George Drummond (politician)

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Lord Provost George Drummond

George Drummond (1688 – 1766) was a Scottish politician and accountant who served as the Lord Provost of Edinburgh multiple times between 1725 and 1764.

Life

Drummond was the grandson or great grandson of his namesake Sir George Drummond who had been Provost of Edinburgh 1683 to 1685 and who had resided on Anchor Close on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.[1]

Drummond was born at

Act of Union
at 18. In 1707 he was appointed Accountant General, at age 20, of the Board of Customs, being promoted to Commissioner in 1717.

By the 1720s, the English were attempting to reform the Scottish taxation system, which resulted in public demonstrations during June 1725 against the enactment of the English malt tax in Scotland. During the malt tax riots in Glasgow, an apprentice named Andrew Millar,directly challenged Drummond's authority by printing opposition material in Leith, outside the council of Edinburgh's jurisdiction.[3]

Drummond was a strong opponent of Jacobitism, and fought against a Jacobite force commanded by John Erskine, Earl of Mar at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715. He also raised a company of volunteers to try to defend the city of Edinburgh against a Jacobite army commanded by Charles Edward Stuart during the Jacobite rising of 1745.

Drummond first joined the Edinburgh Town Council in 1716. He raised funds to build the

Royal Infirmary, designed by William Adam in 1738, which quickly became one of the world's foremost teaching hospitals. In 1760 he was responsible for commissioning the Royal Exchange, which later became the Edinburgh City Chambers. He was also a great promoter of the University of Edinburgh
, encouraging its enlargement and establishing five professorships of medicine.

Memorial tablet over Drummond's grave.

Drummond is known best as the main promoter of the building of

Nor' Loch and identified the need for the North Bridge
as the gateway of the New Town, laying its foundation stone in 1763.

Drummond was also a

City Chambers.[5]

In 1722 Drummond was Initiated as a Free Gardener in the Free Gardener's Lodge at Dunfermline.[6]

Drummond's house was north of the city. It was bought by General John Scott after Drummond's death and redeveloped as a substantial villa known as Bellevue House or Lodge. It was purchased later as the Excise Office for Edinburgh. It stood in the centre of what is now Drummond Place which is named in honour of George Drummond.[7]

He died in Edinburgh on 4 December 1766.[8]

Drummond is buried in the

Canongate Kirk. His name is remembered locally by Drummond Place, the street in the New Town which was developed in the location where he had owned a country house in what is now Drummond Place Gardens[9] and Drummond Street
, next to the site occupied previously by the Royal Infirmary.

Family

His daughter Jean Drummond (d. 1766) married Reverend John Jardine in 1744, Jardine being "second charge" minister of Tron Kirk on the Royal Mile and Dean of the Chapel Royal.[10]

References

  1. ^ Grant Cassell's Old and New Edinburgh; vol. 2, p. 236
  2. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Newton Castle (Category A Listed Building) (LB22314)". Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  3. ^ "The manuscripts, Letter from Andrew Millar to Robert Woodrow, 15 July, 1725. See footnotes 12,15,17 and 20". www.millar-project.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  4. ^ Year Book of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. 1968. pp 93-97
  5. ^ Cassell's Old and New Edinburgh; vol. 1, p. 183
  6. ISBN 0-907655-47-5
  7. ^ Lost Edinburgh, Hamish Coghill
  8. ^ Grave of George Drummond, Canongate Churchyard
  9. ^ Grant, James. Old and New Edinburgh. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  10. ^ Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae; by Hew Scott
Masonic offices
Preceded by
Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge of Scotland

1752–1753 		Succeeded by
Charles Hamilton Gordon
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