Category: History

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.

Just to the left of the gates to the Covenanters Prison are this pair of memorials to a family of Theatre impresarios, Henry Siddon on the right and his brother in law, William Henry Murray on the left. Henry was an actor who first found fame on the stage in London, before relocating to Edinburgh to take over management of The Theatre Royal at the east end of Princes Street (now the General Post office buildings). His brother in law, William, took over running the Theatre Royal after Henry died in 1815, and did an excellent job.

Both men were close to Walter Scott who brought George IV to Edinburgh in 1822. William created the settings at various venues, contrived the “revived ancient dresses” and arranged the “traditional” pageants for which George IV’s visit is much remembered to this day. William was particularly acclaimed for his success in transforming the Assembly Rooms in George Street into a theatrical palace for the Peers’ Grand Ball, an event that was pivotal in making the tartan kilt, which had until then been thought of by Edinburgh Gentry as the primitive dress of the rougher sorts in the lawless Highlands, into the national dress of the whole of Scotland. The King’s last and least formal public appearance during his visit to Edinburgh was at a theatre performance of Scott’s Rob Roy adapted and produced by Murray.

Janet MacMath was buried at Greyfriars in 1630, 11 years before her Husband, John Trotter of Mortonhall, who died in 1641.

Janet is depicted with her husband, both dressed to impress with large neck ruffs & Janet has a large hood which frames her face.

John Trotter was a successful merchant in Edinburgh during the peaceful & relatively prosperous reign of James VI. John amassed a goodly fortune which allowed him to buy the large and fruitful estate and Baronage of Mortonhall. Thereafter their family line became “the Trotters of Mortonhall”, which they still hold to this day.

John & Janet were married in 1598 and over the following 19 years they had 10 children, six sons and four daughters. Janet’s date of birth is unclear so we can’t be sure how old she was when she died. But we do know that John lived to the grand old age of 88.

This memorial was erected on the North Wall of Greyfriars Kirkyard in 1641, initially open to the elements. But in 1709 their Great Grandson, also called John Trotter, erected a Mausoleum over the family burial ground, enclosing the memorial and thereby cutting it off from public view.

The inscription on the memorial is in Latin, and reads :

Mors patet, hora latet.

Octoginta ultra Trotterus vixerat annos;

Progenie felix, ambitione carens.

Publica privatus curavit; semper egenis

Aut opere, aut opibus, contulis almus opem.

Which translates to :

Death is sure; the hour unsure

Trotter lived for over eighty years;

Happy with his offspring & devoid of ambition.

He cared for the public good as a private citizen;

He always gave generous help to the needy,

Either by work or by wealth.

That should probably be read as if an application form for admittance to heaven ;o)

Janet Bannatyne was buried at Greyfriars in 1631 and is depicted on the Foulis memorial. Here she is shown, dressed to impress, wearing a fine Dutch style of clothing that frames her face. Janet was born in 1587, the only surviving child of George Bannatyne, a wealthy Merchant who was very famous for his work on Scottish literature. Janet was George Foulis’s second wife, marrying him in 1603 when she was just 16 years old and he was 34. Janet went on to have 16 children over the next 16 years. Janet died aged 44, with so many pregnancies likely having taken a large toll on her health.

Janet’s 16 children (5 girls and 11 boys) were born as follows :

Janet 1604, James 1605, George 1606, Agnes 1607, Robert 1608, Sara 1609, Patrik 1610, John 1611, Elizabeth 1612, Robert 1613, Alexander 1614, Issobel 1615, Thomas 1616, William 1617, David 1618, Nathanael 1619

So by the age of 32 Janet had had 16 children.

Sadly 6 of her children died as infants, with 6 more dying young. Only 4 of her children survived long enough to raise their own families. If you look closely there is a young child’s head with wings carved just above & to the right of Janet’s head, looking down at her. Perhaps this symbolises the souls of her children who had ascended to heaven before her.

Janet must have had unimaginable strength to have born so many children in such quick succession, then to have raised them and dealt with the loss of so many. Whilst Janet was part of a wealthy family, her life reflects the experience of so many Women in the 17th century, for who pregnancy was an almost constant condition throughout their adult lives.

There are many amazing Women memorialised at Greyfriars Kirkyard, and many many thousands more who lie here in unmarked graves.

Just one example of an incredible Woman who did so much for other Women & Girls in her time. Mary Erskine was a philanthropic businesswoman & money lender who used her wealth to found two schools and hospitals (think boarding schools) for Maidens.

Mary was born in 1629 and was buried at Greyfriars in an unmarked grave in the Covenanters Prison area in 1707 at the grand age of 78. Mary was a very astute businesswoman at a time when she would have faced many barriers. She must have been exceptionally determined, capable and courageous to have built a successful business and achieved such wealth. And exceptionally generous to use that wealth to found the Merchant Maidens Hospital, a school for the orphaned female children of Edinburgh’s Merchants which is today named after her, The Mary Erskine School, as well as The Trades Maiden Hospital (still existing in the form of the Trades Maiden Fund). This was a school for the orphaned female children of crafts and tradesmen.

Her modern memorial at Greyfriars is shown in this picture.