Private
I. George Bartholomew
The first engraver [1][2]
with Lothian's plan of the City of Edinburgh of 1825
in background engraved by him.
George Bartholomew (1784–1871) was born out of wedlock in Edinburgh, the eldest son of John Bartholomew (1754— 1817) from a merchant family of Linlithgow, West Lothian. He was brought up in humble circumstances* by his mother Margaret Aitken (1758—1808) on the south side of Edinburgh’s Old Town.
In May 1815 he married Anne McGregor (1791—1849). They had four sons and six daughters, of whom the eldest son, John, was born in 1805, some ten years before the marriage.
George is considered the father of the Bartholomew mapmaking tradition. In 1797 he was apprenticed to the well-known engraver Daniel Lizars. He became an independent engraver in 1806, while continuing to work for Lizars. Latterly he worked for his son, John Snr who set up his own map engraving business in 1826. George outlived his son John by a decade. For a time there were three generations working together – George, John Snr and two of his sons.
George died of cancer in October 1871. His family memorial is on the west wall of Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh. Having been born into poor circumstances in Edinburgh tenements, at the time of his death he was wealthy enough to provide houses for each of his two surviving daughters and arrange lifelong care for his disabled son.
* An interesting account of George's early life and his relationship to his father can be found in this article published by the Dunfermline Historical Society: 'My Favourite Boy'.
[1] Bartholomew, 150 Years, Leslie Gardiner, 1976.
[2] includes extracts from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.