The
miniature-painter and caricaturist John Kay was born near
Dalkeith, Midlothian, in April 1742. The son of a mason, he was
apprenticed at the age of thirteen to George Heriot, a barber in
Dalkeith. Six years later, he moved to Edinburgh where he continued
to work as a journeyman barber. In 1771 he was enrolled a member of
the Society of Surgeon-Barbers and set up in business on his own
account. In his spare time, however, he began to produce highly
original portrait sketches and caricatures of Edinburgh characters,
despite having received no formal training in drawing. He attracted
the patronage of William Nisbet of Dirleton, who settled an annuity
upon him, and in 1785 was finally able to give up his trade for
art. Kay opened a shop in Parliament Close where he sold his
etchings. From 1784 to 1822 he is calculated to have etched nearly
nine hundred plates portraying many of the most notable Scotsmen of
the day.
Many of Kay's more
satirical prints were bought by his
subjects themselves with the express purpose of destroying them. On
at least one occasion, he was 'cudgelled' and, on another,
unsuccessfully prosecuted. In 1792 he decided to publish some of
his work in book form and prepared a brief biographical sketch
which supplies most of the few details that are known of his life.
The project, however, remained unrealized, and it was not until
after his death that a collection of 340 of his etchings was
published in 1837-38. Kay contributed portraits to the annual
exhibitions of the Edinburgh Associated Artists from 1811 to 1816,
and to the 1822 exhibition of the Institution for the Encouragement
of the Fine Arts in Scotland. He died in Edinburgh on 21 February
1826.
These etchings are from the
1838 booklet**The
size
for the image ranges from A4 down to small miniatures. .. all are
shown at the same image size so if exact sizing is needed please
ask as listing each individually will take
forever**
Plate 74
Plate 74
John Erskine by John Kay
etching, 1793
Sitter John Erskine (floruit 1789), Minister. better copy
£12
No
1
Mtbza Aboul Ha san Khan
Envoy etraordinairy from the King of Persia to the Court of Great
Britain
The persian ambassador first visited Great Britain in 1809. he was
entrusted with a formal complaint against the Govenor odf India and
with instructions for the settlement of a treaty betwixt Perisa and
this country.His excellency landed on Plymouth on the 30th
November. Every attention was paid to his accommodation and on his
arrival in London was conducted to an elegant house prepared for
him at mansfield Street £15 . . . mucky
Plate 16
Plate 16 No. XVI.
PROVOST DAVID STEUART, AND BAILIE JOHN LOTHIAN.
CONTRAST seems to
have been the design of the artist in classing these
two respectable citizens together the Provost being a very handsome
man, and the Bailie the reverse. The latter, from his great stoop and
rotundity of shoulder, obtained from his brother bailies the soubriquet
of " The Loupin-on-SUne." PROVOST STEUART, a younger son of the family
of Dalguise, carried on business as a banker in Edinburgh, in
partnership with Robert Allan, Esq., under the firm of Allan and
Steuart. He was, in 1778, elected one of the Merchant Councillors, and,
in 1779> third Bailie £18
Plate
56/No. LVI.
CAPTAIN GEORGE GORDON, CAPTAIN GEORGE ROBERTSON, AND JOHN
GRIEVE,
ESQ., LORD PROVOST OF EDINBURGH.
CAPTAIN GORDON, the first figure in the Print, is represented as in
attendance on the Lord Provost. He was formerly an officer of the
Scottish Brigade * in the service of Holland, and was appointed to
his situation as Captain in the Town Guard, on the death of Captain
Robertson in 1787. He lived in Bell's Wynd, High Street, and was
somewhat remarkable for his forenoon or meridian potations, an
indulgence by no means uncommon in his day. He died on the 25th
September 1803. CAPTAIN ROBERTSON, who is in the attitude of
receiving instructions from the Lord Provost, has already been
noticed as one of " the Three Captains of Pilate's Guard, " No. XV.
JOHN GRIEVE, Ess., the centre figure of this triumvirate, was a
merchant in the Royal Exchange, and held the office of Lord Provost
in the years 1782-8, and again in 1786-7. He entered the Town
Council so early as 1765, was treasurer in 1769, and Dean of
Guild
in 1778-9. Mr Grieve possessed a great deal of natural
sagacity, to
which he entirely owed his success in business, " £18
Plate 131/ No.CXXXI.
ANDREW DALZEL, A.M., F.R.S.,
PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. THE title given
to the Portraiture of this gentleman has reference to the memorable
struggle for the office of Clerk to the General Assembly, which
occurred in 1789. His opponent, Dr Carlyle of Inveresk, (who has
already been noticed in a preceding part of this work,) was
supported by the moderate or Government party, and Mr Dalzel by the
popular, or, as they were then called, " the Wild Party." £18
2nd copy
Plate 108
No. CVIII.
MR JOHN WRIGHT, LECTURER ON LAW.
MR WRIGHT was the son of a poor cottar in Argyleshire,* who, by
smuggling between that coast and the Isle of Man, was enabled to
maintain his family' for many years in comparative comfort ; but,
finding his ': occupation gone," in consequence of the strict
prohibitory measures enforced by Government, a short time prior to
the transfer of the sovereignty of that island in 1765, he left the
Highlands and settled in Greenock. £18
Rev
Dr Pedle
REV.
DR JAMES
PEDDIE,
OF THE ASSOCIATE CONGREGATION, BRISTO STREET. THE REV. DR PEDDIE
was born on the 10th of February 1759, at Perth, where his father
was a respectable brewer. After having attended the grammar- school
of that city^for some time, he was transferred to the academy
there, of which Dr Hamilton, afterwards Professor of Natural
Philosophy in Aberdeen College, and author of a well-known work on
the National Debt, was the Rector £15
Plate 64
No. LXIV.
THE REV. JOSEPH ROBERTSON MACGREGOR,
FIRST MINISTER OF THE EDINBURGH GAELIC CHAPEL. THE old Gaelic
Chapel, at the Castlehill, was erected in 1769, principally by the
exertions of Mr William Dickson, then a dyer in Edinburgh, who set
on foot subscriptions, and purchased ground for the purpose, which
was afterwards conveyed to the Society for propagating Christian
Knowledge. In the course of seven years afterwards, owing to
the rapid influx of people from the Highlands, it was found
necessary to enlarge the building, which was then done so as to
accommodate eleven hundred sitters ;
£15
Sir
Henry Moncrieff Wellwood
Bart
No.
XC.
SIR HENRY MONCREIFF WELLWOOD, BART.,
ONE Of THE MINISTERS OF THE WEST CHURCH, EDINBURGH.THIS
distinguished clergyman was one of the very few men of title whom
the annals of the Church of Scotland record. Descended from a
family of antiquity, he was born at Blackford, near Stirling, in
1750. His father, Sir William Moncreiff, Bart., a man of " singular
merits and virtues," was minister of that parish, and greatly
beloved by his parishioners £15
Andrew Mc Kinley
TRIED
FOR ADMINISTERING.
UNLAWFUL OATHS. THE events of the Radical era of 1817-19 must be in
the recollection of most readers ; and we shall only remark, that
the subject of this Print was at that period one of the many
suspected to be unfriendly to the Constitution. ANDREW M'KiNLAY was
apprehended at Glasgow, on Saturday the 23d of February 1817, along
with other seventeen persons, mostly weavers, who had assembled at
night in a small public house at the head of the Old Wynd, among
whom were William Edgar, teacher. Calton, and James Finlayson,
junior, a writer's clerk. The object of this meeting, as
represented by the prisoners, was simply to " concert measures for
ascertaining the question how for they were entitled by law to
parochial relief." This explanation not having been deemed
satisfactory, M'Kinlay, along with twenty-five others, was
committed on a charge of sedition, and afterwards conveyed to
Edinburgh, to be tried before the High Court of Justiciary.
£18
Rev
Charles
Simeon
Rev
Charles
Simeon
Of Trinity Church cambridge. This popular divine was born at
Reading in 1759 and entered Kings in 1779/ £15
Rev Henry Grey
MINISTER OF ST MARY'S CHURCH, EDINBURGH. MB GREY was born at Alnwick,
in the county of Northumberland, in the year 1778. His father was a
gentleman of the medical profession. In early life he was left to the
care of a kind and pious mother, who watched over her son with the most
tender and anxious assiduity, and lived to receive the reward of her
love and devotcdness in her son's clerical reputation and unceasing
affection
£15
C16
No. LVII.
REV. HUGH BLAIR, D.D. OF THE HIGH CHURCH, EDINBURGH.
THE author of the " Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres," and
of five volumes of universally admired Sermons, whose life and
writings have done so much credit to the Scottish pulpit, was born
at Edinburgh in 1718. His father was a merchant, and grandson to
Robert Blair, an eminent Presbyterian "' Scots Worthy" of the
seventeenth century.*.
c18
James
Gregory (1753-1821), Professor of
medicine
82No.
LXXXII.
CHARLES HAY, ESQ., ADVOCATE,
TAKEN A SHORT TIME BEFORE HIS ELEVATION TO THE BENCH.
CHARLES HAY, son of James Hay, Esq. of Cocklaw, Writer to the
Signet,was born in 1747.* After the usual preparatory course of
education, he passeda dvocate in 1768, having just attained the
years of majority ; but, unlike most young practitioners, Hay had
so thoroughly studied the principles of the law, "that he has been
frequently heard to declare he was as good a lawyer at that time as
he ever was at any after period." He soon became distinguished by
his strong natural abilities, as well as by his extensive knowledge
of the profession, which embraced alike the minutest forms of the
daily practice of the Court and the highest and most subtle points
of jurisprudence. As a pleader he was very effective.£12
Cleric 21
No. LXXIII.
THE REV. DR JOHN ERSKINE,
LATE OF THE OLD GREVFRIAR'S CHURCH, EDINBURGH. THIS is a very
faithful representation of the above worthy man and no less
excellent divine. The attitude in which he is delineated is that
which he invariably assumed on entering upon his discourse, and is
remarkably in unison with the description of the "colleague of Dr
Robertson," furnished by the graphic pen of Sir Walter Scott, in
the novel of Guy Mannering.* DR ERSKINE, born on the 2d of June
1721, was the eldest son of John
Erskine, Esq. of Carnock, Professor of Scots Law in the University
of Edinburgh, and well known as the author of the Institutes of the
Law of Scotland. . . 2nd copy
P 10
£8
sorry uattributed
No. CXI.
REV. JOHN M'DONALD,
OF THE GAELIC CHAPEL, CASTLE WYND, EDINBURGH.MB M'DONALD, son of a
small farmer at Rae, in Caithness, was born there on the 12th of
November 1779. Having acquired the rudiments of education at the
parish school, he commenced his theological studies at King's
College, Aberdeen, in 1797, and was licensed to preach in 1805. For
sometime thereafter he was employed as a missionary in his native
district ; and, in 1807, was chosen successor to the Rev. Mr
M'Lachlan in the Gaelic Chapel, Edinburgh. Here he continued about
six years, and was greatly esteemed by his congregation as a sound
preacher and an amiable man.
William Cummings
No.LV.
WILLIAM CUMMING, ESQ.
THE old gentleman represented in this Etching was a person of
eccentric habits. He was immensely rich, and carried on a very
extensive and lucrative business as a private banker at one time in
the Parliament Close, and latterly, under the firm of Cumming &
Son, in the Royal Exchange. He died in 1790. His demise was thus
announced in the periodicals of the day : " March 27, at Edinburgh,
in an advanced age, William : Cumming, Esq., many years an eminent
banker. £8
