Category: History

This large domed mausoleum quite literally sits in the shadow of the Adam Family mausoleum, which is larger, far more ornate and in much better condition. However this remains a particularly note worthy mausoleum because of its design and the person who is buried here.

William Robertson was a prominent Scottish Enlightenment Historian, Minister, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh. His tomb is situated in the southwest area of the Kirkyard, near the entrance to The Covenanters’ Prison.

William Robertson was Minister at Greyfriars Kirk, Royal Chaplain to George III, a leader of the “moderates” in the Church of Scotland and a founding member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. But it was his work as a Historian for which he will be best remembered. Robertson made significant contributions to the writing of Scottish history and the history of Spain and Spanish America, and his historiographical approach had considerable contemporary influence (particularly his emphasis on the consistency of human nature across different eras and societies). One of his most notable works is his “History of Scotland 1542–1603”, begun in 1753 and first published in 1759. His multi volume history of Spain and of Charles V was translated into Spanish and was recognized by the Spanish authorities, so he was elected to Spain’s Royal Academy of History.

William Robertson was also a member of the famous “Oyster Club” which was founded by James Hutton (geologist), Joseph Black (chemist) and the famous economist and author Adam Smith. The Oyster Club was a weekly meeting for Edinburgh intellectuals as well as visiting thinkers like James Watt and Benjamin Franklin. Other members included David Hume (philosopher) & Adam Ferguson (poet). They were all avid oyster eaters and would meet each week in a different tavern to discuss art, architecture, philosophy, politics, science, history and economics. Each member gave a brief update on their projects. In Hutton’s words the discussions were “informal and amusing, despite their great learning”.

William Robertson gives his name to the William Robertson Building of the University of Edinburgh on Teviot Place, home to the School of History, Classics and Archaeology. There is also an endowed chair at Edinburgh University in his name, the William Robertson Chair of History, for a specialist in non-European modern history.

The Robertson Family were prominent in Edinburgh society for a century. William’s Father was a Minister at Greyfriars Kirk between 1736 and 1745. Three of Robertson’s children reached their own fame and are buried in individual plots directly behind the family’s main mausoleum. These are the Hon. William Robertson, Lord Robertson (a senator), General James Robertson, and Lt Col David Robertson.

We are often rather negative about Bankers, thinking of them as unproductive fat cats who get wealthy on the backs of others. But that caricature is not applicable to Sir William Forbes. Brought up in rather humble circumstances after his father died when William was just 4, William worked his way up from a being a lowly bank clerk at Coutts to becoming one of Scotland’s greatest bankers and philanthropists of the 18th century.

Brought up by his mother in a small 2 roomed house in Forrester’s Wynd in Edinburgh, his banking apprenticeship lasted four years. William impressed everyone he worked with, becoming head of Coutts Edinburgh Office in 1761. In 1763 William set up a new Banking Partnership called Forbes, Blair & Herries, Bankers which within a decade became one of the most trusted and successful banks in Scotland.

In 1770 William married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Hay of Hayston, M.D., with whom he had nine sons and seven daughters.

William was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was involved in many philanthropic projects in Edinburgh including the new High School, the Merchant Company, the Morningside Lunatic Asylum, and the Blind Asylum.

Elizabeth died in 1802 and William died in 1806 at 39 George Street in Edinburgh. William had acquired a burial vault at Greyfriars Kirkyard along the South Wall (near Mackenzie’s Mausoleum), where he and many generations of his family were buried during the 19th century.

It is rare to find a family portrait in such an informal pose, but here we have just such for a Family whose burial lair is at Greyfriars Kirkyard.

Sir James Hunter Blair, (1741 – 1787) was a Scottish banker, landowner and politician, who served as Member of Parliament for Edinburgh from 1780 to 1784 and Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1784 to 1786. As Lord Provost he is best known for commencing the construction of South Bridge, over the Cowgate, which transformed the south side of Edinburgh. Two of the new areas just off South Bridge carry his name, being Hunter Square (around the Tron Kirk) and Blair Street (running down to the Cowgate).

Born in Ayr in 1741, the son of a merchant, in 1756 he was apprenticed to Messrs Coutts, bankers in Edinburgh and in 1763 became a partner in the banking company of Sir William Forbes. After marrying Jean Blair, the daughter and heiress of John Blair of Dunskey in Wigtownshire in 1770, the family name became Hunter Blair when she inherited her father’s estate in 1777. They had 14 children. James died aged just 46 in 1787 after contracting typhus.

Sir James Hunter Blair was a founder member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and welcomed Robert Burns when the poet first arrived in Edinburgh. On his death, Burns composed an elegy, beginning: “he lamp of day, with ill-presaging glare”, and which goes on to extol in a rather ponderous fashion Blair’s public virtues. Burns himself thought it was a rather mediocre piece, but other critics described it in rather more negative terms. The whole elegy is here.