page_title: George Heriot
section_title: Goldsmith to the Crown
hierarchical_section_title: George Heriot / Goldsmith to the Crown
caption_attribution_description: English: Pub sign depicting George Heriot, goldsmith to James VI and one of the first "Hungry Scots" to follow James to the English Court. Heriot had made the wedding jewellery for James's queen, Anne of Denmark, and his work was soon in demand amongst the Ladies of the Court. He returned to Edinburgh, having amassed a fortune, hence the nickname 'Jinglin' Geordie' (from the sound of coins clinking in his purse). Before his death in 1624 he bequeathed a school for the orphans of Edinburgh burgesses (the money to be collected from his debtors by the Town Council). By the end of the 18th century the Governors of the George Heriot's Trust had purchased the Barony of Broughton, thus acquiring extensive land for feuing on the northern slope below James Craig's Georgian New Town. This and other land purchases beyond the original city boundary generated considerable revenue for the Trust long after his death. 1412990
context_page_description: George Heriot was a Scottish goldsmith and philanthropist. He is chiefly remembered today as the founder of George Heriot's School, a large independent school in Edinburgh; his name has also been given to Heriot-Watt University, as well as several streets in the same city.
  Heriot was the court goldsmith to Anne of Denmark, the wife of King James VI of Scotland, as well as to the king himself; he became very wealthy from this position, and wealthier still as a result of lending this money back to the king and the rest of his court. He moved to London along with the court in 1603, at the time of the Union of Crowns, and remained in London until he died in 1624. He had married twice but had no recognised children surviving at the time of his death, and he left the bulk of his estate to found a hospital to care for "faitherless bairns" in his home city.
context_section_description: From early in the 1590s, Heriot had been selling items to Anne of Denmark, the Queen Consort, and on 17 July 1597, he was officially appointed the goldsmith to the Queen. The queen had previously employed a German jeweller Jacob Kroger. The role of a goldsmith in the early modern period extended beyond simply the making and trading of jewellery and precious metals; in effect, he had now become her banker. Over the following years, he would lend her significant amounts of money, often secured on jewellery he himself had sold her. Anne's love of jewellery was "legendary", and by the late 1590s both she and the king were taking out significant loans to support their spending. This ensured Heriot's position would remain lucrative; it had been estimated that between 1593 and 1603 he may have done as much as £50,000 of business with the Queen. 
  James VI owed Heriot £6,720 for jewelry and precious stones in March 1599 and gave him a jewel as a pledge for payment, which included 74 diamonds and a larger diamond set in gold. In August 1599 Heriot was paid £400 Sterling from the English annuity, a sum of money which Queen Elizabeth sent to Scotland, for jewels delivered to Anna of Denmark.
  Heriot's financial involvement with the court grew stronger over the years; he has appointed jeweller to King James VI in 1601, and was later involved in a governmental plan to replace the circulating currency of Scotland. By 1603, he held the right to farm the customs.
  In 1603, the Union of the Crowns saw James VI inherit the English throne. The king promptly moved his court to London, and Heriot – along with much of the court – followed suit. His loyalty was rewarded, and in November he was appointed a jeweller to the king, on a salary of £150. This sinecure was a small amount in comparison to his private business, which by 1609 saw him with loans to Queen Anne of £18,000, from which he drew a sizeable interest.
  Surviving bills for jewellery supplied to Anna of Denmark mostly date from 1605 to 1615, totalling around £40,000. Surviving pieces made by Heriot include a gold miniature case set with her initials in diamonds, now held by the Fitzwilliam Museum, which the queen may have gifted to her lady-in-waiting Anne Livingstone, and a pair of earrings which include the enamelled face of an African man, in a private collection. The earrings were itemised by Heriot in 1609 as "two pendants made as more's heads and all sett with diamonds price £70." They may reflect her fascination with the representation of African people in the theatre, as in her Masque of Blackness.
  His wife Christian having died, he returned to Edinburgh in 1609 to marry Alison Primrose, the daughter of James Primrose of Carington, the clerk to the Scottish Privy Council. The marriage was short-lived, as Alison died in 1612, and childless.
  Heriot supplied a chain with 60 pieces each set with three small diamonds worth £250 to the king's favourite, the Earl of Somerset, which was returned to him in 1615 when the Earl was disgraced.
  Heriot, with the other royal jewellers Abraham Harderet, William Herrick and John Spilman, joined the funeral procession of Anna of Denmark in 1619.
  Heriot had a town house in the Strand and a country estate at Roehampton, and considerable property in Edinburgh.
caption: A pub in Edinburgh's Old Town preserves Heriot's nickname "Jinglin' Geordie" (from the sound of coins clinking in his purse).
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