John Kay (caricaturist)

When his father died in 1748, John was sent to live in Leith, the harbour area of Edinburgh, with some of her relatives, who treated him very badly.

[4] In 1785, induced by the favour which greeted certain attempts of his to etch in aquafortis, he took down his barber's pole and opened a small print shop in Parliament Close.

There he continued to flourish, painting miniatures, and publishing at short intervals his sketches and caricatures of local celebrities and oddities, who abounded at that period in Edinburgh society.

4to, 1838; 8vo ed., 4 vols., 1842; new 4to ed., with additional plates, 2 vols., 1877), forming a unique record of the social life and popular habits of Edinburgh at its most interesting epoch.

The British Museum has extensive holdings of his works, including two albums apparently assembled by Kay,[7] both described in the Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum[8] In 1762 he married Lilly Steven by whom he had ten children all of which died young except for one son, William Kay.