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Author: Heriot, George

Biography:

HERIOT, George (1759-1839: DCB)

He was born at Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland, at an unknown date in 1759, the eldest son of Marjory or Margery (Heriot) and John Heriot, who had married on 2 Jan. 1758. His younger brother John (1760-1833) became a prominent newspaper editor in London. The family moved to Edinburgh in 1772 and both boys were well taught at the Edinburgh High School, but their father’s business failed in 1777. George, who had been training as an artist, went to the West Indies, where he made notes and sketches; his poem was published on his return. As an officer cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, for about two years (1781-3) he was taught landscape drawing by Paul Sandby (1731-1809); he then worked as a clerk for the Board of Ordnance. He published a series of views of the Channel Islands in 1789-90. He was posted to Lower Canada (Quebec) as clerk of the cheque in the Ordnance Department, and apart from two leaves of absence in Britain (1796-7, 1806) he stayed there from 1792 to 1816, extending his range and skill as a watercolour artist and rising in the civil service to become Deputy Postmaster General of British North America in 1799. He wrote and published in London two works based on his experience, the first volume only of a History of Canada (1804) and Travels through the Canadas (1808). Although he had some success in improving the postal service he also encountered frustrations and quarrelled with his superiors, and in 1816 he resigned his post. After returning to Britain he continued to travel, to sketch, and to write: his final book of travels, A Picturesque Tour . . . through the Pyrenean Mountains, appeared in 1824. He died at his home on Sloane St., London, on 23 July 1839. (DCB 16 May 2022; “Heriot, John,” ODNB 16 May 2022; findmypast.com 16 May 2022; MH 25 Jul. 1839)

 

Books written (1):