Background
George Lockhart was born in Scotland, United Kingdom in 1673.
George Lockhart was born in Scotland, United Kingdom in 1673.
George Lockhart, who was member for the city of Edinburgh in the Scottish parliament, was appointed a commissioner for arranging the union with England in 1705. After the union he continued to represent Edinburgh, and later the Wigton burghs. His sympathies were with the Jacobites, whom he kept informed of all the negotiations for the union; in 1713 he took part in an abortive movement aiming at the repeal of the union. He was deeply implicated in the rising of 1715, the preparations for which he assisted at Carnwath and at Dryden, his Edinburgh residence. He was imprisoned in Edinburgh castle, but probably, through the favour of the duke of Argyll, he was released without being brought to trial; but his brother Philip was taken prisoner at the battle of Preston and condemned to be shot, the sentence being executed on the 2nd of December 1715. After his liberation Lockhart became a secret agent of the Pretender; but his correspondence with the prince fell into the hands of the government in 1727, compelling him to go into concealment at Durham until he was able to escape abroad. Argyll's influence was again exerted in Lockhart's behalf, and in 1728 he was permitted to return to Scotland, where he lived in retirement till his death in a duel on the 17th of December 1731. Lockhart was the author of Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland, dealing with the reign of Queen Anne till the union with England, first published in 1714. These Memoirs, together with Lockhart's correspondence with the Pretender, and one or two papers of minor importance, were published in two volumes in 1817, forming the well-known "Lockhart Papers, " which are a valuable authority for the history of the Jacobites.
He married Eupheme Montgomerie.