Sandrie, George, fl c 1612-1694 ("Coffee George"; coffee shop owner and merchant)
Dates
- Existence: fl c 1612 - 1694
Biography
George Sandrie (sometimes Saundry, or Sandre) of Aleppo, in the Ottoman Empire, donated one manuscript to Edinburgh University Library. The early life of Sandrie is obscure, but he probably ran the Old Coffeehouse in Sir James Stuart's Close (now Advocates Close) from at least 1674, the year in which he was made a burgess. He had married Issobell Porteous on 12 December 1672. She died in 1700. Sandrie was known as "Coffee George" by at least one patron (Fox, Adam. The Press and the People: Cheap Print and Society in Scotland, 1500-1785 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), p. 208). By at least 1686 this coffeehouse had a printing shop below it from where books were sold (A new prognostication for the year of our Lord, 1686 (Edinburgh: Heir of Andrew Anderson, 1686), unpaginated). However, from the early 1680s he traded as a merchant, and in 1681 the Standing Committee on Trade of the Privy Council approved a 'supplication' by George Sandry, burgess of Edinburgh, for the grant of a monopoly for the "twisteing of silk which hes never hitherto been practised in this Kingdome, and may keep many persones at work, and keep a considerable stock of money within the Kingdome" (P.C. Reg. vii. 321). And in 1694 he is described as "late coffee-man" and now merchant, trading in wool and silks (Wightman v George Saundry of Aleppo. Scottish Court of Session, 4 June 1694). There is no record of him after this date.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
الاربعة اناجیل المقدسة al-Arba'at anājīl al-muqaddasah, undated
A treatise on the Evangelists- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John containing their Gospels. An index to the work is given at the beginning. It is stated on fol. 200a that the material for the treatise was gathered from old manuscripts in the Syriac, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic languages.