Leith.] ST. JAMES?S CHAPEL. 243
CHAPTER XXVII.
LEITH-CONSTITUTION STREET, THE SHORE, COAL HILL, AND SHERIFF BRAE.
Constitution Street-Pirates Executed-St. James?s Episcopal Church-Town H a l l S t . John?s Church-Exchange Buildings-Head-quarten of
the Leith Rifle Volunteen4ld Signal-Tower-The Shore-Old and New Ship Taverns--The Markets-The Coal Hill-Ancient Council
House-The Peat Ne&-Shim Bme-Tibbie Fowler of the Glen-St. Thomas?s Church and Asylum-The Gladstone Family-Creat
Junction Road.
CONSTITUTION STREET, which lies parallel to, and
eastward of the Kirkgate, nearly in a line with the
eastern face of the ancient fortifications, is about
2,500 feet in lehgth, and soon after its formation
was the scene of the last execution within what is
termed (? flood-mark.? The doomed prisoners were
two foreign seamen, whose crime and sentence
excited much interest at the time.
Peter Heaman and Francois Gautiez were accused
of piracy and murder in seizing the briglane
of Gibraltar, on her voyage from that place to
the Brazils, freighted with a valuable cargo, including
38,180 Spanish dollars, and in barbarously
killing Johnson the master, and Paterson a seaman,
and confining Smith and Sinclair, two other
seamen, in the forecastle, where they tried to suffocate
them with smoke, but eventually compelled
them to assist in navigating the vessel, which they
. afterwards sank off the coast of Ross-shire. They
landed the specie in eight barrels on the Isle of
Lewis, where they were apprehended.
This was in thesummer of 1822, and they were,
after a trial before the Court of Justiciary, sentenced
by the Judge-Admiral to be executed on the 9th of
? the subsequent January, ?on the sands of Leith,
within the flood-mark, and their bodies to be afterwards
given to Dr. Munro for dissection.?
On the day named they were conveyed from the
Calton gaol, under a strong escort of the dragoon
.guards, accompanied by the magistrates of the city,
who had white rods projecting from the windows of
the carriages in which they sat, to a gibbet erected
? at the foot of Constitution Street-oi raiher, the
. northern continuation thereof-and there hanged.
Heaman was a native of Carlscrona, in Sweden ;
Gautiez wa8 a Frenchman. The bodies were put
4 in coffins, and conveyed by a corporal?s escort of
? dragoons to the rooms of the professor of anatomy.
During the execution the great bell of South Leith
church was ttilled with minute strokes, and the
papers of the day state that ? the crowd of spectators
was immense, particularly cn the sands, being little
short of from forty to fifty thousand; but, owing to
the excellent manner in which everything was
In 1823 the same thoroughfare witnessed another
legal punishment, when Thomas Hay, who had
- arranged, not the slightest accident happened.?
been tried and convicted of an attempt at assassination,
was flogged through the town by the common
executioner, and banished for fourteen years.
Between Constitution Street and the Links stands
St. James?s Episcopalian church, an ornate edifice
in the Gothic style, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott,
having a fine steeple, containing a chime of bells,
It was built in 1862-3, succeeding a previous chapel
of 1805 (erectedatthe cost ofx1,6ro)on an adjacent
site (of which a view is given on p. 240), and to which
attention was frequently drawn from the literary
celebrity of its minister, Dr. Michael Russell, the
author of a continuation o? Prideaux?s Connection
of Sacred and Profane History,? and other works.
According to h o t , the congregation had an origin
that was not uncommon in the eighteenth century,
when the persecution
was set on foot against those of the Episcopal
communion in Scotland who did not take the
oaths required by law, the meeting-house in Leith
was shut up by the sheriff of the county. Persons
of this persuasion being thus deprived of the form
of worship their principles approved, brought from
the neighbouring country Mr. John Paul, an English
clergyman, who opened this chapel on the 23rd
June, 1749. It is called St. James?s chapel. Till
of late the congregation only rented it, but within
these few years they purchased it for Azoo. The
clergyman has about L60 a year salary, and the
organist ten guineas. These are paid out of the
seat rents, collections, and voluntary contributions
among the hearers. It is, perhaps, needless to add
that there are one or more meeting-houses for
sectaries in this place (Leith), for in Scotland there
are few towns, whether of importance! or insighificant,
whether populous or otherwise, where there
are not congregations of sectaries.?
The congregation of St. James?s chapel received,
in about the year 1810, the accession of a nonjuring
congregation of an earlier date, says a writer
in 1851, referring, doubtless, to that formed in the
time of the Rev. Mr. Paul.
The Leith Post Office is at the corner of Mitchell
and Constitution Streets; it was built in 1876, is
very small, and in a rather meagre Italian style.
The Town Hall, which is at the corner of Constitution
and Charlotte Streets, was built in 1827, at a
After the battle of Culloden,
244 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith
cost of .&3oo, and has two ornamental fronts;
respectively with Ionic pillars and a Doric porch.
St. John?s Established Church adjoins it. It was
originally a chapel of ease, but became a Free Church
from the Disruption in 1843 till 1867, when, by
adjudication, it reverted to the Establishment.
Designed by David Rhind, it has an imposing
front in the Early Pointed style, surmounted by a
lofty octagonal tower, terminating in numerous
pinnacles, and not in a tall slender spire, accord-
On the west side of Constitution Street, the way,
for nearly 300 feet, is bounded by the wall enclos
ing the burying-ground of St. Mary?s Church, to
which access is here given by a large iron gate,
after passing the Congregational chapel at the
intersection of Laurie Street.
In No. 132 have long been established the headquarters
and orderly-room of the Leith Volunteer
Corps, numbered as the 1st Midlothian Rifles.
Originally clad in grey (like the city volunteers),
THE TOWN HALL AND ST. JOHN?S ESTABLISHED cnuRcH.
ing to the original intention of the talented
architect.
The Exchange Buildings at the foot of Constitution
Street, opposite Bernard Street, were
erected, at a cost of A16,000, in a Grecian style
of architecture, and are ornamented in front
by an Ionic portico of four columns. They
are three storeys in height, and include public
reading and assembly rooms ; but of late years
assemblies have seldom been held in Leith, though
they were usual enough in the last century. In the
Week& Magazine for I 7 76 we read of a handsome
subscription being sent by ?the subscribers to a
dancing assembly in Leith,? through Sir William
Forbes, for the relief of our troops at Boston.
this regiment now wears scarlet, faced unrneanhgly
with black, and their badge is the arms of Leiththe
Virgin and Holy Child seated in the middle of
a galley, with the motto, 4? Persevere.? The corps
was raised when the volunteer movement began:
under Colonel Henry Amaud, a veteran officer of
the East India Company?s Service, who, in turn,
was succeeded by D. R. Macgregor, Esq., the late
popular M.P. for the Leith Burghs.
On the same side of the street stands the Catholic
Church of ?Our Lady, Star of the Sea,? built in
1853. It is a high-roofed cruciform edifice, in a
coarse style of Early Gothic.
Constitution Street is continued north to the
intersection of Tower Street and the road beyond
