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The Right Honourable William Calder
Calder in the robes and chain of the Lord Provost, from the portrait in the civic collection of the City of Edinburgh
Lord Provost of Edinburgh
In office 1810–1811
Preceded by	William Coulter
Succeeded by	William Creech
Dean of Guild of Edinburgh
In office 1806–1808
Personal details
Died	1824 (1825) Edinburgh, Scotland
Spouse	Agnes Dalrymple ​ (m. 1785)​
Occupation	Merchant

William Calder (died 1824) was a Scottish merchant who served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1810 to 1811. He had earlier held the burgh office of Dean of Guild from 1806 to 1808, and sat on Edinburgh Town Council from 1802.

In September 1785, when he was resident in Leith, Calder married Agnes Dalrymple, daughter of the deceased Robert Dalrymple. By the following year he was described as a merchant in Portsburgh.^[1]

The Post Office directory for 1810–11 lists him as a merchant, with premises in Candlemaker Row.^[2]

By the end of his life Calder was trading as William Calder & Co., of which he was the sole partner, from shops at 126 High Street, 27 Hanover Street, 8 St Patrick Square and 107 Portsburgh. He also held cellars in Nicolson Square and Candlemaker Row.^[3]

Calder became a member of Edinburgh Town Council in 1802 and a bailie in 1803. From 1806 to 1808 he was Dean of Guild, the chief officer of the burgh's Guildry, who presided over the Dean of Guild Court.^[4][5][a] During 1810 and 1811 he was an Assistant of the Merchant Company of Edinburgh; the Guildry and the Merchant Company were separate bodies with separate records.^[4]

Calder was elected Lord Provost in 1810 on the death in office of his predecessor, William Coulter, serving first the remainder of Coulter's year and then a term of his own to 1811. He was succeeded by the publisher William Creech.^[4][6]

Three undertakings of 1811 are recorded with which Calder was connected ex officio. The beginning of the Observatory on Calton Hill dates from that year, as does a second wet dock at Leith, the foundation of which was laid in March.^[4] In May 1811 Calder laid the foundation stone of St George's Church in Charlotte Square, after which the Lord Provost and council walked in procession to the Royal Exchange to establish themselves in the new Council Chamber there, in the building later known as the City Chambers.^[4]

Outside the council Calder was a manager of the Public Dispensary and a director of the Scottish Bible Society.^[4]

As Lord Provost, Calder held one of only four civic offices in the United Kingdom of the day entitled to the style The Right Honourable. The others were the Lord Mayors of London, York and Dublin; the three offices within Great Britain had held the privilege from time immemorial, and the Dublin mayoralty had carried it since its elevation by Charles II in 1665.^[7][8][b]

The style attached to the office rather than to its holder. Calder was nevertheless styled "the Right Honourable" personally in an entry in the St Cuthbert's parish marriage register of February 1811.^[9]

Wood states that Calder survived until September 1824.^[4] The inventory of his personal estate, given up in the Edinburgh Sheriff Court and presented on 18 February 1825, states that he died in Edinburgh on 19 August 1824.^[3]

By his trust disposition and settlement he provided for his wife and divided his estate equally among his four daughters: Ann, wife of William Marshall, a goldsmith in Edinburgh; Helen, wife of David Rymer, merchant in Edinburgh; Eliza, wife of Thomas Rymer, solicitor in Edinburgh; and Mary Calder.^[3] The inventory was presented by the Edinburgh firm of Scott & Rymer, solicitors.^[3]

A full-length oil portrait of Calder is held in the civic collection of the City of Edinburgh. It shows him seated in a carved chair, in an ermine-trimmed robe with the chain and badge of office, holding a staff, with civic regalia on a draped table beside him and a view of a rocky eminence at the left. The painting was reproduced as a plate in Wood's 1932 volume, where the caption records that it was presented to the Corporation by the family of Mrs David Marshall.^[10] No artist is named.

• The Post-Office Annual Directory, 1808–9. Edinburgh: Post Office. 1808. Retrieved 15 August 2026 – via National Library of Scotland.
• The Post-Office Annual Directory, 1810–11. Edinburgh: Post Office. 1810. Retrieved 15 August 2026 – via National Library of Scotland.
• Wood, Marguerite (1932). The Lord Provosts of Edinburgh, 1296–1932. Edinburgh: Printed for Sir T. B. Whitson by T. & A. Constable. OCLC 4248628.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Category:1824 deaths Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Lord Provosts of Edinburgh Category:Scottish merchants Category:18th-century Scottish businesspeople Category:19th-century Scottish businesspeople Category:Businesspeople from Edinburgh