George Heriot - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

Heriot died in London in February 1624, and was buried at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, where the sermon was given by Walter Balcanquhall.

Heriot is believed to have had at least four children by his first wife, including two sons who may have been drowned at sea, although the exact details of their death are unknown. He had no other legitimate children - his second marriage was childless - but in his will left money to provide for two illegitimate daughters, aged ten and four. There were additional bequests to his stepmother and his half-siblings, as well as his nieces and nephews. However, the residue of the estate, some £23,625, was left to the city of Edinburgh, in order to establish a hospital for the education of the "puir, faitherless bairns" of deceased Edinburgh burgesses.

Heriot's Hospital was begun in 1628, and duly constructed outside the city walls of Edinburgh, immediately to the south of Edinburgh Castle, adjacent to Greyfriars Kirk. It was completed just in time to be occupied by Oliver Cromwell's forces during the English Civil War. The hospital opened in due course in 1659, with thirty pupils; its finances grew, and it took in other pupils in addition to the orphans for whom it was intended. In the 1880s, it began to charge fees; however, to this day it serves its charitable object, providing free education to a sizable number of fatherless children.