John Arnot of Birswick (Orkney) (1530–1616) was a 16th-century Scottish merchant and landowner who served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1587 to 1591 and from 1608 to death.
[5] On 28 May 1589 Arnot and the baillies of Edinburgh and others came to Holyrood House and protested to the Chancellor, John Maitland of Thirlestane that the king should marry a Danish princess, despite delays and opposition from a pro-English faction.
On 19 February 1590 James VI wrote from Kronborg in Denmark to the kirk minister Robert Bruce and asked him to ensure the Provost prepared four ships for his return to Scotland, and provided craftsmen for William Schaw to finish repairs to Holyrood Palace.
[8] Arnot personally contributed napery and £100 to a banquet given by the burgh to the Danish ambassador, which was held in the lodging of Thomas Acheson, master of the mint, at the foot of Todrig's Wynd on 24 May.
[9] In July 1590 Arnot and Oustean as commissioners for the burgh of Edinburgh contracted to borrow from the Comptroller of Scotland, David Seton of Parbroath, the sum of £100,000 Scots and pay the king £4000 yearly.
In April 1594 they were required to repay the remainder of the loan to the comptroller in order to pay the expenses of resisting the rebel Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell.
[10] Arnot wrote to the former ambassador from England, William Ashby in April 1590, about the loss of a cargo to pirates some years previously.
Arnot made representations to an English diplomat George Nicholson, that the players scorned James VI and the Scottish people and ought to stopped in the case the "worst sort", the Edinburgh mob, were stirred up to riot.
[16] James VI supported another group of actors, in November 1599, against the church and town authorities who tried to close them down, on religious and moral grounds.
The King's Advocate in Scotland, Sir Thomas Hamiliton discovered a vein of silver on his lands at Hilderston in June 1606.
The yield seemed promising, and in January 1608, King James ordered John Arnot, as treasurer-depute, to take charge of the mine.
She was part-owner, with John and Robert Johnsoun, of lead ore produced under a royal lease by the Earl of Atholl and George Douglas of Parkhead.