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The hospital, intended to provide for the aged poor, had selection criteria for entry: any person who had worked for the brothers; any person with the surname
Gillespie aged 55 or over; persons over 55 from Edinburgh or Leith. All had to be without private resources, "decent, godly and well-behaved".
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The hospital building which was later built around on its north side by
Gillespie Crescent, and thereafter approached via this road, was converted to workshops for the Royal Blind Asylum in 1925 (dealing with the war blinded). It was in turn demolished in 1975 after brief disuse following relocation
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In 2020 growing awareness of
Gillespie's links to the Virginian slave trade caused a public petition to be raised to rename the school. “This makes a direct contributor and benefactor of the slave trade. It is possible that Gillespie may have owned slaves himself. It is time that we change the
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A quarter of
Gillespie's bequest (£2,700) was left for the establishment of a free school for the education of poor boys. The school was founded in 1803. The school was to educate boys between the ages of six and twelve who were required to produce proof of their poverty and a certificate of good
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He grew to fame and fortune in the city as a merchant, working with his younger brother John who ran the family shop, and eventually becoming one of
Edinburgh's richest men. The tobacco he sold came from America ( Virginia), from slave plantations.
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The school is still in operation and has grown significantly. Since its foundation it has moved and changed ownership several times. In 1923 it opened its doors to girls as well as boys. It now comprises James
Gillespie's Primary School and
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employing many people, all of whom it is said were treated well. In 1773 he built Spylaw House, an impressive
Georgian mansion house, as his home. Most of his staff lived in the house, which was attached to his mill.
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H Cockburn, Memorials Of His Time (1851), James Thin reprint 1977, pp.173-4 -- Cockburn alleged that
Gillespie had disinherited his nearest relation "for the vanity of being remembered by a thing named after
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and tobacco merchant in
Edinburgh in the 18th century. He never married, and upon his death left a fortune with the request that a hospital and school for the poor should be built, now known as
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Gillespie's
Hospital (built using the money left in his will) was built on the site of Lord Bargenie's baronial mansion in Bruntsfield, which was demolished in 1800, much to the chagrin of
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who claimed that the historic and picturesque edifice built originally by a branch of the Napier family had been "brutally obliterated" while "the idiot public looked on in silence".
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He died on 8 April 1797 and is buried in a large enclosed vault on the north side of the church in
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He was notoriously thrifty and is credited with inventing the phrase "waste not, want not", though
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name of our school to something that truly values the diversity that exists within it.”
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James Gillespie's portrait on the site of his shop on Edinburgh's Royal Mile
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in 1973. It was replaced by new apartment blocks for the elderly in 1975.
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A large snuff jar from his house is held by Lady Stair's House (the
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A tablet marks the site of his shop at 231 High Street on the
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Inscription on James Gillespie's tomb, Colinton, Edinburgh
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James Gillespie's original shop sign is held by the
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By The three Great roads, Aberdeen University Press
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James Gillespie - bust in Merchants Hall, Edinburgh
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116:(both north of the school) are named after him.
16:18th-century Scottish snuff and tobacco merchant
557:James Gillespie tablet, High Street, Edinburgh
353:. Vol. 21. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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432:"Charting Edinburgh's slave trade history"
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607:18th-century British philanthropists
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456:Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh
418:James Gillespie’s Primary School
350:Dictionary of National Biography
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124:James Gillespie was born in
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572:Scottish philanthropists
344:"Gillespie, James"
77:Kingdom of Great Britain
183:Spylaw House, Edinburgh
139:He had a snuff mill at
602:People from Midlothian
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110:Gillespie Crescent
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587:Tobacco merchants
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222:Craigmillar
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73:Nationality
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156:Royal Mile
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525:himself".
232:Artefacts
198:Marchmont
130:Edinburgh
436:BBC News
391:cite web
208:Hospital
188:health.
141:Colinton
252:Gallery
381:21 May
169:School
375:(PDF)
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100:snuff
87:Snuff
503:2021
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383:2014
120:Life
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61:Died
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
