George Home

George Home occupied Malta House between 1841 and 1844. Styled ‘of Buskinburn’ in Post Office Directories,¹ he was born on 08 December 1796 and baptised at Coldingham, Berwickshire on 12 December 1796,² though his own memoir gives 1794 as the year of his birth.³  He was the fourth son of Commander Alexander Home, R.N., of Buskinburn and his wife Elizabeth Stuart. George Home was a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and an excise officer before settling in Edinburgh. He first appears in the Edinburgh directory in 1839 at 26 Danube Street.⁴ The 1841 census recorded his occupation as ‘Independent.’⁵ He died of consumption at Malta House on 18 February 1844.⁶

In 1838 George Home published Memoirs of an Aristocrat and Reminiscences of the Emperor Napoleon, by a Midshipman of the Bellerephon. He unsuccessfully pursued his father’s claim to the dormant Earldom of Marchmont, which was continued by his eldest son Alexander Francis Home.

This account of George Home appeared in Cumberland Hill’s Historic Memorials & Reminiscences of Stockbridge (1887):

‘Old Malta House was occupied for a time by the late Mr George Home, a wine merchant in South St David Street. He was engaged in some law pleas, one of which ending disastrously, reduced him to great straits ; but what made him well known in Stockbridge and elsewhere was that he claimed to be Earl of Marchmont. His claim seemed to find favour in the eyes of those who were best fitted to judge of its merits. Things were going on so favourably in this way that he issued debentures to the tradesmen with whom he dealt, particularly to his baker and butcher, promising, of course, in the event of his succeeding to the Earldom, that they would be amply repaid for all their outlay. The sudden death of Sir Robert Peel, and the change that then took place in the Government, blasted his hopes. And no doubt the want of means to prosecute his claim prevented him from further prosecuting his case. Mr Home was a remarkably fine-looking man, fully six feet in height ; well-formed and with handsome features, his gait, carriage, and conversation were all thoroughly aristocratic. After his death the claim to the Earldom was still maintained by his son, the late Mr Alexander F. Home, accountant, Edinburgh.’

George Home married Euphemia McAuslin at Greenock on 06 October 1823.⁷ She was born at Greenock about 1800,⁸ the daughter of Humphrey McAuslin, a coal merchant. She died at 2 Mackenzie Place, Edinburgh on 08 June 1872, aged 72.⁹

The four children of George Home and Euphemia McAuslin were all recorded living at Malta House in the 1841 census:

• Alexander Francis Home was born on 09 June 1825 and baptised at Muckhart, Perthshire on 01 September 1825.¹⁰ He was an accountant and died unmarried at 2 Mackenzie Place, Edinburgh on 12 September 1871.¹¹
• Patrick Home was born 06 November 1826, at Dundee.¹² In the censuses of 1851 and 1861 no occupation was recorded. In the 1871 census he was described as an ‘imbecile.’¹³
• Francis Douglas Home was born in Glasgow about 1835.¹⁴ He was an accountancy clerk by occupation,https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 March 2024.[/efn_note] though his death registration described him as an annuitant. He died, unmarried, on 04 May 1873 at 4 Dean Street, Edinburgh.¹⁵
• May Home was born in Glasgow on 11 March 1833.¹⁶ She was 11 years old when her father died and lived with her widowed mother until her own death on 17 March 1870 at 2 Mackenzie Place.¹⁷

1. <PO Directories 1839-40, 1842-43 and 1843-44.
2. Baptisms (OPR) Scotland. Coldingham, Berwickshire.
3. Home, George. (1838) Memoirs of an Aristocrat and Reminiscences of the Emperor Napoleon, by a Midshipman of the Bellerephon. London: Whittaker & Co. https://google.co.uk/books: accessed 27 October 2024.
4. PO Directory 1839-40.
5. Census records. Scotland. St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh. 06 June 1841. HOME, George. 685/2 6B/ 06. Ancestry collection ‘1841 Scotland Census.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 20 December 2023.
6. Burials (OPR) Scotland. St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh. 18 February 1844. HOME, George. 685/02 0610 0021. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 20 December 2023.
7. Marriages (OPR) Scotland. Greenock, Renfrewshire. 06 October 1823. HOME, George and McAUSLAN, Euphemia. 564/2 30 24. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 March 2024.
8. Census records. Scotland. Edinburgh. 07 April 1861. HOME, Euphemia. 685/1 84/ 04. Ancestry collection ‘1861 Scotland Census.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 19 March 2024.
9. Deaths (SR) Scotland. Edinburgh. 08 June 1872. HOME, Euphemia. 685/1 715. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 20 March 2024.
10. Baptisms (OPR) Scotland. Muckhart, Perthshire. 01 September 1825. HOME, Alexander Francis. 385/ 24. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 March 2024.
11. Deaths (SR) Scotland. St George, Edinburgh. 19 September 1871. HOME, Alexander Francis. 685/1 954. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 March 2024.
12. Baptisms (OPR) Scotland. Dundee. 22 December 1826. HOME, Patrick. 282/ 62. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 March 2024.
13. Census records. Scotland. Edinburgh. 02 April 1871. HOME, Patrick. 685/1 93/ 7. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 March 2024.
14. Census records. Scotland. Edinburgh. 07 April 1861. HOME, Francis. 685/1 84/ 04. Ancestry collection ‘1861 Scotland Census.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 19 March 2024.
15. Deaths (SR) Scotland. St George, Edinburgh. 13 May 1873. HOME, Francis Douglas. 685/1 435. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 March 2024.
16. Baptisms (OPR) Scotland. Gorbals, Glasgow. 12 March 1833. HOLM, Mary Hume. 644/2 293. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 March 2024.
17. Deaths (SR) Scotland. St George, Edinburgh. 01 April 1870. HOME, Mary-Hume. 685/1 376. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 22 March 2024.