GUTHRIE, GEORGE [SSNE 6271]
Text source
George Guthrie was the son of Walter Guthrie [SSNE 6446] who emigrated to Sweden from Scotland and became a merchant in Stockholm. His mother was Catharina Jöransdotter. He had a brother Nicholas [SSNE 7021] who was a painter. George was born in 1644 but little is known of his early life. By 1664 he was a book-keeper in the Västerviks Ship Company and also the Tar Company. He later held that position in the Kammarkollegium by 1670. Five years later he was a commissioner (kamerare) in the general book-keeping office. He was naturalised and ennobled in 1681 and the following year he was introduced into the House of Nobility under nr. 974. In 1681 he was also the chief inspector of Pomeranian and Mecklenburg tolls. In October of the same year Guthrie also became senior commissioner and company director in Bremen and Verden, a postition he held until at least 1685, though he was effectively ruined after a conflict with the governor of the province, Henrik Horn. On 20th February 1682 an instruction had been issued to support the newly installed Staatskommissar Guthrie. The first article stated that Guthrie should be in charge of the "Kammarwesen" along with the Governor in order to improve the royal revenues and to better facilitate the means to administer the economy. He was to be paid 800 rixdaler per annum for this. The governor, Henrik Horn thought that Guthrie planned too many changes and while Guthrie though himself answerable to the king alone, Horn felt he was second to him. Guthrie felt that the chamber could not be a viable institution with the governor's interference and wanted it to become more independent. His suggestions were heard in Stockholm on 3 December 1682. However, the dispute rumbled on until Horn won through. Guthrie died unmarried in 1705Swedish Riksarkiv, Kammarrevisionene och Kammarrättens skrivelser till Kungl. Maj:t 1695 (1684) - 1840 - Letters from Field Marshall and General Governor Henrik Horn regarding 'Statskommissarien' in Bremen, 08/08/1684, 09/09/1684, 23/09/1684 and 22/05/1685; Swedish Riksarkiv, Bremen-Verden Reviderade Räkenskaper I. Huvudserie 1645-1711: Kammarens i Stade Personal, II, Tjänstförteckning - Georg Guthrie, 1681-1684; Svenska Adelns Ättartavlor, vol. 3, p.402; SBL, XVII, pp.494-97; Beata-Christine Fielder, Die Verwaltung der Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden in der Schwedenzeit 1652-1712 - Organisation und Wesen der Verwaltung (Stade, 1987), pp.75, 106, 168, 191, 326-327; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.212, 216, 223.
Service record
- SWEDEN, STOCKHOLM
- Arrived 1670-01-01
- Departed 1680-12-31
- Capacity KAMRARE, purpose CIVIC AND MERCANTILE
- SWEDEN, POMERANIA (Pommern) AND MECKLENBURG
- Arrived 1681-01-01
- Capacity CHIEF INSPECTOR OF TOLLS, purpose MERCANTILE
- SWEDEN, BREMEN AND VERDEN
- Arrived 1681-10-01
- Departed 1685-05-22
- Capacity STATE COMMISSIONER, purpose MERCANTILE
- SWEDEN, VASTERVIKS SHIP COMPANY
- Departed 1669-12-31
- Capacity BOOK-KEEPER, purpose CIVIC AND MERCANTILE