... Thorn Tree-The Braids of that
Ilk-The FairleF of Braid-The Plew Lands -Craiglockhart Hall and House-The ...
Book 6 p. 393
(Score 3.19)
![Bomington] THE LAIRDS OF PILRIG. 91
His History of the Church and State of Scotland,?
though coloured by High Church prejudices,
is deemed a useful narration and very candid record
of the most controverted part of our national
annals, while the State documents used in its compilation
have proved of the greatest value to every
subsequent writer on the same subject. Very
curious is the list of subscribers, as being, says
Chambers, a complete muster-roll of the whole
Jacobite nobility and gentry of the period, including
among others the famous Rob Roy, the outlaw !
The bishop performed the marriage ceremony of
that ill-starred pair, Sir George Stewart of Grandtully
and Lady Jane Douglas, on the 4th of August, I 746.
In I 7 5 5 he published his well-known ? Catalogue
of Scottish Bishops,? a mine of valuable knowledge
to future writers.
The latter years of his useful and blameless life,
during which he was in frequent correspondence
with the gallant Marshal Keith, were all spent at
the secluded villa of Bonnyhaugh, which belonged
to himself. There he died on the 27th of January,
1757, in his seventy-sixth year, and was borne,
amid the tears of the Episcopai communion, to his
last home in the Canongate churchyard. There he
lies, a few feet from the western wall, where a plain
stone bearing his name was only erected recently.
In 1766 Alexander Le Grand was entailed in the
lands and estates of Bonnington.
In 1796 the bridge of Bonnington, which was of
timber, having been swept away by a flood, a
boat was substituted till 1798, when another wooden
bridge was erected at the expense of A30.
Here in Breadalbane Street, northward of some
steam mills and iron-works, stands the Bonnington
Sugar-refining Company?s premises, formed by a few
merchants of Edinburgh andLeith about 1865, where
they carry on an extensive and thriving business.
The property and manor house of Stewartfield
in this quarter, is westward of Bonnington, a square
edifice with one enormous chimney rising through a
pavilion-shaped roof. We have referred to the entail
of Alexander Le Grand, of Bonnington, in 1766.
The Scots Magazine for 1770 records an alliance
between the two proprietors here thus :-?At Edinburgh,
Richard Le Grand, Esq., of Bonnington
(son of the preceding?), to Miss May Stewart,
daughter of James Stewart of Stewartfield, Esq.?
On the north side of the Bonnington Road, and
not far from Bonnington House, stands that of
Pilrig, an old rough-cast and gable-ended mansion
among aged trees, that no doubt occupies the site
of a much older edifice, probably a fortalice.
In 1584 Henry Nisbett, burgess of Edinburgh,
became caution before the Lords of the Privy
Council, for Patrick Monypenny of Pilrig, John
Kincaid of Warriston, Clement Kincaid of the
Coates, Stephen Kincaid, John Matheson, and
James Crawford, feuars of a part of the Barony
of Broughton, that they shall pay to Adam Bishop
of Orkney, commendator of Holyrood House,
?what they ow-e him for his relief of the last
taxation of _f;zo,ooo, over and above the sum of
?15, already consigned in the hands of the col-
Lector of the said collection.?
In 1601 we find the same Laird of Pilrig engaged
in a brawl, ?forming a specimen of the
second class of outrages.? He (Patrick Monypenny)
stated to the Lords of Council that he had
a wish to let a part of his lands of Pilrig, called the
Round Haugh, to Harry Robertson and Andrew
Alis, for his own utility and profit. But on a certain
day, not satisfied, David UuA; a doughty indweller in
Leith, came to these per?sons, and uttering ferocious
menaces against them in the event of their occupying
these lands, effectually prevented them from
doing so.
Duff next, accompanied by two men named
Matheson, on the 2nd of March, 1601, attacked
the servants of the Laird of Pilrig, as they were
at labour on the lands in question, with similar
speeches, threatening them with death if they persisted
in working there; and in the night they,
or other persons instigated by them, had come
and broken their plough, and cast it into the
Water of Leith. ?John Matheson,? continues the
indictment, ?? after breaking the complenar?s plew,
came to John Porteous?s house, and bade him gang
now betwix the Flew stilts and see how she wald go
till the morning:? adding that he would have his
head broken if he ever divulged who had broken
the plough,
The furious Duff, not contentwith all this,trampled
and destroyed the tilled land. In this case the
accused were dismissed from the bar, but only, it
would appear, through hard swearing in their own
cause.
There died at Pilrig, according to the Scots
Magazine for 1767, Margaret, daughter of the late
Sir Johnstone Elphinstone of Logie, in the month of
January ; and in the subsequent June, Lady Elphinstone,
his widow. The Elphinstones of Logie were
baronets of 1701.
These ladies were probably visitors, as the then
proprietor and occupant of the mansion was James
Balfour of Pilng, who was born in 1703, and became
a member of the Faculty of Advocates on
the 14th of November, 1730, Three years later
on the death of Mr. Bayne, Professor of Scottish
Law in the University of Edinburgh, he and Mr.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p102.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 91")
... THE LAIRDS OF PILRIG. 91
His History of the Church and State of Scotland,?
though coloured by High ...
Book 5 p. 91
(Score 2.42)
... Tree-The Braids of that
Ilk-The Fairleys of Braid-Thr Plew Lands -Craiglockhart Hall and House-The Kincaids and ...
Book 5 p. 38
(Score 2.14)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Dab.
~~ ~~
Cuthbert?s, in 1831, for .&2,500, and seated for
1,300.
The church ...
Book 4 p. 216
(Score 2.02)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Streer
Bart. ; Miss Lucy Johnston of East Lothian, who
married hlr. Oswald of ...
Book 2 p. 252
(Score 1.85)
![High Street.] SIR WILLIAM DICK. 221
and only remaining part of the bishop?s house has
been completely modernised, and faced with a new
stone front j ?but many citizens still (in 1847) remember
when an ancient timber faGade projected
its lofty gables into the street, with tier above tier,
then astonishing sum of ~zoo,ooo sterling, and
whose chequered history presents one of the most
striking examples of the instability of human affairs.
farming the Crown rents of the northern isles at
He came of Orkney people, and began life by ?.
. THE NETHER BOW PORT, FROM THE HIGH STREET.
(Frmn an 0n;PrircJ Draw& ammxg tk Kirg?s Prints nnd Drawings, BriiiSk Muscnm.)
far out beyond the lower storey, while below were
the covered piazza and darkened entrances to the
gloomy laigh shops, such as may still be seen
in the few examples of old timber lands that have
escaped demolition? (Wilson).
Here then abode Sir William Dick of Braid, provost
of the city in 1638, whose wealth was so great
that he was believed to have discovered the philosopheis
stone, though his fortune only reached the
.&,ooo sterling, after which he established an
active trade with the Baltic and Mediterranean,
and made, moreover, a profitable business by the
negotiation of bills of exchange with Holland.
?? He had ships on every sea, and could ride on his
own lands from North Berwick to near Linlithgow,
his wealth centreing in a warehouse in the Luckenbooths,
on the site of that now (in 1859) occupied
by John Clapperton and Co.?](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p041.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 221")
... Street.] SIR WILLIAM DICK. 221
and only remaining part of the bishop?s house has
been completely modernised, ...
Book 2 p. 221
(Score 1.79)
![West Bow.1 THE TEMPLE LANDS. 321
and diversion from other patients, and his lucrum
assans, he has lost more than &so sterling, and
craves that sum as his fee and the recompense of
his damage.?
But as it was represented for the Laird of Netherplace,
that he had done his work unskilfully, and
In the city the order possessed several flat-roofed
tenements, known as the Temple Lands, and one
archway, numbered as 145, on the south side of the
Grassmarket, led to what was called the Temple
Close, but they have all been removed. It was
a lofty pile, and is mentioned in a charter of
that the sum of seyenteen
guineas was sufficient
payment.
At the foot of the
Bow, and on the west
side chiefly, were a few
old tenements, that,
in consequence of
being built upon
ground which had
originally belonged to
the Knights of the
Temple, were styled
Templar Lands, and
were distinguished by
having iron crosses on
their fronts and gables.
In the ?Heart of
Midlothian,? Scott
describes them as being
of uncommon
height and antique
appearance ; but of
late years they have
all disappeared.
It was during the
Grand Mastership of
Everhard de Bar, and
while that brave warrior,
with only 130
knights of the order,
, was fighting under the
banner of Louis VII.
at Damascus, that the
Grand Priory of Scotland
was instituted,
~~
KOMIEU?S HOUSE.
( F Y o ~ a Measured Dnrwing by T. Hamilton, pzr6Zislud in 1830.)
and the knight who presided over it was then
styled Magziter Domus T?YZi in Sotid, when
lands were bestowed on the order,first by King
David I., and then by many others. To all the
property belonging to the Temple a great value
was attached, from the circumstance that it
afforded, until the extinction of heritable jurisdictions
in 1747, the benefit of sanctuary; thus
the Temple tenements in Fifeshire are still termed
houses of refuge.
Tempillands, lyand
next ye Gray Friers?
Yard;? and in 1598,
?a temple tenement
lyand near the Gray
Friars ? Yett ? was confirmed
to James Kent
(Torphichen Charters).
On these the
iron cross was visible
in 1824.
On the dissolution
of the order all this
property in Scotland
was bestowed upon
their rivals, the
Knights of St. John of
Jerusalem ; and the
houses referred to became
eventually a part
of the barony of Drem
(of old a Temple
Priory) in Haddingtonshire,
the baron of
which used to hold
courts in them occasionally,
and here, till
I 747, were harboured
persons not free of
the city corporations, I
to the great annoyance
of the adherents of
local monopoly ; but
so lately as 1731, on
the 24th of August,
the Temple vassals
were ordered by the Bailie of Lord Torphichen,
to erect the cross of St. John ?on the Templelands
within Burgh, amerciating [fining] such as
did not affix the said cross.?? This was a strange
enactment in a country where it is still doubtful
whether such an emblem can figure as an ornament
upon a tomb or church. CIearly there must have
been some disinclination to affix the crosses,
otherwise the regulation would scarcely have been
passed.
buildings
shops
templar
knights](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v2p141.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. II Page 321")
... Bow.1 THE TEMPLE LANDS. 321
and diversion from other patients, and his lucrum
assans, he has lost more than ...
Book 2 p. 321
(Score 1.76)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalrig.
oxen, and other things belonging to a field, by the
hands of him, namely, ...
Book 5 p. 132
(Score 1.69)
![LEZTH, AND THE NEW TOWN. 373
stairs and loop-hole windows, contrasted most strangely with the ailjoining fashionable
streets and squares.
This ancient barony and the surrounding lands comprehended within its jurisdiction
were granted by James VI. in 1568 to Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, in whose time
the Tolbooth of the burgh appears to have been erected. The bishop surrendered the lands
to the Crown in 1587, in favour of Sir Lewis Bellenden of Auchnoul, Lord Justice-clerk ;
who obtained a charter from the king uniting them into a free barony and regality. Broughton
is reputed to have been notorious in old times as the haunt of witches, who were frequently
incarcerated in its Tolbooth. An execution of these victims of superstition, which
occurred there under peculiarly horrible circumstances, during the period of its possession
by the Bellendens, is thus noticed in the minutes of the Scottish Privy Council :-'' 1608,
December 1.-The Earl of Mar declared to the Council that some women were taken in
Broughton as witches, and being put to an assize, and convicted, albeit they persevered
constant in their denial to the end, yet they were burned quick, after such a cruel manner
that some of them died in despair, renouncing and blaspheming [God] ; and others, halfburned,
brak out of the fire, and were cast quick in it again, till they were burned to the
death." Sir William Bellenden, the grandson of Sir Lewis, disposed of the whole lands
to Robert, Earl of Roxburgh, in 1627, and by an agreement between him and Charles I.,
this ancient barony passed by purchase to the Governors of Heriot's Hospital in 1636, to
whom the superiority of Broughton was yielded by the Crown, partly in payment of
debts due by Charles I. to the Hospital. Thenceforward the barony was governed by
a bailiff nominated by the Governors of the Hospital, who possessed even the power
of life and death, the privilege of pit and gallom, which every feudal baron claimed
within his own bounds. In 1721, the Treasurer of the Hospital complains of the expense
incurred in prosecuting offenders in the case of some murders committed witkin the
regality ; but these onerous and costly privileges were at length abrogated in 1746, by the
act abolishing heritable jurisdictions, and the Governors a few years afterwards granted
the use of the Tolbooth to one of their tenants as a store-house, " reserving to the Hospital
a room for holding their baron courts when they shall think fit"2 The last occasion
on which Old Broughton was directly associated with any event of public importance,
was during the memorable campaign of 1650, which preceded the Battle of Dunbar,
when General Leslie made it his head-quarters, while he threw up the line of defence
from the base of the Calton Hill to Leith, which we have already described as the origin
of the great roadway that now forms the chief thoroughfare between Edinburgh and
Leith.
Beyond the village of Broughton lies that of Canonmills, on the Water of Leith, which
owes its origin to the same eource as the Burgh of Canongate, having been founded by
the Augustine Canons of Holyrood, doubtless for the use of their own vassals on the lands
of Brough'tbn; and their neighbouring possessions. Above this, on the Water of Leith,
are the villages of Stockbridge, Bell's Mills, and the Dean, all of considerable antiquity,
and now joined to the extended capital, or disappearing before the encroachments of its
modern streets. King David L grants to the Abbey of Holyrood, in its foundation
1 Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, Sir Walter Scott, p. 315. ' Dr Steven's History of Heriot's Hospital, pp. 118, 119.](images/thumbs/memorials/memorials_v1_Page_428.gif "Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Page 410")
... AND THE NEW TOWN. 373
stairs and loop-hole windows, contrasted most strangely with the ailjoining ...
Book 10 p. 410
(Score 1.5)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Bmughtoa --
REMAINS OF THE VILLAGE OF OLD RROUGHTON, Isj2.
(From a Drawing by Gcorp ...
Book 3 p. 180
(Score 1.49)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. IHolyrood
these ecclesiastical foundations :-The Priory of St.
Mary?s Isle, in ...
Book 3 p. 46
(Score 1.48)
... other lands, included those of ?Lochflatt,
Pleasance, Se Leonards, Hillhousefield, Bonnytoun,
and Pilrig,? ...
Book 3 p. 181
(Score 1.47)
... NISBET$ OF DEAN. 65 The Water of Leith.1
Embosomed among venerable trees, the old
house of a baronial family, ...
Book 5 p. 65
(Score 1.46)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
and cleaning the channel of the river at Leith.
(Burgh Records.)
In 1510, on ...
Book 5 p. 168
(Score 1.45)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH, [Newton.
gift ratified by Bishop Richard and Pope Gregory.
There are many places in ...
Book 6 p. 364
(Score 1.43)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. WolJlmd
mted with several mouldings, partly circular and
partly hexagonal. The eagle ...
Book 3 p. 48
(Score 1.41)
... AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Wynd. 304
of the building, among these; on a buttress, at the
west angle of the ...
Book 2 p. 304
(Score 1.4)
... . OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Inverleith.
the long hill on the south side of the West Port,
from Cowfeeder Row to ...
Book 5 p. 94
(Score 1.39)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Sciennes.
of the latter is a grand old thorn, which has always
borne the name of ...
Book 5 p. 54
(Score 1.39)
... SKETCHES. 191
James was one of the first sheriffs appointed by the crown. He obtained the
sheriffdom ...
Book 8 p. 269
(Score 1.37)
... directly at the south-eastern base of Arthur's
Seat, and has long'been one of the daily ...
Book 4 p. 314
(Score 1.36)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Granton.
Scots now takefl this to be a prophecy of the
thing which has happened. ? ...
Book 6 p. 310
(Score 1.34)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
chapel of St. Jamey at Newhaven, belonged to
the preceptory at Leith; and also ...
Book 6 p. 216
(Score 1.33)
... SKETCHES. 129
neither commodious nor elegant. He therefore had it immediately pulled down,
and a ...
Book 9 p. 172
(Score 1.33)
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