Sir James Steuart of Coltness (Circa 1658)
1
Photograph © The University of Edinburgh
Artist | David Scougall (Scottish active 1654-1677) |
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Title | Sir James Steuart of Coltness |
Date | Circa 1658 |
Period | 17th century; 1650s; 1660s |
Description | Oval half length. The sitter faces to the left contemplating the spectator. He wears puritanical dress with plain falling bands and is placed against a plain background within a painted oval. It is a reduced and modified version of the three-quatrer length portrait of the sitter by Scougal illustrated in 'The Lord Provosts of Edinburgh'. |
Material | canvas (textile material)/textile materials/materials (substances); oil paint (paint)/paint (coating) |
Dimensions | 75.5 x 63 cm - canvas 97 x 84.8 cm - frame |
Subject | Sir James Steuart (b.1608, d.1681); The progenitor of the Coltness family was Sir James Steuart, second son of James Steuart of Allanton. Born in 1608, Sir James was a banker in Edinburgh, of which city he was in 1649 elected lord-provost. He acquired a large fortune, and in 1653 purchased the lands of West Carbarns or Kirkfield, Lanarkshire, from Sir John Somerville of Cambusnethan, and soon after the estate of Coltness, in the same county, from Sir John Hamilton of Edston. Being a zealous Covenanter, he was, in 1650, chosen, with the marquis of Argyle and the earl of Eglinton, on the part of the Scots, to hold a conference with Oliver Cromwell in Bruntsfield Links. IN 1659 he was again elected lord-provost of Edinburgh, but on account of his covenanting principles, was dismissed at the Restoration, and after being confined in the castle of Edinburgh, was sent prisoner to Dundee, and fined £1,500 sterling. In 1670, he obtained a pardon. Archbishop Leighton was brought up at Edinburgh under his care, and the undaunted Hugh Mackail, executed in 1666, had been chaplain in his family. Among many particulars recorded in the Coltness manuscripts, the following, inserted in the New Statistical Account of Scotland (vol. v. p. 618, Note. Parish of Cambusnethan,) may be quoted here: “Sir James Stewart, who had been twice first magistrate of Edinburgh, when nearly seventy-three years of age, after his last visit to Coltness, when going to Edinburgh, accompanied by some of the most respectable in the land; at Muiryett, about two miles from Allanton, there was a rising ground which draws an extensive prospect; there he stopt, and having turned his horse, he looked around upon a scenery that he was convinced he should behold no more, and exclaimed, while tears of gratitude flowed down his venerable cheeks, ‘Westshiel, and Lanark, and Carnwath church, my early home, my favourite haunts, farewell! Coltness, and Allanton, and Cambusnethan church, my later sweet abodes, farewell! Ye witnesses of my best spent hours and of my most ardent devotions, a last farewell! It is long since I bade the vanities of this world adieu. |
Collection | Art Collection |
Classification | oil paintings (visual works); paintings 1600-1800; portrait |
Accession Number | EU0245 |
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