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John Heriot (22 April 1760 – 2 August 1833) was a Scottish journalist and writer. He was forced to join the Royal Marines due to family hardship, and served as a junior officer during the American Revolutionary War. He was wounded in 1780 at the Battle of Martinique, and retired from the service in 1783; after living in financial difficulties for some years, he published two moderately successful novels in the 1780s, the second of which drew extensively on his experiences as a half-pay officer. He was recruited as a pro-government journalist and pamphleteer in 1788, and placed on a salary the following year. He became the founder and sole editor of two pro-government daily newspapers, the ''Sun'' and the ''True Briton'', which ran for over a decade, and eventually retired from journalistic work in 1806. He was appointed to a number of government posts, most significantly the comptrollership of Chelsea Hospital, the post he held at his death. He was a distant relative of the philanthropist George Heriot, and the younger brother of the Scots-Canadian artist George Heriot. ==Early life== Heriot was born at Haddington in 1760,〔Davis, 2008.〕 the second son of John Heriot, the sheriff clerk of the town, and his wife Marjory; his older brother was George Heriot, later to become a prominent artist.〔Finley, 2000.〕 The Heriots were part of the long-established family of the Heriots of Trabroun, the most well-known member of which was the seventeenth-century goldsmith and philanthropist George Heriot.〔LaBrèque, 2000, notes the familial background in reference to his cousin.〕 The family moved to Edinburgh in 1772, where Heriot attended the Edinburgh Royal High School;〔Davis, 2008.〕 he had previously been educated at the Coldstream grammar school〔''Annual biography and obituary'', 1834, p. 41〕 He studied at the University of Edinburgh after leaving the high school, but the collapse of his father's business in 1777 meant that he had to leave and seek employment.〔Davis, 2008.〕 He lived for three months with an uncle in Forres, where a member of the local gentry attempted to procure him a commission from the Duke of Dorset. This was unsuccessful, but it had the effect of directing Heriot towards a military career. Late in 1778, having failed to obtain a commission in Scotland, he travelled to London, where he was appointed a second lieutenant in the Royal Marines in November 1778.〔''Annual biography and obituary'', 1834, p. 42. The date is from Davis, 2008.〕 He quickly arranged for sea duty - as the living expense of a shore posting was substantially more expensive to maintain - and was posted to HMS ''Vengeance'', commanded by Captain Frederick Maitland. He served off the west coast of Africa and in the West Indies; when Captain Maitland left the ''Vengeance'' to take up command of HMS ''Elizabeth'', Heriot was posted to HMS ''Preston''. The ''Preston'' was an elderly fourth-rate ship, and Heriot quickly arranged to be transferred into the ''Elizabeth'' under Maitland. He first saw active fighting aboard the ''Elizabeth'', in an attack on a convoy on 19 December 1779, and again at the Battle of Martinique on 16 April 1780, where he was wounded. He transferred to HMS ''Brune'' in July, commanded by Francis Hartwell, and was aboard her during the Great Hurricane in October 1780. He was appointed a first lieutenant of marines in August 1781, after the ''Brune'' had been paid off, and was later posted to HMS ''Salisbury'' and HMS ''Alexander'', before being put on half-pay at the cessation of hostilities in 1783.〔''Annual biography and obituary'', 1834, pp. 43-4.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Heriot (journalist)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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