Life of world’s first Chinese Scotsman who lived in Edinburgh remembered in new book

The life of the world’s first Chinese Scotsman, who made his home in 18th Century Edinburgh, has been honoured in a new book.

Historian Barclay Price at William Macao's grave. William Macao was a Highland estate servant who became the first Chinese man to be baptised in the Church of Scotland.

William Macao was brought to Scotland by a Highland estate owner and was the first Chinese man to be baptised in the Church of Scotland.

He went on to become a well-known figure in Edinburgh society, working as a senior accountant and serving as a Kirk elder before taking centre stage in a landmark citizenship case.

For a time, he was the only person to be legally deemed a Scotsman following the Act of Union in 1707 – at a time when everyone else living in Scotland was considered a British citizen.

Mr Macao was known as the worlds first Chinese Scotsman. His story is celebrated in a chapter in a new book, entitled The Chinese in Britain: A History of Visitors and Settlers, officially launched on Thursday

Mr Macao’s story is celebrated in a new book, The Chinese in Britain: A History of Visitors and Settlers, which was officially launched in Edinburgh last night.

Historian Barclay Price spent nearly a year piecing together the life of Mr Macao who was brought to an estate on the Black Isle more than 240 years ago.

Mr Price said: “Regrettably, there is no record of his Chinese name or where he grew up, but if William Macao had been a Scot it would be remarkable that a man who was a servant on the Black Isle became an accountant with the Board of Excise in Edinburgh.

“But the fact that he was Chinese and the only individual since the 1707 Act of Union to be legally decreed a Scottish citizen makes his story even more remarkable.”

Mr Macao was employed as a servant by Dr David Urquhart, a surgeon in the East India Company’s Indian army, to accompany him on the long voyage to Scotland in 1776.

He was baptised in the Highlands sometime before 1778, with Mr Macao apparently the first Chinese person baptised into the Protestant Church. He moved to Edinburgh after being offered a job as a footman by a friend and took the role as Assistant for Male Servants at the Board of Excise’s offices in 1781. He married his wife Helen two years later and was promoted to Assistant Clerk.

In 1800, he became one of the board’s 11 accountants but tragedy struck two years later when his wife died in childbirth, leaving the couple’s three young children behind.

Mr Macao, a kirk elder at Rose Street Church, found himself at the heart of a legal battle with the state after he bought stock in the Bank of Scotland in 1818. The act that established the bank said foreigners who became partners in the bank would “become a naturalised Scotsman”.

The matter challenged in the courts with it ruled that Mr Macao was indeed a Scotsman. This was later overruled by the Court of the Session. He died in Henderson Row in 1831 at the age of 78 and was buried at St Cuthbert’s Church of Scotland in Princes Street Gardens.

Rev Peter Sutton, minister of St Cuthbert’s Church, said: “It is a great privilege to have William’s grave in St Cuthbert’s. It reminds us of welcome, acceptance and rejoicing in the gifts that everyone brings.”

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