Patrick Heron of Heron and Kirroughtrie
Biography
Birth: ca. 1736
Death: 1803
Probably the son of Patrick Heron (1701-1761) and Janet Gordon (b. 1703). Married (1761) to Jean Home, daughter of Henry Home, Lord Kames. They divorced in 1772 following Home's adulterous affair with a young officer. Married (1775) to Elizabeth Cochrane (1745-1811), Boswell's cousin.
Co-founder, with Archibald Douglas, of the Ayr bank Douglas, Heron & Company which went bankrupt in 1773, resulting in heavy financial losses for depositors and shareholders. Whig MP for the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright (1794-1803)
He was inherited by his only surviving child, his daughter, Mary (d. 1856), and son-in-law Lieutenant-General Sir John Maxwell (d. 1830), 4th Bart of Nova Scotia, who assumed the surname and arms of Heron.1
The Kirroughtrie estate had been in the family's possession since 1465. Heron's Court in Edinburgh is named after Patrick Heron, who owned a building on or near the premises. (Link)
Also known as
Life with James Boswell
Boswell stayed with the Herons at Kirroughtrie in late September and early October 1762. Boswell described Patrick Heron as "sensible, genteel, well-bred, has an uncommon good temper, and, at the same time, has all the spirit that becomes a man".
Notes
Note 1: According to Anderson, William. The Scottish Nation. Volumes I-III. Edinburgh: A. Fullarton & Co., 1864. See the entry for the Maxwells of Springkell
Recommended literature
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