![SIR WILLIAM FETTES. ’73 Charlotte Square.]
Canongate, after which he removed to Charlotte
Square, and finally to that house in George Street
in which he died. He was resident in Charlotte
Square before 1802, as was also the Earl of Minto.
John Lamond of Lamond and that ilk, in Argyleshire,
whose son John commanded the second
He was for many years a contractor for military
stores, and in 1800 was chosen a Director of the ’ British Linen Company, in which he ultimately held
stock-the result of his own perseverance and
honest industry-to a large amount. He had in
the meantime entered the Town Council, in which
CHARLOTTE SQUARE, SHOWING ST. GEORGB’S CHURCH.
to the bar in 1822 and raised to the bench in May,
1854. Mrs. Oliphant of Rossie had No. 10, and No.
13 was at the same time (about 1810) the residence
of Sir William Fettes, Bart., of Comely Bank, the
founder of the magnificent college which bears his
name. He was born at Edinburgh on the 25th of
June, 1750, and nine years afterwards attended the
High School class taught by Mr. John Gilchrist.
At the early age of eighteen he began business as
a tea and wine merchant in Smith’s Land, High
Street, an occupation which he combined for twenty
years with that of an underwriter, besides being
connected with establishments at Leeds, Durham,
and Newcastle. His name appears in Wiiliamson’s
Directory for 1788-90 as “ William Fettes, grocer,
ofice he held for the then usual period of two years,
and for a second time in 1805 and 1806. In 1804
between the two occasions, on the 12th May he
was created a baronet. In 1787 he married Mark,
daughter of Dr. John Malcolm of Ayr. The only
child of this marriage was a son, William, born in
1787. He became a member of the Faculty of
Advocates in 1810, and gave early promise of future
eminence, but died at Berlin on the 13th of June,
1815.
Retiring from business in 1800, Sir William took
up his abode in Charlotte Square, and devoted
himself to the management of several estates which
he purchased at different times, in various parts of
The principal of these were Comely ~ Scotland.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v3p185.gif "Volume 3 Page 173")
... WILLIAM FETTES. ’73 Charlotte Square.]
Canongate, after which he removed to Charlotte
Square, and finally to ...
Vol. 3 p. 173 (Rel. 3.65)
... AND NEW EDINBURGH. cst. Andrew Sq-
ST. ANDREW SQUARE,
The Royal Eank of Scotland.
The Scottish Provident ...
Vol. 3 p. 172 (Rel. 2.78)
... INDEX.
299, 307, 342 ; Lord Provost, 11.
282 283 293' hisfuneral I 155
Kindid, b a d , of Coates ...
Vol. 6 p. 381 (Rel. 0.93)
![Rcstalrig.] THE NISBETS OF CRAIGANTINNIE. ‘37
receiving and returning their visits as such.
After a four-days’ debate, the Lords of Session
pronounced for the defender, with expenses. The
son John, as sixth baronet; but not without a
contest, as fourteen years afterwards a Mr. John
Edgar raised in the Court of Session an action
of reduction of his service, as nearest lawful heir
of the late baronet, on the plea that the latter had
never been legally married to his wife.
It was alleged that he had gone to France, and
there had formed a connection with a lady whose
social position was inferior to his own, but who
accompanied him to Britain, where she bore him
The question was, whether from the whole circumstances,
Sir John and this lady were to be
considered as married persons? In evidence it
appeared that they had never doubted that they were
so, though Sir John, in dread of his proud relations,
had sedulously kept the fact a secret while in
Scotland, where, it was alleged for the pursuer,
Sir John had ventured to pay his addresses to a
lady of rank.
On the other side there was the evidence of an
Locn END.
two sons. After selling out of the army, in 1775,
Sir John went to Carolina, to settle upon an estate
he possessed there, taking with him this lady and
his two sons, and the process stated that after
their arrival in America, in 1775, or the beginning
of 1776, Sir John and his lady were shipwrecked
and drowned. From this awful catastrophe their
two sons were preserved, having been left at school
in the Jerseys. Some time afterwards the boys
were sent over to this country, and the eldest of
them-the defender in this action-on the 15th
August, 1781, was served heir to his father. From
the time of his father and mother’s death, till
1790, when this action was raised, he had been in
the uninterrupted possession of his fatheis estates.”
114](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p148.gif "Volume 5 Page 137")
... THE NISBETS OF CRAIGANTINNIE. ‘37
receiving and returning their visits as such.
After a four-days’ ...
Vol. 5 p. 137 (Rel. 0.31)
... StreetJ LORD BALMERINIO’S . HOUSE. 2’3
was promoted to the abbacy by James V. in 1539,
and was canonised two ...
Vol. 2 p. 213 (Rel. 0.23)
... This was the case with Mrs. Bellamy.
Her waiting-maid, Anne Waterstone, who is ...
Vol. 3 p. 25 (Rel. 0.22)
... Wilson (18 May 1785 - 3 April 1854) was a Scottish writer, the writer most frequently identified with the ...
Vol. 1 p. x (Rel. 0.22)
![Cnigmillar.] CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE. 61
when descending Craigmillar Hill, a queen’s soldier,
who had a loose match in his hand, exploded
the powder-barrels, and mortally injured Captain
Melville, the kinsman of Sir William Kirkaldy.
The latter interred him with military honours in a
vault of Edinburgh Castle, where, doubtless, his remains
still rest
In 1589 there was granted a charter under the
great seal to John Ross of the lands of Limpitstoun,
which was witnessed in Craigmillar by the Arch-
%ishop of St. Andrews, John Lord Hamilton, the
Commendator of Arbroath, Maitland of Thirlstane,
Walter, Prior of Blantyre, and others.
Calderwood relates, that in January, 1590, when
Jaines VI. was sitting in the Tolbooth, hearing
to the gibbet by forty and fifty at a time. in the
sight of Edinburgh and Leith.
In 1573 the Loyalists, says Crawford of Drumsoy,
sent a strong body of horse and foot, in hope
to capture the Regent Morton at Dalkeith in the
aight; but found him ready to receive them on
Sheriff-hall Muir, from whence he drove them in as
far as the Burghmuir, and only lost the Laird of
Kirkmichael and some fifty men. Few were killed,
recent rains having wetted the gun-matches ; but
its ofice houses and grass,” it was advertised to be
let in the Edinburgh Cowant for 11th March, 1761.
In that year Sir Alexander Gilmour of Craigmillar
was elected M.P. for the county.
We cannot dismiss the subject of Craigmillar
without a brief glance at some of those who occupied
it
Sir Simon Preston, who obtained it from John
de Capella, traced his descent up to Leolph de
Preston, who lived in the reign of William the
Lion; and, according to Douglas, his father was
Sir John Preston, who was taken at the battle of
Durham in 1346, and remained in the Tower of
London until ransomed.
In 1434 Sir Henry Preston of Craigmillar (whose
the case of the Laird of Criigmillar, who was sueing
for a divorce against his wife, the Earl of Bothwell
forcibly carried off one of the most important witnesses
to his Castle of Crichton, threatening him
with the gallows, ‘&as if there had been no king
in Israel.”
It was not until after the beginning of the present
century that the castle was permitted to fall into
ruin and decay, which it did rapidly. It was
in perfect preservation, no doubt, when, with ‘‘ all
PEFFER MILL-HOUSE.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p072.gif "Volume 5 Page 61")
... CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE. 61
when descending Craigmillar Hill, a queen’s soldier,
who had a loose match in ...
Vol. 5 p. 61 (Rel. 0.21)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Sciennes.
of hermit, or chaplain, resided ; and the charter of
foundation mentions ...
Vol. 5 p. 52 (Rel. 0.2)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
This marriage is also referred to by Nisbet in
his Heraldry,” Vol. I., so ...
Vol. 6 p. 248 (Rel. 0.19)
... Erskine of Carnock, were presented by the
Faculty to the patrons of the vacant chair, who
elected the ...
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... a similar course to the Duke of Edinburgh,
when both were resident in the city.
On his removal to London in ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. . [Queen Street,
always washed and carefully put away by her own
delicate hands, and ...
Vol. 3 p. 156 (Rel. 0.19)
![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 "Volume 6 Page 317")
... CRAMOND BRIG. 317
Robert Bruce, “the King’s meadow and muir of
Cramond I’ are mentioned. Among the ...
Vol. 6 p. 317 (Rel. 0.19)
![Leith Walk.] GAYFIELD HOUSE. IGI
ceeded to the title, which is now extinct. The
latter’s sister, Maria Whiteford, afterwards Mrs.
Cranston, was the heroine of Bums’s song, “The
Idass 0’ Ballochmyle,” her father being one of the
poet’s earliest and warmest patrons.
The Gayfield quarter seems to have been rather
aristocratic in those days. In 1767, David, sixth
Earl of Leven, who had once been a captain in the
army, occupied Gayfield House, where in that year
his sister, Lady Betty, was married to John, Earl of
Walk is shown edificed from the corner of Picardy
Place to where we now find Gayfield Square,
which, when it was first erected, was called Gayfield
Place. West London Street was then called
Anglia Street, and its western continuation, in
which old Gayfield House is now included, was not
contemplated. North of this house is shown a
large area, “ Mrs. D. Hope’s feu ;” and between it
and the Walk was the old Botanical Garden.
In 1783 Sir John Whiteford, Bart., of that ilk,
Gordon, relict of Sir Alexander Gordon of Lesmoir,
Bart., died there.
Gayfield House is now a veterinary college.
In 1800 Sir John Wardlaw, Bart., of Pitreavie,
resided in Gayfield Square ; and there his wife, the
daughter of Mitchell of Pitteadie (a ruined castle
in Fifeshire), died in that year. He was a colonel
in the army, and died in 1823, a lieutenantcolonel
of the 4th West India Regiment.
No. I, Gayfield Place, was long the residence of
BOARD SCHOOL, LOVER’S LOAN.
a well-known citizen in his time, Patrick Crichton,
whose father was a coachbuilder in the Canongate,
and who, in 1805, was appointed lieutenantcolonel
commandant of the 2nd Regiment of Edinburgh
Local Militia. He had entered the army when
young, and attained the rank of captain in the
57th Regiment, with which he served during the
American war, distinguishing himself so much that
he received the public thanks of the comrnanderin-
chief. Among his friends and brother-oficers.
then was Andrew Watson, whose brother George
founded the Scottish Academy. When the war was
over he retired, and entered into partnership with
his father ; and on the first formation of the Volunteers,
in consequence of his great military e x p](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p172.gif "Volume 5 Page 161")
... Walk.] GAYFIELD HOUSE. IGI
ceeded to the title, which is now extinct. The
latter’s sister, Maria Whiteford, ...
Vol. 5 p. 161 (Rel. 0.19)
... the royal marriage and coronation of
Tames 111. with Margaret of Oldenburg-both of
which ceremonies took ...
Vol. 1 p. 32 (Rel. 0.19)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Lord Prowsta
the city, Berwick, Roxburgh, and Stirling, met in
Holyrood Abbey.
After ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
of May. As history records, Gordon and Arran
could not resist doing a little ...
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![The Saennes.] ST. KATHARINE’S CONVENT. 53
“Papingo,” makes Chastity flee for refuge to the
sisters of the Sciennes.
The convent was erected under a Bull of Pope
Lax., and also by a charter of James V. This
Bull informs us that the convent was created
hough the influence of the families of Seton,
Lord Seton, refusing all offers of mamage, became
a nun at the Sciennes, and dying in her seventyeighth
year, was buried there, according to the
history of her house.
The chapel of St. John the Eaptist became
that of the new convent, which, up to the middle
MR. DUNCAN MCLAREN. (Froma Pkofo~roph &y/. G. Tunny.)
Douglas of Glenbervie, and Lauder of the Bass,
the land being given by the venerable Sir John
Crawford. The first prioress was the widowed
Lady Seton ; “ ane nobill and wyse Ladye,” says
Sir Richard hlaitland, “sche gydit hir sonnis
leving quhill he was cumit to age, and thereafter
she passit and remainit at the place of Senis, on
the Borrow Mure.” There she died in 1558, and
was buried in the choir of Seton church, beside
her husband, whose body had been brought from
Flodden.
Katharine, second daughter of George, fourth
of the skteenth century, received various augmentations-
among others, a tenement in the Cowgate.
The nuns made annual processions to the altar
of St. Katharine in St. Margaret’s Chapel at Liberton;
and it was remarked, says- the editor of
ArcAauZqia Scutica, that the man who demolished
the latter never prospered after.
In 1541 the magistrates took in feu from the
nuns their arable land, lying outside the Greyfriars’
Port, and, curious to say, it is on a portion of this
that the new Convent of St. Katharine was founded,
about 1860. Within the grounds on the north side](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p064.gif "Volume 5 Page 53")
... Saennes.] ST. KATHARINE’S CONVENT. 53
“Papingo,” makes Chastity flee for refuge to the
sisters of the ...
Vol. 5 p. 53 (Rel. 0.18)
... --_ - b r d Prumts.1 THE FIRST MAGISTRATE.
c-
CHAMBERS STREET.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE L9RD PROVOSTS OF ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Restalrig.
oxen, and other things belonging to a field, by the
hands of him, namely, ...
Vol. 5 p. 132 (Rel. 0.17)
... to his new monastery were the churches
of St. Cuthbert. and of the Castle, among which
one plot of land ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. IHolyrood
these ecclesiastical foundations :-The Priory of St.
Mary’s Isle, in ...
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... of TheoZogy.
Theology, 1620. Andrew Ramsay.
Hebrew, 1642. Julius Conradus Otto.
Divinity, 1702. John ...
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... HARBOUR AND ISLAND. 31.5
In the reign of David 11. Roger Greenlaw
obtained a royal charter of the ...
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... AND NEW EDINBURGH. [High Street. 2x2
hand; but we are told that ‘‘ one sees in a moment
that this is not a ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith Wynd.
housses, biggins, and yards adjacent thereto, and
by and contigue to the ...
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... and the founder’s own mother and wife, and
of all the faithful dead, was specially directed, at
the ...
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... - OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
- 52 -
set at liberty ; but on the suppression of the order
throughout Scotland, ...
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... OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. . [Craigcrook
Local tradition makes Craigcrook the scene of a
murder, but this is a ...
Vol. 5 p. 108 (Rel. 0.16)
![Leith.] THE BARTONS. 203
is the second of the name, who died in 1513,
John the senior was certainly dead in 1508.
Charles, Duke of Burgundy, was so incensed by
the capture of the Juliuna in Flemish waters that
he demanded the surrender of Pret and Velasquez
to himself, with due compensation to Barton, but
failed in both cases. Joam 111. was then King of
Portugal.
Robert Barton would seem also at one time to
have faHen into the hands of the Portuguese ; and
there is extant a letter sent by James IV. to the
Emperor Maximilian, requesting his influenCe to
have him released from prison, and therein the
king refers to the quarrel of 1476, and merely
states that old John Barton was thrown into a prison
also.
In 1506, at a tournament held by James IV. in
Stirling, we read of a blackamoor girl, captured
from the Portuguese by Captain Barton, seated in
a triumphal chariot, being adjudged the prize of
the victor knight ; but the Bartons sent other gifts
to the king, in the shape of casks full of pickled
Portuguese heads.
In 1498, when Perkin Warbecli and his wife, the
Lady Katharine Gordon, left Scotland for Flanders,
they were on board a ship which, Tytler says, was
commanded by and afterwards the property of the
celebrated Robert Barton. Amongst her stores,
noted in the “.Treasurefs Accounts,” are ‘‘ ten tuns
and four pipes of wine, 8 bolls of aitmele, 18 marts
of beef, 23 muttons, and a hogshead of herring.”
Andrew Barton, the brother of the captain (and,
like him, a merchant in Leith), is mentioned as
having furnished biscuit, cider, and beer, for the
voyage.
In 1508 this family continued their feud with the
Portuguese. In that year Letters of Marque were
granted to them by James IV., and they run thus,
according to the “Burgh Records of Edinburgh ” :-
“]~callus Dei Gratia Rex Scatorurn, deZectis semit
o d u s nosiris. John Barton and Robert Barton,
sons of our late beloved servant John Barton, shipmaster,
and other shipmasters our lieges and subjects,
in company of the said John Barton for the
time (greeting) :
“ Some pirates of the nation of Portugal attacked
a ship of our late illustrious ancestor (James HI.),
which, under God, the late John commanded, and
with a fleet of many ships compelled it to surrender,
robbed it of its merchandise, of very great
value, and stripped it of its armament On account
of which, our most serene father transmitted his complaint
to the King of Portugal.” Justice not having
been done, the document runs, Jarnes 111. decreed
Letters of Reprisal against the Portuguese. “ We,
moreover, following the footsteps of our dearly
beloved ancestor . . . . . concede and grant by
these presents to you, John and Robert aforesaid,
and our other subjects who shall be in your company
for the time, our Letters of Marque or Reprisai,
that you may receive and bring back to us
from any men whomsoever of the nation of Portugal,
on account of the justice aforesaid being.
desired, to the extent of 3,000 crowns of money
of France . . . . Givenunder our Privy Seal, &c.”
Under these letters the brothers put to sea in
the quaint argosies of those days, which had low
waists with towering poops and forecastles, and
captured many Portuguese ships, and doubtless
indemnified themselves remarkably well ; while
their elder brother, Andrew, an especial favourite
of James IV., who bestowed upon him the then
coveted honour of knighthood, “ for upholding
the Scottish flag upon the seas,” was despatched
to punish some Dutch or Flemish pirates who had
captured certain Scottish ships and destroyed theircrews
with great barbarity. These he captured,
with their vessel, and sent all their heads to LeitL
in a hogshead.
As is well known, he was killed fighting bravely
in the Downs on the 2nd August, 1511, after a
severe conflict with the ships of Sir Thomas and Sir.
Edward Howard, afterwards Lord High Admiral of
England, when he had only two vessels with him,
the Lion of 36 great guns, and a sloop name$ the.
Jenny. The Howards had three ships of war and
an armed collier. The Lion was afterwards added
to the English navy, as she was found to be only
second in size and armament to the famous Great
Harry. His grandson Charles married Susan
Stedman of Edinburgh, and from them are said tobe
descended nearly all of that name in Fife, Kinross,
and Holland.
For his services as Admiral on the West Coast,
John Barton received the lands of Dalfibble ; and
in April, 1513, he returned from a diplomatic mission
to France, accompanied by the Unicorn Pursuivant;
and so important was its nature that he
took horse, and rode all night to meet the king,
who was then on the eve of departing for Flodden.
On the 26th of July in the Same year he joined
the squadron, consisting of the Great Michael, the
James, Marguret, the S/$ of Lynne (an English
prize), a thirty-oared galley, and fourteen other
armed ships, commanded by Gordon of Letterfourie
(and having on board the Earl of Arran and
3,000 soldiers), which sailed from Leith as a present
to Anne, Queen of France-a piece of ill-timed
generosity on the part of the princely Jarnes IV.,
who accompanied the armament as far as the Isle](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p022.gif "Volume 6 Page 203")
... THE BARTONS. 203
is the second of the name, who died in 1513,
John the senior was certainly dead in ...
Vol. 6 p. 203 (Rel. 0.16)
... OLD AND NEW EDINBVRGH. [Leith.
London, at the request of Lord Balgonie, afterwards
Earl of Leven.
People of ...
Vol. 6 p. 250 (Rel. 0.15)
![Merchiston.] THE NAPIERS OF MERCHISTON. 35
likeness of the founder, painted by Sir James
Foulis of Woodhall, Bart.
In 1870 the original use to which the foundation
was put underwent a change, and the hospital
became a great public school for boys and girls.
At the western extremity of what was the Burghmuir,
near where lately was an old village of that
name (at the point where the Colinton road diverges
from that which leads to Biggar), there stands, yet
unchanged amid all its new surroundings, the
ancient castle of Merchiston, the whilom seat of a
race second to none in Scotland for rank and talent
-the Napiers, now Lords Napier and Ettrick. It
is a lofty square tower, surmounted by corbelled
battlements, a ape-house, and tall chimneys. It
was once surrounded by a moat, and had a secret
avenue or means of escape into the fields to the
north. As to when it was built, or by whom, no
record now remains.
In the missing rolls of Robert I., the lands of
Merchiston and Dalry, in the county of Edinburgh,
belonged in his reign to William Bisset, and under
David II., the former belonged to William de
Sancto Claro, on the resignation of Williani Bisset,
according to Robertson’s “Index,” in which we find
a royal charter, “datum est apud Dundee,” 14th
August, 1367, to John of Cragyof the lands of
Merchiston, which John of Creigchton had resigned.
So the estate would seem to have had several
proprietors before it came into the hands of
Alexander Napier, who was Provost of Edinburgh
in 1438, and by this acquisition Merchiston became
the chief title of his family.
His son, Sir Alexander, who was Comptroller of
Scotland under James 11. in 1450, and went on a
pilgrimage to St. Thomas of Canterbury in the
following year-for which he had safe-conduct from
the King of England-was Provost of Edinburgh
between 1469 and 1471- He was ambassador to
the Court of the Golden Fleece in 1473, and was
no stranger to Charles the Bold ; the tenor of his
instructions to whom from James II., shows that he
visited Bruges a d the court of Burgundy before
that year, in 1468, when he was present at the
Tournament of the Golden Fleece, and selected a
suit of brilliant armour for his sovereign.
Sir Alexander, fifth of Merchiston, fell at Flodden
with James IV.
John Napier of Merchiston was Provost 17th
of May, 1484, and his son and successor, Sir Archibald,
founded a chaplaincy and altar in honour of St.
Salvator in St. Giles’s Church in November, 1493.
His grandson, Sir Archibald Napier, who married
a daughter of Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, was
slain at the battle of Pinkie, in 1547.
Sir Alexander Napier of Merchiston and Edinbellie,
who was latterly Master of the Mint to
James VI., was father of John Napier the
celebrated inventor of the Logarithms, who was
born in Merchiston Castle in 1550, fgur years after
the birth of Tycho Brahe, and fourteen before that
of Galileo, at a time when the Reformation in
Scotland was just commencing, as in the preceding‘
year John Knox had been released from the
French galleys, and was then enjoying royal
patronage in England. His mother was Janet,
only daughter of Sir Francis Bothwell, and sister
of Adam, Bishop of Orkney. At the time of his
birth his father was only sixteen years of age. He
was educated at St. Salvator’s College, St. Andrews,
where he matriculated 1562-3, and afterwards spent
several years in France, the Low Countries, and
Italy; he applied himself closely to the study of
mathematics, and it is conjectured that he gained
a taste for that branch of learning during his residence
abroad, especially in Itily, where at that
time were many mathematicians of high repute.
While abroad young Napier escaped some perils
that existed at home. In 150s a dreadful pest
broke out in Edinburgh, and his father and family
were exposed to the contagion, “ by the vicinity,”
says Mark Napier, ‘‘ of his mansion to the Burghmuir,
upon which waste the infected were driven
out to grovel and die, under the very walls of
Merchiston.”
In his earlier years his studies took a deep theological
turn, the fruits of which appeared in his
“ Plain Discovery of the Revelation of St John,”
which he published at Edinburgh in 1593, and
dedicated to James VI. But some twenty years
before that time his studies must have been sorely
interrupted, as his old ancestral fortalice lay in the
very centre of the field of strife, when Kirkaldy
held out the castle for Queen Mary, and the savage
Douglas wars surged wildly round its walls.
On the 2nd April, 1572, John Napier, then in his
twenty-second year, was betrothed to Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir James Stirling of Keir ; but as he
had incurred the displeasure of the queen’s party
by taking no active share in her interests, on the
18th of July he was arrested by the Laid of Minto,
and sent a prisoner to the Castle of Edinburgh,
then governed by Sir TVilliam Kirkaldy, who in the
preceding year had bombarded Merchiston with
his iron guns because certain soldiers of the king’s
party occupied it, and cut off provisions coming
north for the use of his garrison. The solitary
tower formed the key of the southern approach
to the city ; thus, whoever triumphed, it became the
object of the opponent’s enmity.](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v5p046.gif "Volume 5 Page 35")
... THE NAPIERS OF MERCHISTON. 35
likeness of the founder, painted by Sir James
Foulis of Woodhall, ...
Vol. 5 p. 35 (Rel. 0.15)
... OF ILLUSTRATIONS . xi ..
P
Deacon Brodie . . . . . . . .
The First Interview in 1786: Deacon Brodie ...
Vol. 2 p. 393 (Rel. 0.15)
... OLD AND. NEW. EDINBURGH. [Cauongate.
date over a doorway in it, this street had been in
progress in 1768.
At ...
Vol. 3 p. 26 (Rel. 0.15)
![Newhaven] FISHER SUPERSTITIONS. 305
polis of an ancient kingdom, this people remain unlucky ; of hares, terrible ! Should a reference
- in costume, and dialect in manners (‘the man in the black coat ;”- .and Friday is an
and mode of thinking. The cus- unlucky day for everything but getting married;
toms, laws, and traditions of their forefathers I and’to talk of a certain man named Brounger
appear as if they had been stereotyped for their
use.”
They believe in many of the whimsical and ideal
terrors of past generations, and have many superstitions
that are not, perhaps, entirely their own.
While at sea, if the idea of a cat or a pig float
across the mind, their names must not be uttered,
-* e
135
-
is-according to the writer quoted-sure to
produce consternation.
John Brounger was an old fisherman of Newhaven,
who, when too feeble to go to sea, used to
ask for some oysters or fish from his neighbours on
their return, and if not amply supplied, he cursed
them, and wished them-on their next trip-‘‘ ill](images/thumbs/old_new_edin_v6p124.gif "Volume 6 Page 305")
... FISHER SUPERSTITIONS. 305
polis of an ancient kingdom, this people remain unlucky ; of hares, terrible ! ...
Vol. 6 p. 305 (Rel. 0.15)
