History of Leith, Edinburgh

Sir Robert de Lawedre (Lauder), Knt., of Quarrelwood (died about 1370) was Justiciar of Scotia, a Scottish soldier of great prominence and Captain of Urquhart Castle. He is recorded by Fordun, in his Scotichronicon, and in Extracta ex variis Cronicis Scocie as “Robertus de Lavedir ‘the good’” for more click here

PORTOBELLO,(Now part of Edinburgh), and
favourite bathing quarter of the citizens, occupies a
locality known for ages as the Figgate Muir, a once
desolate expanse of muir-land, which perhaps was
a portion of the forest of Drumsheugh, but which
latterly was covered with whins and furze, bordered
by a broad sandy beach, and extending from Magdalene
Bridge on the south perhaps to where Seafield
now lies, on the north-west.
Through this waste flowed the Figgate Burn out
of Duddingston Loch, a continuation of the Braid.
Figgate is said to be a corruption of the Saxon
word for a cow’s-ditch, and here the monks of
Holyrood were wont to pasture their cattle.
Traces of early inhabitants were found here
in 1821, when three stone coffins were discovered
under a tumulus of sand, midway between Portobello
and Craigantinnie. These were rudely put
together, and each contained a human skeleton.
” The bones were quite entire,” says the Weekly
Journal for that year, ” and from their position it
would appear that the bodies had been buried with
their legs across. At the head of each was deposited
a number of flints, from which it is conjectured
the inhumation had taken place before the
use of metal in this country ; and, what is very
remarkable, the roots of some shrubs had penetrated
the coffins and skulls of the skeletons, about which
and the ribs they had curiously twisted themselves.
The cavities of the skeletons indeed were quite
filled with vegetable matter.”
It was on the Figgate Muir that, during the
War of Independence, Sir William Wallace in 1296
mustered his 200 patriots to join Robert Lauder
and Crystal Seton at Musselbnrgh for the pursuit
of the traitor Earl of Dunbar, whom they fought at
Inverwick, afterwards taking his castle at Dunbar.

source-Old and New Edinburgh

In July, 1633, a boat at the ferry between
Burntisland and Leith foundered in a fair summer’s
day, according to Spalding, and with it perished
thirty-five domestic servants of Charles I., with his
silver plate and household stuff, ” but it foretokened
great troubles to fall out betwixt the king
and his subjects, as after does appear.” Balfour
states that there was a great storm, that the king
crossed ” in grate jeopardy of his lyffe,” and that
only eight servants perished.

source-Old and New Edinburgh

Nicoll records that in 1650 the ferrymen at Leith
and Burntisland (taking advantage probably of the
confusion of affairs) became so exorbitant in their
charges that complaints were made to the Deputy
Governor of Leith, who ordered that the fare for a
man and horse should be only one shilling sterling,
and for a single person one groat, ” quhairas it
was tripled of befoir.”

source-Old and New Edinburgh

By an Act of James I., in 1425, it was ordained
that all ferries where horses were conveyed, should
” have for ilk boate a treene brig,” or wooden gangway,
under the pain of ” 40 shillings of ilk boate;”
and again, by an Act of James III., 1467, the
ferries at Leith, Kinghorn, and Queensferry are
ordained to have “brigges of buirds,” under penalty
of the ” tinsel” or forfeiture of their boats. Jn 1475
tfte charge for a passenger was twopence, and for
a horse sixpence; at Queensferry one penny for
a man, and twopence for a horse. (Scots Acts,
Glendoick.)

Hugo Arnot of Balcormo (1749-1786), was a Scottish advocate, writer and campaigner. for more click here

Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878) was an English architect of the Victorian Age, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches, cathedrals and workhouses. He was one of the most prolific architects that Great Britain has produced, over 800[1] buildings being designed or altered by him.

Scott was the architect of many iconic buildings, including the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station, the Albert Memorial, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, all in London, the main building of the University of Glasgow, and St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh. for more click here

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 ^§62-3, succeeding a previous chapel
of 1805 (erected at the cost of £1,610)on an adjacent
site, and to which attention was frequently drawn from the literary
celebrity of its minister, Dr. Michael Russell, the
author of a continuation of Prideaux’s ” Connection
of Sacred and Profane History,” and other works.
According to Arnot, the congregation had an origin
that was not uncommon in the eighteenth century.
After the battle of Culloden, ” 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 ^200. The
clergyman has about £60 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 insignificant,
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.

source-Old and New Edinburgh

Erysipelas (Greek—red skin; also known as “Ignis sacer”, “holy fire”, and “St. Anthony’s fire”:260 in some countries) is an acute streptococcus bacterial infection[2] of the upper dermis and superficial lymphatics. for more click here

On the east side of the Kirkgate, to take the
edifices in succession there, there was founded by
a preceptory for the canons of St. Anthony, the only establishment
of the kind in Scotland.
Arnot, in his history, unthinkingly mentions “the
monastery of Knights Templars of St. Anthony”
at Leith. These canons, says Chalmers, “seem to
have been an order of religious knights, not
Templars. The only document in which they are
called Templars is a charter of James VI. in 1614,
giving away their establishment and revenues; and
this mistake of an ignorant clerk is wildly repeated
by Arnot.”

(Since this was written it has been found that the preceptory was founded by the Templers
which was subsequently taken over by the Knights of St John)

Their church, burying-ground, and gardens were
in St. Anthony’s Wynd, an alley off the Kirkgate;
and the first community was brought from St.
Anthony of Vienne, the seat of the order in France.
They were formed in honour of St. Anthony, the
patriarch of monks, who was born at Coma, a
village of Heraclea on the borders of Arcadia, in
A.D. 251, and whose sister was placed in the first
convent that is recorded in history. A. hermit by
habit, he dwelt long in the ruins of an old castle
that overlooked the Nile; and after his death (said
to have been in 356) his body was deposited in the
church of La Motte St. Didier, at Vienne, when,
according to old traditions, those labouring under
the pest known as St. Anthony’s Fire—a species of
erysipelas—were miraculously cured by praying at
his shrine.
Gaston, a noble of Vienne, and his son Gironde,
filled with awe, we are told, by these wonderful
cures, devoted their lives and estates to found a
hospital for those who laboured under this disease,
and seven others joined them in their attendance
on the sick; and on these Hospitaller Brethren
Boniface VIII. bestowed the Benedictine Priory
of Vienne, giving them the rules of St. Austin, and
declaring the Abbot General of this new order—
the Canons Regular of St. Anthony. The superiors
of the subordinate preceptories were called commanders,
says Alban Butler, ” and their houses are
called commanderies, as when they were Hospitallers.”
Their preceptory at Leith was of the most magnificent
description, and the southern gate there
was named St. Anthony’s Port,
from its proximity to the establishment.
The lofty steeple was
long a conspicuous object; but
in the siege of Leith in 1559-60
it was beaten down by an English
eight-gun battery.

source-Old and New Edinburgh