from the university staff generally. His Outlines of Geology (1886), a standard text-book of its subject, reached its third edition in 1896, and in 1905 he published an important manual on Structural and Field Geology.

In 1887 he displayed another side in: Songs and Lyrics by H. Heine and other German Poets, done into English Verse. From 1888 he was honorary editor of the Scottish Geographical Magazine. John Muir named an Alaskan glacier after Geikie. He died in 1915.

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1901 Census entry for James Geikie

Thomas Blake Glover
(1838-1911)

Industrialist · Engineer

Born on 6 June 1838, Glover went on to being described as the founding father of Japan's economic miracle. His contribution to the industrialisation of Japan included the introduction of their first railway locomotive and first mint; mechanisation of coal-mines; the founding of the Japanese Navy and the modernisation of the shipbuilding industry. (His own company grew into Mitsubishi to whom he became a consultant); and the introduction of the Kusuge dock which was imported from Aberdeen to Nagasaki.

This 'Scottish Samurai' was the first non-Japanese person to be awarded the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun. The character Pinkerton in Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly is said to be modeled on him and his former house in Nagasaki is a top tourist attraction.

His family home, Glover House, 79 Balgownie Road, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen is now open to the public as a restored Victorian House, telling the Glover story. He died on 16 December 1911 in Tokyo. On 5 May 1997 The Scotsman suggested Sean Connery might well play the role of Glover in a film about his colourful life.

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Baptised Fraserburgh, 12 Jul 1838 (ref 196/2, Fr 542)

Neil Gow
(1727-1807)

Fiddler · Composer

Neil Gow, born in Inver, Perthshire, was a fiddler and composer of traditional Scottish music. His great talents led him to be patronised by successive Dukes of Atholl. He also played in the fashionable assembly rooms of Edinburgh.

His portrait was painted twice by Henry Raeburn. Sitting playing his fiddle in the tartan breeches and hose of a highlander, his expression is that of profound introversion. Robert Burns described him as 'a short, stout-built, honest Highlander figure, with grayish hair on his honest social brow; an interesting face, marking strong sense, kind openheartedness, mixed with unmistrusting simplicity'.

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James Gillespie Graham
(1776-1855)

Architect

James Gillespie Graham, architect, was born in Dunblane. He designed churches and country houses (including interiors) mainly in the Scottish Gothic style, but he was equally at home in the classical style. The houses include Ross Priory, Duns Castle and Blythswood (demolished in the last century). The house interiors include Taymouth Castle and the state dining room of Hopetoun House. In Edinburgh and Glasgow he designed the Roman Catholic cathedral churches of St Mary and St Andrew respectively, and he was also architect of Greenside Church and Liberton Church in Edinburgh.

In his will he leaves all his architectural books, papers and drawings to his widow, Elizabeth, desiring her to keep the ones she wants for herself and to pass the remainder to his 'faithful assistant and clerk', Robert Hutton. He expresses the wish that they should not pass into the hands of any other professional person. He later revoked this wish, stating "I hereby Revoke & recall the request that my Daughter should hand over any of my plans, Sketches, Books or others to Robert Hutton as it is not now my wish that they should pass into his hands, I now direct & appoint that all these Articles shall be disposed of in such way as my Daughter & my wife shall think fit".

Edinburgh Sheriff Court Inventories Edinburgh Sheriff Court Wills (SC70/4/40 pp. 597-603)

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James Grahame
(1790-1842)

Historian

James Grahame was born in Glasgow. He was at first tutored by an emigre French Priest before attending Glasgow grammar school and university. He went on to Cambridge and was called to the Bar in Scotland in 1812.

Ill health prevented him from pursuing a career in law and he turned to the study of history. His voluminous works include The History of the Rise and Progress of the United States of North America 'till the British Revolution in 1688 (1827), The History of the United States of North America, from the plantation of the British Colonies 'till their revolt and Declaration of Independence (1836) and Who is to blame? Or, a cursory review of 'American Apology for American accession to Negro Slavery' (1842).

His studies initially had little impact in the United States but eventually their merit was recognised. Josiah Quincy published The Memory of the Late James Grahame, the Historian of the United States, Vindicated from the Charges of Mr Bancroft (1846) after his death.

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Kenneth Grahame
(1859-1932)

Writer

Author of The Wind in the Willows (1908) which reflects his love of wild creatures and the countryside. He spent his working life in London and was also Secretary to the Bank of England until his retirement. Originally registered as James Cunningham Grahame but this was altered to Kenneth on 11 August 1859.

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Born St Andrew, Edinburgh, 8 Mar 1859 (ref 685/2, 182)

Anne Grant
(1755-1838)

Poet · Essayist

Anne Grant produced poetry and essays such as Poems (1803), Letters from the Mountains (1806), Memoirs of an American Lady (1808) and Superstitions of the Highlanders (1811).

Her father was Duncan MacVicar, an army officer, and her childhood was spent in America. After the death of her husband, the Reverend James Grant in 1801 she turned her attention to writing. On moving to Edinburgh in 1810 she became one of the literati in the 'Athens of the North'. A royal pension was procured for her by the influence of Sir Walter Scott, who encouraged and admired her writing. Seven of her eight children died before her, and it is her youngest son, John Peter, who is the Deponent of the Inventory.

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Marriage to James Grant, Fort William, 1779 (ref 092/00, Fr 180)

Christopher Grieve (Hugh MacDairmid)
(1892-1978)

Poet

Born in Langholm, Dumfriesshire, on 11 August 1892 Christopher Murray Grieve is justly regarded a giant of Scottish literature. Best known under his pseudonym Hugh MacDiarmid he led the Scottish Renaissance movement and promoted the use of Scots as a poetic language. The first son of Elizabeth Grieve and her postman husband James, he was educated at Langholm Academy before becoming a pupil teacher at Broughton Higher Grade School in Edinburgh.

Turning to journalism he worked in Scotland and Wales until joining the army during the First World War and serving in France and Greece as a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps. After the war he settled in Montrose with his first wife Peggy Skinner and worked as an editor and reporter for the Montrose Review. While there he also edited literary magazines and anthologies of Scottish writing, including The Scottish Chapbook which also featured his own poetry. It was in the Chapbook that the name Hugh MacDiarmid first appeared. In 1923 his first book Annals of the Five Senses was published. In 1926 he published his epic poem A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, arguably his finest work.

Other early works include the poem To Circumjack Cencrastus (1930) and First Hymn to Lenin (1931), a poem which is said to have deeply influenced a number of English poets including WH Auden and Cecil Day Lewis. Grieve was as passionate about politics as he was of literature and his beliefs run through his work. A founder member of the National Party of Scotland (the forerunner to the Scottish National Party) he was also a communist and stood as a Communist candidate in 1964. He was also a passionate advocate of Scottish culture while deploring Scottish provincialism. In the words of his biographer Alan Bold Grieve was a "nationalist with a poor opinion of the nation he lived in." He was also, according to Bold, the "poetic voice of the nation."

A prolific writer, he published more than 30 books in his lifetime. He was married twice and had three children, two with his first wife Peggy and one with his second wife Valda Trevlyn. He died on 9 September 1978 and was buried in his hometown of Langholm.

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Born Langholm, 11 August 1892 (ref 839/00, 51)

Neil Miller Gunn
(1891-1973)

Author

A writer who incorporated Zen philosophy into his novels before it became fashionable, Gunn remains as one of the mystical figures in Scottish literary history. Born in Dunbeath, Caithness, the northern Scottish sea, the rivers and landscapes are integral to his writings. From his early teens he lived in Kirkcudbrightshire with an older sister and her husband. There, he received private tuition from two locals, one a poet. Success in Civil Service exams took him first to London, then Edinburgh in 1909. Like Robert Burns before him, he was appointed an Excise Officer, serving in the Highlands from 1911-21.

Posted to Wigan, Lancashire for two years, he married Jessie Frew, the two moving back north to Lybster, Caithness, where his writing began in earnest. His poaching was also apparently on the up at this time too, as he was (allegedly) the best poacher in Caithness. He was also secretly involved in various Nationalist activities, perhaps partly through meeting Hugh MacDiarmid and others in Inverness, and was instrumental in forming the Scottish National Party.

His first recognised success was Highland River in 1937, after which he wrote full-time. The two moved to Dingwall, then the Black Isle, where they lived from 1959 on. In his writings Gunn demonstrates his deep knowledge of Highland history and folklore. The constant undercurrents of sea and a boy's experiences and development are well shown in Morning Tide (1931), where in a village dominated by the sea the story depicts a boy's growing experience of reality.

For some reason Gunn has never been a publishers' favourite and is not even mentioned in Martin Seymour-Smith's Guide to Modern World Literature. Fortunately Canongate, Polygon, Souvenir Press, with others, have reissued most of his books. In The Green Isle of the Great Deep (1944), a sequel to the earlier Young Art and Old Hector (1942), Gunn has woven both a fantasy and a commentary on the war, with a dig at the inhumanity of some fashionable leftisms. Gunn's dedication to The Green Isle reads 'For Old Hector and others like him who were friendly to many a Highland boy, this phantasy'. It is set in a tyrannical state operated by brainwashing methods. Some of his books are less allegorical and more historical; The Silver Darlings (1941) for example is of the heyday of the herring industry in Caithness, in the early 19th century. Sun Circle (1933) tells of 9th century conflicts of Viking and Pict. Gunn stayed close to his people and land; just as the rivers ran through his childhood days and the sea met the coast. If some reference books have missed the point, it is to their detriment. His autobiographical book The Atom of Delight (1956) is as much about Zen as it is about the author.

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Born Latheron, 8 November 1891 (ref 038/00, 107)

Thomas Guthrie
(1803-73)

Preacher · Social reformer

Thomas Guthrie was a preacher, philanthropist and social reformer. He was born in Brechin and studied at Edinburgh and Paris. He was Minister of Old Greyfriars from 1837-40 and St. John's from 1840-64. He joined Free Church, which he helped to found, in 1843 and was its moderator in 1862. Thomas used his gift for oratory in the cause of temperance and other social reforms, and in favour of compulsory education, which he believed would reduce juvenile crime. He published his book Plea for Ragged Schools, or Prevention is Better Than Cure in 1847.

In his will Thomas orders that 'in the event of my leaving material for an autobiography I direct such to be placed in the hands of my sons David and Charles John'. The Autobiography of Thomas Guthrie, D.D. and Memoir by his sons David K. Guthrie and Charles J. Guthrie (London, 1874-1875) was duly published. He also instructs his executors to 'hand over to the new College of the Free Church at Edinburgh my copy of the Covenant received by me from Miss Margaret Bruce to be preserved by them in all time coming'. This was a copy of the National Covenant of 1637, which has been viewed as one of the catalysts of the religious wars that ravaged the British Isles in the mid-17th century.

Thomas married Anne Burns, and they had the following children: David Kelly, James, Thomas, Alexander, Charles John, Christina, Helen, Anne, and Clementina.

The photograph is the statue of Thomas Guthrie, Princes Street, Edinburgh

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Basil Hall
(1788-1844)

Naval officer

Basil Hall was born in Edinburgh. He was an officer in the Royal Navy from 1802 to 1823.

He wrote about his travels in his books on Korea (1818), Chile, Peru and Mexico (1824) and Travels in North America (1829). He suffered from nervous exhaustion and died in the Royal Hospital at Haslar, Gosport on the south coast of England.

The illustration depicts Lt. Basil Hall's landing party on Rockall, 8th September 1811, with HMS Endymion in the background

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John Hamilton
(1656-1708)

Politician

John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven was a virulent opponent of the parliamentary union of Scotland and England in 1707. His speeches continued to be printed throughout the 18th century. He was, along with Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, one of the most eloquent and inflammatory of politicians. His opposition to James VII and II had resulted in imprisonment.

He was also a proponent of agricultural improvement, publishing a handbook, The Countryman's Rudiments, in 1699. He also invested heavily in the ill-fated scheme to set up a Scots colony on the Darien peninsula in Panama. These were all attempts to improve the lot of a country that was suffering from severe famine and economic decline.

At first the victim of his acerbic wit, John soon became a friend of the English secret agent Daniel Defoe. Defoe had been critical of his shaky grammar but described him as 'a person of extraordinary parts and capacity' in his History of the Union.

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Thomas Hamilton
(1563-1637)

Landowner

Thomas Hamilton was the son of a judge. After being educated by his uncle in Paris he became an advocate at the Scottish bar in 1587, rising to be a Lord of Session in 1592. His legal talents were noticed by King James VI and I who included Thomas in the commission sent to London to treat for union in 1604. When James returned for a visit to his old kingdom in 1617 he called him 'Tam o' the Cowgate' when entertained in Thomas' lavish town house in the capital.

In 1612 he was appointed Lord Clerk Register and Secretary of State. The following year he was ennobled as Lord Binning. In 1619 he was created Earl of Melrose, but in 1626 he exchanged this for the earldom of Haddington. Following the king's death he fell from the favour of his son Charles I and in 1626 resigned his prominent governmental positions. Over the course of his life he had amassed great wealth, which he invested in landed estates.

The Scots Peerage remarks that in later life he had 'an income of which few, if any, Scottish peers in the seventeenth century could boast' (SP, vol. IV, p.312). His will reveals the details of the rents from his extensive estates.

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William Hamilton
(1704-54)

Poet

William Hamilton of Bangour was the stepson of the Lord President, John Dalrymple of Stair. After attending university at Edinburgh he turned his back on his Whiggish family, joining the Tory and Jacobite Rankine club. He turned his attentions to poetry and his poems were included in Allen Ramsay's Teatable Miscellany in 1723; The Braes of Yarrow followed in 1730.

In 1739 poor health forced him to seek warmer climes. Whilst he was in Rome he met the 'young pretender' to the British throne, Prince Charles Edward Stuart. During Charles' uprising in 1745 William joined the Prince whilst he was resident in Holyrood Palace. He composed an Ode to Gladsmuir following the Jacobite victory at Prestonpans. He was also present at the victory at Falkirk and final defeat at Culloden in 1746. He escaped via Sweden to France, but retuned to Edinburgh in 1750. His popularity ensured him a pardon from his flirtation with Jacobitism. Continually dogged by worsening health he retired once again to France in 1753, where he later died. His remains were returned and buried at Holyrood Abbey.

Adam Smith edited his first collection, Poems on Several Occasions, which was published by the Foulis press in 1748.

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James Keir Hardie
(1856-1915)

Politician

Born 15 August 1856 at Holytown, a small village between Airdrie and Hamilton, his mother was an unmarried maid, Mary Keir. When she married David Hardie, a carpenter, he became James Keir Hardie. What he didn't receive was an education. Born into poverty he started working at seven, as an errand boy in Glasgow, where his step-father was finding occasional work in the Clyde shipyards.

His step-father left to go to sea, and the family moved down to Newarthill near Motherwell. Here, at the age of ten, Hardie went down the pits. A period of self-education also began, with Hardie reading and going to evening classes. Agitating for better conditions for miners in the 1870s, he was fired and blacklisted by the Lanark mine owners. He opened a newsagents and tobacconists shop near Hamilton in 1878, and began to write socialist papers.

His work for miners' welfare led to his being secretary of the Scottish Miners' Federation in 1886. He married a collier's daughter in 1879 and settled in Cumnock. Making a living from journalism, he had two newspapers: The Miner (started 1887), and the Labour Leader (started 1889). The latter was circulated widely in England. Hardie's socialism was neither middle-class and intellectual, nor Marxist and atheistic. It was a form of Christian Socialism. Disillusioned with Liberal politics he founded the Scottish Labour Party in 1888. He was defeated as candidate in the 1888 mid-Lanark by-election but won West Ham in 1892. His appearance at parliament wearing a cloth cap and tweeds was little short of sensational.

In 1893 he had a key role in forming the Independent Labour Party; this was perhaps more for propaganda than a true political party, and in 1900 he assisted in forming a Labour Party based on more organised parliamentary lines. This was the Labour Representation Committee, the forerunner of the Labour Party. He led the party in 1906 but hard campaigning was by now telling and he resigned due to ill-health. He chaired the Independent Labour Party again in 1913 and the International Socialist Bureau in 1914 but socialism's failure to prevent World War I left him deeply disappointed. He died of pneumonia, in Glasgow, on 26 September 1915.

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Born Bothwell, 15 Aug 1856 (ref 652.2, 436)

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Married (to Lilias Wilson), Hamilton, 3 Aug 1880 (ref 647, 123)

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Died Hillhead, Glasgow, 26 September 1915 (ref 644/12, 806)

Adam Hepburn
(d. 1513)

Courtier to King James IV

Attached to the household of King James IV (1473-1513, right) Hepburn was appointed royal stable master. (The stables at Edinburgh's Kings Stables Road were only demolished in the last century). Described as the King's favorite, Hepburn was knighted and granted a royal charter for the lands of Craggis, Forfar, along with his wife Helen Ogstoun, on 24 March 1503. In August 1513 James led a 30,000-strong army into England - possibly the largest invading force. His brother-in-law, Henry VIII of England, had sided with the papacy and attacked Scotland's ally France. Hepburn was in the Scots army encamped by Flodden Field, Northumberland, facing a similar force, commanded by the highly competent 70-year-old veteran Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey (1443-1524). Surrey outflanked the Scots, who rushed to take up a position on Branxton Hill. After an ineffectual artillery volley, James pressed battle on foot. The Scots were armed with freshly imported 18-20 foot Swiss pikes but English artillery forced them down the hill. Heavy rain made the ground trecherous, with soldiers removing shoes for a better grip. The poorly drilled pikemen were no match for the English bill and bow.

Hepburn's will provided for his daughters Elizabeth, Helen and Janet and for his illegitimate sons Henry and Adam. (Illegitimacy did not carry the same stigma; indeed the King had children with various mothers). Adam had priced his household silver to pay any ransom should he be captured. Alas, the triumphant English were overcome with such bloodlust that few prisoners were taken. Among around 10,000 Scots killed were Adam, his nephew Adam, 2nd Earl of Bothwell (born c.1492) as well as James IV and his 20-year-old scholarly son, Alexander. Adam's daughters lived into the mid 16th century and on 25 October 1513, during the minority of James V, the Register of the Great Seal records that the King declares 'ligitimate Henry Hepburn and Adam Hepburn natural sons of Adam Hepburn of Craggis knight, who died in service and in the Royal army finally finished in field of battle at Northumberland'. This legitimisation was perhaps a reward for the loyal service that Sir Adam had shown his king. The grandson of Adams nephew, Adam the 2nd earl, was the infamous James, 4th earl of Bothwell (1536?-1578), abductor and later husband of Mary, Queen of Scots.

The image is of King James IV of Scotland, the last monarch to die in battle in the British Isles

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Further reading
A contemporary account of the battle of Flodden from a manuscript in the possession of David Laing ed. D. Laing: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquities, Edinburgh, 1867, reprinted in Yeoman, L. Reportage Scotland: History in the Making (Edinburgh, 2000), MacDougall, N.: James IV (East Linton, 1997)

Andrew Heriot
(d. c.1531)

Landowner

Andrew Heriot, Laird of Trabroun, died after 1st October 1531. His sister or daughter Agnes was the mother of George Buchanan (1506-1582), the humanist Latin scholar and poet whose political and poetic works were celebrated throughout Europe. Buchanan was also tutor to Queen Mary and the young king James VI (later VI and I). Andrew Heriot was succeeded by his grandson, James, who was present at the Reformation parliament in 1560. He acted as a negotiator for Queen Mary before the battle of Carberry in 1567 and was captured fighting for her at Langside in 1568. He was granted a remission in 1578 and died on the 4th of October 1580.

James was succeeded by his son of the same name, who had married Isobella, daughter of the chancellor Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington (1496-1587), a poet and preserver of early Scots verse, on the 1st of October 1560. They had issue (there is mention of a son named Robert), but James granted a charter for the lands of Trabroun to Sir John Hamilton (born 1605), grandson of his sister Elizabeth on the 17th of October 1611.

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George Heriot
(1563-1624)

Goldsmith

George Heriot was probably born in Edinburgh, where he followed his father into a career as a goldsmith. His premises consisted of a booth near St.Giles on Edinburgh's Royal Mile. In 1588 he was made a member of the Incorporation of Goldsmiths and was elected their Deacon in 1593. He became very wealthy through money lending, and his clients included King James VI. James appointed George goldsmith to his queen, Anne of Denmark, in 1597 and, in 1601, he was appointed jeweller and goldsmith to the king himself. When James succeeded to the English throne, George set up at the Court of St. James in London. He died in February 1624 and was buried at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London.

He was twice married and widowed. He married his first wife, Christian Marjoribanks, in 1586, and she died about 1603. His second wife, Alison, the 16 year old daughter of Archibald Primrose, writer in Edinburgh, whom he married in 1609, died during her first pregnancy in 1612. He left no surviving legitimate children, but bequeathed a substantial amount for the provision of a hospital and school in his home city for 'puir faitherless bairns'. His hospital is now George Heriots School, and Heriot-Watt University also perpetuates his name.

His legendary wealth inspired the character of 'Jinglin' Geordie' in Sir Walter Scott's novel Fortunes of Nigel (1843), and a pub off the High Street in Edinburgh bears this name.

Photograph is George Heriot's School, Edinburgh, by Dave Morris

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David Hill
(1802-70)

Painter

David Octavius (or Octavus) Hill was born on 20 May 1802 in Perth. He was principally a landscape and portrait painter as well as being Secretary to Scottish Society of Arts 1830-8 and after its incorporation in the Royal Scottish Academy. He was also a commissioner of the Scottish Board of Manufacturers in 1850 and was influential in the founding of the Edinburgh Art Union.

In cooperation with Robert Adamson (1821-1848) he created over 3000 calotype images, including what may be the earliest photograph of a railway at Linlithgow. The images feature Scottish landscapes, such as the Land of Burns 1841 and a series done on Newhaven fishermen and women.

His painting of 'The First General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland: signing the Act of Separation and Deed of Demission - 18th May 1843' has been hailed as the first work of art painted with the help of photographic images, and indeed Hill has been described as the first artist to apply photography to portraiture.

In his testament Hill renounces his marital right to the income of his wife, Amelia Paton, made from her work as a sculptor. He is buried in the Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, where there is a bronze bust of him by his widow.

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James Hogg (The Ettrick Shepherd)
1770 - 1835

Poet and Novelist

James Hogg was born on a farm near Ettrick Forest in Selkirk. The house that James Hogg was born in was at Ettrick Hall, a few miles from St Mary's Loch. Here a statue commemorates his birth. He lived here for the first seven years of his life. James Hogg had little education, and became a shepherd, living in poverty. His father was a shepherd and he too took on the title, hence his nickname, The Ettrick Shepherd. His employer, James Laidlaw of Blackhouse, seeing how hard he was working to improve himself, offered to help by making books available. Hogg used these to essentially teach himself to read and write. He had achieved this by the age of 14. In 1796 Robert Burns died, and Hogg, who had only just come to hear of him, was devastated by the loss. He struggled to produce poetry of his own, and Laidlaw introduced him to Sir Walter Scott, who asked him to help with a publication entitled The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. In 1801, Hogg visited Edinburgh for the first time.

His own collection, The Mountain Bard, was published in 1807 and became a best-seller, allowing him to buy a farm of his own. Having made his name, he started a literary magazine, The Spy, and his epic story-poem, The Queen's Wake (the setting being the return to Scotland of Queen Mary (1561) after her exile in France), was published in 1813 and was another big success. William Blackwood recruited him for the Edinburgh Magazine, and he was introduced to William Wordsworth and several other well-known literary figures. He was given a farm by the Duke of Buccleuch, and settled down there for the rest of his life.

Hogg had already made his reputation as a prose writer with a practical treatise on sheep's diseases; and in 1824 his novel, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, was another major success. He became better known than his hero, Burns, had ever been.

Though many of Hogg's works have been neglected for a century and a half, contemporary scholars have begun the process of re-evaluating his literary achievements and are generally receptive to his work. Today, Hogg's poetry and essays are not as widely read as in his contemporary era. However "Justified Sinner" remains important and is now seen as one of the major Scottish novels of its time, and absolutely crucial in terms of exploring one of the key themes of Scottish culture and identity: Calvinism. In a 2006 interview with Melvyn Bragg for ITV1, Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh cited Hogg, especially "Justified Sinner" as a major influence on his writing.

Wordsworth's 1835 "Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg", written in the year of his death, includes the lines: "The mighty Minstrel breathes no longer, 'Mid mouldering ruins low he lies; And death upon the braes of Yarrow, Has closed the Shepherd-poet's eyes." This eulogy notwithstanding, Wordsworth's notes state "He was undoubtedly a man of original genius, but of coarse manners and low and offensive opinions."

Death Ettrick, Selkirk, 27 November 1835 (ref 774, vol 20, pg10)

David Hume
(1711-76)

Philosopher

Born in 1711, David Hume was the second son of advocate, Joseph Hume of Ninewells in Berwickshire and was sent to University in Edinburgh to study law. However he did not complete his studies, but turned to philosophy. He claimed that he 'found an insurmountable aversion to every thing but the pursuits of philosophy and general learning'. His Treatise of Human Nature was published anonymously in 1739, but as its author freely admitted it "fell dead-born from the press".

He was one of the 42 men of the Edinburgh Defence Volunteers to turn out to oppose the Jacobite army in 1745, and in that same year he was invited to become tutor to the Marquis of Annandale. He was denied chairs in ethics and logic at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1745 and 1757 respectively because of his unorthodox religious views. However, in 1752 Hume was appointed Keeper of the Advocates Library in Edinburgh, where he had the time and resources to write. Now better known for his empirical philosophy, David Hume accumulated his great wealth from writing histories. His last volume of The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688 (1754-1762) was completed when he was 50. He admitted that he was too rich and too fat to write a further volume to bring his history up to the present, despite an invitation and offer of a pension from the King.

The 'Monsieur Dalembert' mentioned in his will may have been the French mathematician, Jean-le-Rond d'Alembert, as Hume lived in Paris for some years and was much admired by the philosophes of the salons who called him 'Le Bon David'. As well as being a bon viveur in Edinburgh society Hume was also secretary to the Edinburgh Philosophical Society in 1752. He was one of the founders of the Select Society in 1754, although he never addressed it. Other great thinkers and personal friends mentioned in his will include Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith, to whom Hume entrusts his unpublished papers.

On his deathbed he infuriated a morbidly interested James Boswell by professing that he did not fear death. He died in 1776 aged 65. The money he left for his young nephew's education was put to good use, as his namesake became professor of Scots law at Edinburgh University in 1786. Hume's modest tomb, for which provision is made in his will, can still be seen in the graveyard on Calton Hill in Edinburgh.

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Joseph Hume
(1777-1855)

Surgeon · Politician

Joseph Hume was born in Montrose. After a medical training at Edinburgh University he became an assistant surgeon in the East India Company in 1797.

His proficiency for language enabled him to become very wealthy during his service in India. After the end of the Mahratta war Joseph removed to England and was influenced by the political philosophy of James Mill and Jeremy Bentham. He served as a Member of Parliament for the Weymouth constituency in 1812 and then for a variety of constituencies in Scotland, England and Ireland from 1818-55. At the start of his political career he held Tory principals. However his political persuasion became more and more liberal and radical. He was a proponent of Catholic Emancipation, the extension of voting rights, the promotion of savings banks and free trade. He also actively campaigned for the abolition of corporal punishment in the armed forces, press-ganging in the Navy and custodial sentences for those in debt.

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Further reading
Huch, R.K., and Ziegler, P.R.: Joseph Hume, the people's M.P.(Philadelphia, 1985)

John Hunter
(1728-93)

Anatomist · Physiologist · Surgeon

Hunter was born on 13 February 1728. After a brief apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker he joined his brother William in London. He made rapid progress in the study of anatomy and surgery and became the leading anatomist of his day, being appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to King George III (1776).

He laid the foundation of comparative anatomy; pioneered the art of tissue grafting and dissection; established a museum which was subsequently presented to the Royal College of Surgeons of England; was elected to several leading Royal Academies; and was Deputy Surgeon General to the Army from 1786.

He died suddenly while on duty at St. George's Hospital London on 16 October 1793 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His birthplace in East Kilbride is now a museum which celebrates the work of the Hunter brothers.

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Baptised East Kilbridge, 30 March 1728 (ref 643/1, Fr 97)

William Hunter
(1718-83)

Anatomist · Obstetrician

William was the elder brother and teacher of John Hunter. He first attended Glasgow University at the age of 13. He later graduated in medicine from there and trained in anatomy in London.

He devoted himself to midwifery and became the first Professor of Anatomy to the Royal Academy and President of the Royal College of Physicians. He was also appointed Physician Extraordinary to Queen Charlotte, attending 11 royal births. He bequeathed his extensive museum to the University of Glasgow on his death in 1783. His birthplace in East Kilbride is now a museum which celebrates the work of the Hunter brothers.

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Baptised East Kilbridge, 1 June 1718 (ref 643/1, Fr-)

James Hutton
(1726-97)

Geologist · Physician · Chemist · Naturalist · Experimental farmer

Born in Edinburgh on 3 June 1726, Hutton was one of five children of a merchant who was Edinburgh City Treasurer, but who died when he was still young. Hutton's mother, Sarah Balfour, had him educated at the High School of Edinburgh where he was particularly interested in maths and chemistry. Aged 14 he attended the University of Edinburgh, reading the Classics (Latin and Greek). He was apprenticed to a lawyer when he was 17 but took more interest in chemical experiments.

Hutton became one of the most influential participants in the Scottish Enlightenment and is considered the father of modern geology. His theories of geology and geologic time - also called deep time - came to be included in theories which were called plutonism and uniformitarianism.

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Birth Edinburgh, 9 June 1726 (ref 685/1, vol 170 FRMR4-24 [top entry])

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Death Edinburgh, 28 March 1797 (ref 685/1, vol 980 1797)