... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
and, even in his latter years, when retiring from a hard-fought field in ...
Book 9 p. 200
(Score 1.33)
... of reptiles. ? Thus was dissipated the illusion,
founded on the Burdiehouse fossils, that saurian
. reptiles ...
Book 6 p. 343
(Score 1.31)
![Cramond.] CRAMOND BRIG. 317
Robert Bruce, ?the King?s meadow and muir of
Cramond I? are mentioned. Among the missing
charters of Robert III., are two to William Touris,
?of the lands of Berntoun))? and another to the
same of the superiority of King?s Cramond.
William Touris, of Cramond, was a bailie of the
city in 1482. These Touris were the same family
who afterwards poFsessed Inverleith, and whose
name appears so often ill Scotstarvit?s ? Calendar.?
In I j38 the family seems to have passed to Bristol,
in England, as Protestants, Pinkerton suppose$, for
and has already been referred to in a preceding
chapter. In February, 1763, there died in Barnton
House, in the sixty-fourth year of her age,
Lady Susannah Hamilton, third daughter of John,
Earl of Ruglen, whose son William was styled
Lord Daer and Riccarton. She was buried in the
chapel royal at Holyrood.
In 1771 the Scots Magazine records the demise
of John. Viscount Glenorchy ?at his house of
Barnton, five miles west of Edinburgh.? He was
husband of Lady Glenorchy of pious memory.
VIEW BELOW GRAMOND BRIG, (Alter a Phufog-rajh by G. W. WiZsom & Co.)
1r1 that year a charter of part of Inverleith is granted
to George Touris, of Bristol; but Lord Durie, in
1636, reports a case concerning ?? umquhile James
Touris, brother to the laird of Inverleith.?
As stated elsewhere, Overbarnton belonged, in
~508, to Sir Robert Barnton, who was comptroller
of the household to James V. in 1520, and who
acquired the lands by purchase with money found
by despoiling the Portuguese ; but a George Maxwell
of Barnton, appears among the knights slain
at Flodden in 1513. He obtained Barnton by a
royal charter in 1460, on his mother?s resignation,
and was a brother of John, Lord Maxwell, who
also fell at Flodden. This property has changed
hands many times. James Elphinston of Barnton,
was the first Lord Balmerino, a Lord of the Treasury,
In after years it became the property of the
Ramsays, one of whom was long known in the
sporting world.
The quaint old bridge of Cramond is one of the
features of the parish, and is celebrated as the
scene of that dangerous frolic of James V., related
in our account of Holyrood. It consists of three
Pointed arches, with massively buttressed piers.
It became ruinous in 1607, and was repaired in
1619, 1687, and later still in 1761 and 1776: as a
panel in the parapet records. Adjoining it, and
high in air above it, is the new and lofty bridge of
eight arches, constructed by Rennie.
A little to the eastward of the village is Cramond
House, a fine old residence within a wooded
domain. Sir John Inglis cf Cramond was made](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p136.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 317")
... CRAMOND BRIG. 317
Robert Bruce, ?the King?s meadow and muir of
Cramond I? are mentioned. Among the ...
Book 6 p. 317
(Score 1.29)
![436 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
one is the Crucifixion, beautifully cut. On the shield to the right, two crescents in chief, on the field a boar’s
head erased. On the left shield, a saltier, a bar in pale, intersecting a small saltier in the middle chief point.
On the fesse point, a circle forming with the saltier and bar a St Katherine’s wheel. On the flanks, the initials
M. T. Above the whole is the inscription cut in very neat old ornamental characters :-SOLI , DEO . HONOR . ET .
QLORIA. This, we have little doubt, indicated the mansion of Mungo Tennant, burgess of Edinburgh, who,
says Nisbet (vol. i. p. 146), ‘‘ had his seal appended to a reversion of half of the lands of Leny, the fourth of
October 1542, whereupon was a boar‘s head in chief, and two crescents in the flanks j and in base the letter M.;
the initial letter of his Christian name.” The bearings, it will be observed, are reversed. Similar liberties,
however, are not of such rare occurrence as heraldic authorities would lead ua to expect. Francis Tennant,
probably a relative of this burgess, according to Nisbet sometime Provost of Edinburgh (though his name does
not appear in Maitland’s list), an adherent of Queen Mary, was taken prisoner while fighting for her in 1571.
WARRIBTONC’rB,o sE.-The mansion of Bruce of Binning, with its hely sculptured lintel and armorial
bearings-Bruce impaling Preston-in Warriston’s Close (page 231), appears from the following notice
by Chalmelv (Caledonia, vol. ii p. 758, extracted fkom the Chartularies o! Newbottle Abbey), to be a building
of the very early part of the sixteenth cent.ury, if not earlier ; so that its substantial walls must have experienced
little damage from the burning of 1544. “ Andrew, the abbot [of Newbottle], in May 1499, granted his
lands of Kinard, in Stirlingshire, to Edward Brus, his well-deserving armiger, rendering for the same sixteen
marks yearly ; and in December 1500, he gave to Robt B w of Bining, and Mary Preston his spouse, the
Monastery‘s lands, called the Abbot’s Lands of West-Bining in Linlithgowahire ; rendering for the same four
shillings yearly.”
IX. THE RESTORATION. BURNING OB’ CROMWELL, THE POPE, &c.
DURINQth e rejoicings in Edinburgh, consequent on the “happy Restoration,” the meane taken to Rhow the
sincerity of the new-fashioned loyalty were characterised by the oddwt mixture of devotion and joviality conceivable.
In the following account of them recorded in Nicoll’s Diary, not the least noticeable feature is the
scene between that notable traytor Oliver and the Devil, with which the holiday’s heterogeneous proceedings
are wound up :-
“ The Kingdome of Scotland haitling takin to thair consideration the great thinges and wonderfull that the
Lord God had done for thame, in restoring unto thame thair native Soverane Lord and King, efter so long
banischement, and that in a wonderfull way, worthy of admiration, thai resolvit upone severall dayis of thankisgevhg
to be set apairt for his Majesteis Ratauratioun, and for his mercyes to this pure land, quho haid opned
a dure of hope to hia pepill, for satling thrie Kingdomes in religion and justice. And, fist, this day of thankisgeving
began at Edinburgh, and throw all the kirkis and pairtes of Lothiane, upone Tysday the nyntene day of
Junij 1660, @hair thair wer sermondie maid throw all the kirkis, and quhairat all the Magistrates of Edinburgh
and the Commoune Consell were present, all of them in thair best robis ; the great mace and sword of honor
careyed befoir thame to the sermond, and throw the haill streitis as they went, all that day. And eftir the
sermond endit, the Magistrates and Consell of Edinburgh, with a great number of the citizens, went to the
Mercat Croce of Edinburgh, quhair a great long boord of foote of lenth wes covered with all soirtes of
sweit meittis, and thair drank the Hinges helth, and his brether ; the spoiites of the Croce rynnand all that tyme
with abundance of clareyt &e. Ther wer thrie hundreth dosane of glassis all brokin and cassin throw the streitis,
with sweit meitis in abundance. Major-generall Morgan commander in cheiff of all the’forces in Scotland, and
the Governor of the Castell of Edinburgh, being both Englischemen, with sum of the speciall officeris of the](images/thumbs/memorials/memorials_v1_Page_493.gif "Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time Page 475")
... MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
one is the Crucifixion, beautifully cut. On the shield to the right, two crescents in ...
Book 10 p. 475
(Score 1.26)
... SKETCHES. 73
The title of Lord Halkerton came by succession to her brother, as that of Earl
of ...
Book 9 p. 97
(Score 1.22)
![Colstorphine.] THE FORRESTERS. 119
of land, in any proper place;? and in 1383 there
followed another charter from the same king concerning
? the twenty merks yearly from the farmes
of Edinburgh.? (Burgh Charters.) In the preceding
year this influential citizen had been made
Sheriff of Edinburgh and of Lothian.
In 1390 he was made Lord Privy Seal, and
negotiated several treaties with England; but in
1402 he followed Douglas in his famous English
raid, which ended in the battle of Homildon Hill,
where he fell into the hands of Hotspur, but was
ransomed. He died in the Castle of Corstorphine
on the 13th of October, leaving, by his wife, Agnes
Dundas of Fingask, two sons, Sir John, his heir,
and Thomas, who got the adjacent lands of Drylaw
by a charter, under Robert Duke of Albany, dated
?? at Corstorfyne,? 1406, and witnessed among others
by Gilbert, Bishop of Aberdeen, then Lord Chancellor,
George of Preston, and others.
Sir John Forrester obtained a grant of the barony
of Ochtertyre, in favour of him and his first wife
in 1407, and from Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney,
he obtained an annuity of twelve merks yearly,
out of the coal-works at Dysart, till repaid thirty
nobles, ?which he lent the said earl in his great
necessity.??
In 1424 he was one of the hostages for the
ransom of James I., with whom he stood so high
in favour that he was made Master of the Household
and Lord High Chamberlain, according to
Douglas, and Lord Chancellor, according to Beatson?s
Lists. His second wife was Jean Sinclair, daughter
of Henry Earl of Orkney. He founded the collegiate
church of which we have given a description,
and in 1425 an altar to St Ninian in the
church of St. Giles?s, requiring the chaplain there
to say perpetual prayers for the souls of James I.
and Queen Jane, and of himself and Margaret his
deceased wife.
He died in 1440, and was succeeded by his son
Sir John, who lived in stormy times, and whose
lands of Corstorphine were subjected to fire and
sword, and ravaged in 1445 by the forces of the
Lord Chancellor, Sir William Crichton, whose lands
of Crichton he had previously spoiled.
By his wife, Marian Stewart of Dalswhton, he
had Archibald his heir, and Matthew, to whom
James III., in 1487, gave a grant of the lands of
Barnton. Then followed in succession, Sir Alexander
Forrester, and two Sir Jameses. On the
death of the last without heirs Corstorphine devolved
on his younger brother Henry, who married
Helen Preston of Craigmillar.
Their son GerJrge was a man of talent and probity.
He stooci high in favour with Charles I.,
who made him a baronet in 1625, and eight years
afterwards a peer, by the title of Lord Forrester
of Corstorphine. By his wife Christian he had
several daughters-Helen, who became Lady Ross
of Hawkhead ; Jean, married to. lames Baillie of
Torwoodhead, son of Lieutenant-General William
Baillie, famous in the annals of the covenanthg
wars ; and Lilias, married to William, another son
of the same officer, And now we approach the
dark tragedy which, for a time, even in those days,
gave Corstorphine Castle a temble notoriety.
George, first Lord Forrester, having no male
heir, made a resignation of his estates and honours
into the hands of the king, and obtained a new
patent from Charles II., to himself in life-rent,
and after his decease, ?to, or in favour of, his
daughter Jean and her husband the said James
Baillie and the heirs procreate betwixt them ;
whom failing, to the nearest lawful heir-male of the
said James whatever, they carrying the name and
arms of Forrester ; the said James being designed
Master of Forrester during George?s life.?
This patent is dated 13th August, 1650, a few
weeks before the battle of Worcester. He died
soon after, and was succeeded by his son-in-law,
whose wife is said to have sunk into an earlygrave,
in consequence of his having an intrigue with one
of her sisters.
James Lord Forrester married, secondly, a
daughter of the famous old Cavalier general, Patrick
Ruthven, Earl of Forth and Brentford, by whom,
says Burke, ?he had three sons and two daughters,
all of whom assumed the name of Ruthven,?
while Sir Robert Douglas states that he died
without any heir, and omits to record the mode of
his death.
He was a zealous Presbyterian, and for those of
that persuasion, in prelatic times, built a special
meeting-house in Corstorphine ; this did not prevent
him from forming a dangerous intrigue with
a handsome woman named Christian Nimmo,
wife of a merchant in Edinburgh, and the scandal
was increased in consequence of the lady being
the niece of his first wife and grand-daughter of
the first Lord Forrester. She was a woman of a
violent and impulsive character, and was said to
carry a weapon concealed about her person. - It
is further stated that she was mutually related to
Mrs. Bedford, a remarkably wicked woman, who
had murdered her husband a few years before, and
to that Lady Warriston who was beheaded for the
same crime in 1600 ; thus she was not a woman to
be treated lightly.
Lord Forrester, when intoxicated, had on one
occasion spoken of her opprobriously, and this](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p130.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 119")
... THE FORRESTERS. 119
of land, in any proper place;? and in 1383 there
followed another charter from ...
Book 5 p. 119
(Score 1.2)
... of Carshogle, who was apprehended on
suspition,? but set at liberty. ?? Anna Simson, a
famous witch, is ...
Book 3 p. 10
(Score 1.18)
... of Carshogle, who was apprehended on
suspition,? but set at liberty. ?? Anna Simson, a
famous witch, is ...
Book 3 p. 9
(Score 1.18)
... HALL. 319 Riccar&&l
He was at once-for some reasons known at the
time-accused of having ...
Book 6 p. 319
(Score 1.17)
... 0 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Among the representatives of the rougher sex in this very miscellaneous assemblage is ...
Book 10 p. 449
(Score 1.16)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Craiglockhart
Cluny (who died recently in London), Lady
Gordon-Cathcart of Killochan ...
Book 5 p. 42
(Score 1.13)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Libertou.
extended from east to west over all the country.
This inequality in the ...
Book 6 p. 326
(Score 1.11)
... ROMAN AND OTUER ANTIQUITIES. 331
locality; But the ?? Old Statistical Account ? has
the following version ...
Book 6 p. 331
(Score 1.09)
... CANONGATE TOLBOOTH.
OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. -
CHAPTER I.
THE CANONGATE.
Its Origin-Songs concerning ...
Book 3 p. 1
(Score 1.08)
... MEMORIAL S OF EDINB URG H.
old oaken chair remained till recently an heirloom, bequeathed by its patrician ...
Book 10 p. 398
(Score 1.08)
... 443
all these oppressive exactions is imposed on INGELBDEA UMPF BAVILLEa, nd a proportinnately severe ...
Book 10 p. 482
(Score 1.07)
... CANONGA TE AND ABBEY SANCTUAR Y. 289
able printer read snatches of the forthcoming novel, and whetted, while ...
Book 10 p. 314
(Score 1.07)
... ROSLIN, HAWTHORNDEN,
also his brother, Mr. Nicholas Monk, stayed with him about two months in
the year 1659, ...
Book 11 p. 199
(Score 1.07)
![Burghmuir.] ST. ROQUES CHAPEL. 47
Greenhill, whereon stood an old gable-ended and
gableted manor-house, on the site of which is now
the great square modem mansion which bears its
name. In a street here, called Greenhill Gardens,
there stands a remarkable parterre, or open burialplace,
wherein lie the remains of more than one proprietor
of the estate. A tomb bears the initials
J. L. and E. R., being those of ?John Livingstone
and Elizabeth Rig, his spouse,? who acquired
the lands of Greenhill in 1636 ; and the adjacent
thoroughbre, named Chamberlain Road, is so
called from an official of the city, named Fairholme,
who is also buried there.
A dispute-Temple and Halliday with Adam
Cairns of Greenhill -is reported before the
lords in 1706, concerning a tenement in the
Lawnmarket, which would seem to have been
?spoiled and deteriorated? in the fire of 1701.
(Fountainhall.)
In 1741 Mr. Thomas Fairholme, merchant in
Edinburgh, married Miss Warrender, daughter of
Sir George Warrender of Bruntsfield, and his death
at Greenhill is reported in the Scuts Magazine for
1771. There was a tenement called Fairholme
Land in the High Street, immediately adjoinicg
the Royal Exchange on the east, as appears from
the Scuts Magazine of 1754, probab!y erected by
Bailie Fairholme, a magistrate in the time of
Charles 11.
Kay gives us a portrait of George Fairholme of
Greenhill (and of Green-know, Berwickshire), who,
with his younger brother, William of Chapel, had
long resided in Holland, where they became
wealthy bankers, and where the former cultivated
a natural taste for the fine arts, and in after life
became celebrated as a judicious collector of
pictures, and of etchings by Rembrandt, all of
which became the property of his nephew, Adam
Fairholme of Chapel, Berwickshire. He died in
his seventieth year, in 1800, and was interred in
the family burying-place at Greenhill.
In a disposition of the lands of the latter estate
by George Fairholme, in favour of Thomas Wright,
dated 16th, and recorded 18th February, 1790, in
the sheriffs? books at Edinburgh, the preservation of
the old family tomb, which forms so singular a
feature in a modern street, is thus provided for :-
? Reserving nevertheless to me the liberty and
privilege of burying the dead of my own family,
and such of my relations to whom I, during my
own lifetime, shall communicate such privilege, in
the burial-place built upon the said lands, and
?Teserving likewise access to me and my heirs to
repair the said burial-place from time to time, as we
shall think proper.?
? Greenhill became lztterly the property of the
Stuart-Forbeses of Pitsligo, baronets.
After passing the old mansion named East
Morningside House, the White House Loan joins
at right angles the ancient thoroughfare named the
Grange Loan, which led of old from the Linton
Road to St. Giles?s Grange, and latterly the Causewayside.
On the south side of it a modern villa takes its
name of St. Roque from an ancient chapel which
stood there, and the ruins of which were extant
within the memory of many of the last generation.
The chapels of St. Roque and St. John, on the
Burghmuir, were both dependencies of St. Cuthbert?s
Church. The historian of the latter absurdly
conceives it to have been named from a French
ambassador, Lecroc, who was in Scotland in 1567.
The date of its foundation is involved in obscurity;
but entries occur in the Treasurer?s Accounts for
1507, when on St. Roque?s Day (15th August) James
IV. made an offering of thirteen shillings. ? That
this refers to the chapel on the Burghmuir is
proved,? says Wilson, ? by the evidence of two
charters signed by the king at Edinburgh on the
same day.?
Arnot gives a view of the chapel from the northeast,
showing the remains of a large pointed window,
that had once been filled in with Gothic tracery;
and states that it is owing ?to the superstitious
awe of the people that one stone of this chapel has
been left upon another-a superstition which, had
it been more constant in its operations, might have
checked the tearing zeal of reformation. About
thirty years ago the proprietor of the ground
employed masons to pull down the walls of the
chape! ; the scaffolding gave way ; the tradesmen
were killed. The accident was looked upon as a
judgment against those who were demolishing thk
house of God. No entreaties nor bribes by the
proprietor could prevail upon tradesmen to accomplish
its demolition.?
It was a belief of old that St. Roque?s intercession
could protect all from pestilence, as he was
distinguished for his piety and labours during a
plague in Italy in 1348. Thus Sir David Lindesay
says of-
1?- Superstitious pilgramages
To monie divers imagis ;
Sum to Sanct Roche with diligence,
To saif them from the pestilence.?
Thus it is, in accordance with the attributes ascribed
in Church legends to St. Roque, that we find
his chapel constantly resorted to by the victims of
the plague encamped on the Burghmuir, during the
prevalence of that scourge in the sixteenth century.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p058.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 47")
... ST. ROQUES CHAPEL. 47
Greenhill, whereon stood an old gable-ended and
gableted manor-house, on the ...
Book 5 p. 47
(Score 1.07)
... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
friend‘s coach to the door, as the only effectual hint to his guest ; but ...
Book 8 p. 308
(Score 1.06)
... WEST BOW AND SUBURBS. 341
for it the savoury title it retained to the last, still preserved some remains of ...
Book 10 p. 373
(Score 1.05)
... 18 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [cogs.
p. baronet of Nova Scotia by James VII., in
1687.
The close of the family is ...
Book 6 p. 318
(Score 1.04)
![THE TOWER 327 Liberton.]
between 1124 and 1153, according to the Lih
Cartarvm Sanchz Crwis.
Macbeth of Liberton also granted to St. Cuth
bert?s Church the tithes and oblations of Legbor
nard, a church which cannot now be traced.
The name is supposed to be a corruption o
Lepertoun, as there stood here a hospital fo
lepers, of which all vestiges have disappeared ; bu
the lands thereof in some old writs (according tc
the ?New Statistical Account?) were called ?Spital
town.?
At Nether Liberton, three-quarters of a mile nortl
of the church, was a mill, worked of course by thc
Braid Burn, which David I, bestowed upon tht
monks of Holyrood, as a tithe thereof, ??wit1
thirty cartloads from the bush of Liberton,? gift!
confirmed by William the Lion under the Grea
Seal circa I I 7 1-7.
The Black Friars at Edinburgh received fivc
pounds sterling annually from this mill at Nethei
Liberton, by a charter from King Robert I.
Prior to the date of King David?s charter, thc
church of Liberton belonged to St. Cuthbert?s
The patronage of it, with an acre of land adjoining
it, was bestowed by Sir John Maxwell of that iik
in 1367, on the monastery of Kilwinning,pro sahh
aniiiim SUE et Agnetis sponsiz SUE.
This gift was confirmed by King David 11.
By David 11. the lands of Over Liberton,
?( quhilk Allan Baroune resigned,? were gifted tc
John Wigham ; and by the same monarch the land:
of Nether Liberton were gifted to William Ramsay,
of Dalhousie, knight, and Agnes, his spouse, 24th
October, 1369. At a later period he granted a
charter ?to David Libbertoun, of the office of
sergandrie of the overward of the Constabularie of
Edinburgh, with the lands of Over Libbertoun
pertaining thereto.? (? Robertson?s Index.?)
Adam Forrester (ancestor of the Corstorphine
family) was Laird of Nether Liberton in 1387, for
estates changed proprietors quickly in those troublesome
times, and we have already reterred to him
as one of those who, with the Provost Andrew
Yichtson, made arrangements for certain extensive
additions to the church of St. Giles in that year.
William of Liberton was provost of the city in
1429, and ten years subsequently with William
Douglas of Hawthornden, Meclielson of Herdmanston
(now Harviston), and others, he witnessed
the charter of Patrick, abbot of Holyrood, to Sir
Yatrick Logan, Lord. of Restalrig, of the office of
bailie of St. Leonard?s. (? Burgh Charters,? No.
At Liberton there was standing till about 1840
a tall peel-house or tower, which was believed to
XXVI.)
have been the residence of Macbeth and other
barons of Liberton, and which must not be confounded
with the solitary square tower that stands
to the westward of the road that leads into the
heart of the Braid Hills, and is traditionally said to
have been the abode of a troublesome robber
laud, who waylaid provisions coming to the city
markets.
The former had an old dial-stone, inscribed
?? God?s Providence is our Inheritance.?
Near the present Liberton Tower the remains
of a Celtic cross were found embedded in a wall in
1863, by the late James Drummond, R.S.A. It
was covered with knot-work.
The old church-or chapel it was more probably
-at Kirk-Liberton, is supposed to have been dedicated
to the Virgin Mary-there having been a
holy spring near it, called our Lady?s Well-and
it had attached to it a glebe of two oxgates of
land.
In the vicinity was a place called Kilmartin,
which seemed to indicate the site of some ancient
and now forgotten chapel.
In.1240 the chapelry of Liberton was disjoined by
David Benham, Bishop of St. Andrews and Great
Chamberlain to the King, from the parish of St.
Cuthbert?s, and constituted a rectory belonging to
the Abbey of Holyrood, and from then till the
Reformation it was served by a vicar.
For a brief period subsequent to 1633, it was a
prebend of the short-lived and most inglorious
bishopric of Edinburgh ; and at the final abolition
thereof it reverted to the disposal of the Crown.
The parochial registers date from 1639.
When the old church was demolished prior to
:he erection of the new, in 1815, there was found
very mysteriously embedded in its basement an
ron medal of the thirteenth century, inscribed in
xncient Russian characters ? THE GRAND PRINCE
3 ~ . ALEXANDER YAROSLAVITCH NEVSKOI.?
The old church is said to have been a picuresque
edifice not unlike that now at Corstor-
Ihine ; the new one is a tolerably handsome semi-
Gothic structure, designed by Gillespie Graham,
,eated for 1,430 persons, and having a square
ower with four ornamental pinnacles, forming a
)leasing and prominent object in the landscape
outhward of the city.
Subordinate to the church there were in Catholic
imes three chapels-one built by James V. at
3rigend? already referred to ; a second at Niddrie,
ounded by Robert Wauchope of Niddrie, in 1389,
.nd dedicated to ? Our .Lady,? but which is now
inly commemorated by its burying-ground-which
ontinues to be in use-and a few faint traces of](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p146.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. VI Page 327")
... TOWER 327 Liberton.]
between 1124 and 1153, according to the Lih
Cartarvm Sanchz Crwis.
Macbeth of Liberton ...
Book 6 p. 327
(Score 1.04)
![Craigcrook.] HISTORY OF CRAIGCROOK. 107
summer residence of Lord Jeffrey-deeply secluded
amid coppice.
The lands of Craigcrook appear to have belonged
in the fourteenth century to the noble family of
Graham. By a deed bearing date 9th April, 1362,
Patrick Graham, Lord of Kinpunt, and David
Graham, Lord of Dundaff, make them over to
John de Alyncrum, burgess of Edinburgh. He
in turn settled them on a chaplain officiating at
?Our Lady?s altar,? in the church of St. Giles,
and his successors to be nominated by the magistrates
of Edinburgh.
John de Alyncrum states his donation of those
lands of Craigcrook, was ? to be for the salvation
of the souls of the late king and queen (Robert
and Elizabeth), of the present King David, and of
all their predecessors and successors ; for the salvation
of the souls of all the burghers of Edinburgh,
their predecessors and successors ; of his own father
and mother, brothers, sisters, etc. ; then of himself
and of his wife; and, finally, of all faithful souls
deceased.?
The rental of Craigcrook in the year 1368 was
only A6 6s. 8d. Scots per annum; and in 1376 it
was let at that rate in feu farm, to Patrick and
John Lepars.
At an early period it became the property of
the Adamsons. William Adamson was bailie of
Edinburgh in 1513, and one of the guardians of
the city after the battle of Flodden, and Williim
Adamson of Craigcrook, burgess of Edinburgh
(and probably son of the preceding), was killed at
the battle of Pinkie, in 1547 ; and by him or his
immediate successors, most probably the present
castle was built-an edifice wbich Wood, in his
learned ?? History of Cramond Parish,? regards
as one of the most ancient in the parish.
In consequence of the approaching Reformation,
the proceeds of the lands were no longer required
for pious purposes, and the latter were made over by
Sir Simon Prestonof Craigmillar, when Provost, to Sir
Edward Marj oribanks, styled Prebend of Craigcrook.
They were next held for a year, by George Kirkaldy,
brother of Sir James Kirkaldy of Grange in
Fifeshire, Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, who
engaged to pay for them A27 6s. 8d. Scots.
In June, 1542, they reverted again to Sir Edward
Majoribanks, who assigned them in perpetual feufarm
to William Adamson before-named. This
wealthy burgess had acquired much property in
the vicinity, including Craigleith, Cammo, Groat
Hall, Clermiston, Southfield, and part of Cramond
Regis. After Pinkie he was succeeded by his son
William, and Craigcrook continued to pass through
several generations of his heirs, till it came into
~~
the hands of Robert Adamson, who, in 1656, sold
to different persons the whole of his property.
Craigcrook was purchased by John Muir, merchant
in Edinburgh, whose son sold it to Sir John
Hall, Lord Provost of the city in 1689-92. He was
created a baronet in 1687, and was ancestor of the
Halls of Dunglass, on the acquisition of which, in
East Lothian, he sold Craigcrook to Walter Pringle,
advocate, from whose son it was purchased by John
Strachan, clerk to the signet.
When the latter died in 1719, he left the whole
of his property, with North Clermiston and the
rest of his fortune, both in land and movables
(save some small sums to his relations) ?? mortified
for charitable purposes,?
The regulations were that the rents should be
given to poor old men and women and orphans ;
that the trustees should be ?two advocates, two
Writers to the Signet, and the Presbytery of Edinburgh,
at the sight of the Lords of Session, and any
two of these members,? for whose trouble one
hundred merks yearly is allowed.
There are also allowed to the advocates, poor
fifty merks Scots, and to those of the writers to the
signet one hundred merks ; also twenty pounds
annually for a Bible to one of the members of the
Presbytery, beginning with the moderator and
going through the rest in rotation.
This deed is dated the 24th September, 1712.
The persons constituted trustees by it held a meeting
and passed resolutions respecting several
points which had not been regulated in the will. A
clerk and factor, each with a yearly allowance of
twenty pounds, were appointed to receive the
money, pay it out, and keep the books.
They resolved that no old person should be
admitted under the age of sixty-five, nor any orphan
above the age of twelve; and that no annuity
should exceed five pounds.
Among the names in a charter by William
Forbes, Provost of the Collegiate Church of St.
Giles, granting to that church a part of the ground
lying contiguous to his manse for a burial-place,
dated at Edinburgh, 14th January, 1477-8, there
appears that of Ricardus Robed, jrebena?anks de
Cragmk mansepropie (? Burgh Charters.?)
Over the outer gate of the courtyard a shield
bore what was supposed to have been the arms of
the Adamsons, and the date 1626 ; but Craigcrook
has evidently been erected a century before that
period. At that time its occupant was Walter
Adamson, who succeeded his father Willian~
Adamson in 1621, and whose sister, Catharine,
married Robert Melville of Raith, according to
the Douglas Peerage.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p118.gif "Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V Page 107")
... HISTORY OF CRAIGCROOK. 107
summer residence of Lord Jeffrey-deeply secluded
amid coppice.
The lands ...
Book 5 p. 107
(Score 1.04)
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