now known as Adam Bothwell's House He was born in 1580 at Braid Castle, then south-west of
Edinburgh (now enveloped by the city) close to what is now
Hermitage of Braid. He was the son of John Dick and his wife, Margaret Stewart. John Dick had much land in
Orkney and had also assembled much wealth trading with
Denmark. William had an income of £3000 per annum from farm rentals in Orkney. As a banker in 1617 he loaned £66,666 to the treasurer-depute
Gideon Murray for the visit of
James VI and I to Scotland, indicating his enormous wealth and power. In 1639 he loaned the Covenanting Army under
James Graham, Marquess of Montrose a staggering £200,000 (£24 million in current terms). He had an Edinburgh townhouse on the
Royal Mile between Byers Close and Advocates Close, immediately opposite
St Giles Cathedral. Much of this building (which he built in 1630) still survives (behind a new office on Advocates Close) and is known by the name of an earlier occupier of the site as
Adam Bothwell's House. Dick would have had offices, his "bank", here at 369 High Street. An interior from around 1630 may have been added by Dick as it includes a built in safe within the timber panelling. He acquired this building from
John Byres of Coates, also a banker. He had a large warehouse in the
Luckenbooths close to his house on Byers Close, next to
St Giles Cathedral. In 1638 he succeeded
John Hay of Lands as Provost of Edinburgh. He was succeeded in turn in 1640 by
Alexander Clerk of Pittencrieff. He was knighted in 1641 by
King Charles I of England, to whom he had loaned at least £20,000. In 1642 he leased the Edinburgh customs house (near the Netherbow) at a cost of 202,000 merks per annum. During the
English Civil War his Royalist sympathies came home to roost when Cromwell's troops camped at the Braid and demanded compensation for his loyalist support. He was forced to pay £65,000 representing the bulk of his wealth He afterwards went to London to try to recover this money. His efforts instead ended with his being heavily fined by the Cromwellian authorities. He died on 19 December 1655. Although some records state he died in prison, he had been confined in private lodgings in
Westminster in
London. A collection was required to pay for his funeral and his grave had no stone memorial and is lost. All that survives of Braid Castle is the
doocot and remnant boundary walls and foundations amongst the trees in the Braid Woods. "Provost Dick" is mentioned in
Sir Walter Scott's novel
The Heart of Midlothian. ==Family==