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.
I08 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. . [Craigcrook
Local tradition makes Craigcrook the scene of a
murder, but this is a mistake, though there was
such a crime connected with it.
Mr. John Strachan before-mentioned-whose
charitable bequest is still known as ?the Craigcrook
Mortification?-in 1707 had a house in
the High Street of Edinburgh, which was kept
for him by a servant named Helen Bell, and as
she was l&ft in town a good deal by herself, ?as
other young women in her situation will do, she
two bottles and the large house-key to carry, that
her burden might be lightened,
No doubt she had been intending to take the
old road that led by the Dean to Craigcrook, but
on coming to a narrow and difficult part of the
way, called the Three Step, at the foot of the
Castle Rock, they threw her down and cruelly slew
her by blows of a hammer.
In a confession made subsequently by Thomson,
they hurried back to town, with the intention of
RAVELSTON HOUSE.
admitted young men to see her in her master?s
house.?
On Hallowe?en night, in the year of the Union,
two young craftsmen came to visit her-William
Thomson and John Robertson-whom she chanced
to inform that on Monday morning, the second
morning thereafter, she had to go westward to Craigcrook,
leaving the house in the High Street empty.
At five in the morning of the 3rd of November,
the poor girl locked up the house and set forth on
her short journey, little foreseeing it was the last
she would take on earth. As she was traversing
the dark and silent streets, Thomson and Robertson
joined her, saying they were going a part of the
way, and would escort her. On this she gave them
ransacking Mr. Strachan?s house for money or
valuables, and on passing through the Grassmarket
they swore, mutually, to give their bodies and souls
to the devil if either should inform on the other in
the event of being captured.
?In the empty streets,? says the ?Domestic
Annalist of Scotland,? quoting Wood?s ? History of
Cramond,? ?in the dull grey of the morning,
agitated by the horrid reflections arising from their
barbarous act and its probable consequences, it is
not very wonderful that almost any sort of hallucination
should have taken possession of these
miserable men. It was stated by them that on
Robertson proposing that their engagement should
be engrossed in a bond, a man stated up between
