George Heriot’s Hospital was a charitable educational hospital opened in 1659 with money bequeathed by George Heriot. George Heriot (1563-1624) was a Scottish goldsmith and philanthropist; he was the court goldsmith to King James VI of Scotland, becoming very wealthy from the position. Upon his death, he bequeathed £23,625 to build George Heriot’s Hospital, a charitable school dedicated to care for orphaned children; construction began in 1628. The hospital was built immediately outside the city walls of Edinburgh, to the south of Edinburgh Castle. Just as it was completed, it was occupied by Oliver Cromwell’s army during the invasion of Scotland in the Third English Civil War. In 1659, the hospital opened, becoming home to thirty disadvantaged boys. In the 1840s there were a number of student disturbances, climaxing with an insurrection in 1846, after which many students were dismissed; the Hospital consequently became the centre of scrutiny. Duncan McLaren, Lord Provost of Edinburgh and Chairman of the Hospital Governors from 1851, proposed that the number of boys in the hospital should be reduced, and for other Heriot schools to be created. McLaren instigated the 1836 Act that enabled the governors of the school to channel the Heriot Trust’s financial surplus to set up a network of other non-fee paying schools across Edinburgh. This network of schools ran from 1838 until 1885. Between the late 1860s and 1880s, the hospital was central to controversies surrounding Scottish educational endowments. Various groups suggested different directions for the school, with the Colebrooke Commission on Endowed Schools and Hospitals (established in 1872) suggesting making the Heriot a technical day school, or introducing fees for the ‘outdoor’ schools (the schools in the Heriot network across Edinburgh). The Heriot Trust Defence Committee (established in 1875) argued that such changes were betraying Edinburgh’s working class for the benefit of the middle classes. Ultimately, in 1885, the Balfour Commission on Education Endowments imposed reform on Heriot’s; the Hospital became a fee-charging day school, oriented towards technical education, for boys aged 10 and above. The Balfour Commission also resulted in the Heriot Trust taking over the Watt Institution and School of Arts, which was renamed the Heriot-Watt College. The Hospital now exists as the fee-paying, independent, and co-educational George Heriot’s school, with around 1600 pupils; it still provides free education to select fatherless children and is governed by the George Heriot’s Trust.