LOCKHART, GEORGE (1673-1731), of Carnwath, Scot tish writer and politician, son of Sir G. Lockhart (d. 1689), lord president of the court of session, was member for the city of Edinburgh in the Scottish parliament and was appointed a com missioner for arranging the union with England in i7o5. 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 prep arations 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 re leased 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 Dec. 2, 1715. After his liberation Lockhart became a secret agent of the Pretender; but his corre spondence 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. On Dec. 17, 1731, he was killed in a duel.
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 corre spondence with the Pretender, and one or two papers of minor importance, were published in two volumes in 1817, forming the well known "Lockhart Papers," a valuable authority for the history of the Jacobites.
See The Lockhart Papers (2 vols., 1817) ; Andrew Lang, History of Scotland (4 vols., 1900) . For Sir Simon Lockhart's adventures with the heart of the Bruce, see Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman.