The WS Society is hosting a variety of events this year to celebrate the 200th birthday of its magnificent building in Parliament Square, the Signet Library. The most recent of these was a public lecture by Robert Pirrie WS on ‘Identity, Imagination and George IV in Edinburgh, 1822’ in which he explained how he is…
Sometimes being a historian is just plain fun… See ‘Armada chests and legal documents: Anderson Strathern‘ by Professor John W. Cairns the Edinburgh Legal History blog for a recent adventure featuring locked treasure chests, legal documents, and getting covered in the dust of ages. I was delighted to be invited along to the ceremonial opening…
In February 1760, advocate Walter Steuart presented a petition to the Court of Session on behalf of his client, John Grieve, a taylor in Potter-row. [1] The petition was part of a long-standing dispute between Grieve and his neighbour John Neill, a barber and wig-maker. Their disagreement involved the use of a shared garden and…
As described in a previous post, Mr James Fennell was tormented by a mob of Edinburgh lawyers as he tried to work as an actor at the Theatre Royal during Mrs Siddon’s visit there in July 1788. The events did not escape the notice of the Caledonian Mercury and its reports provide more details about…
Henry Raeburn v. Andrew Kedslie This day the new jury court met in the Court of Exchequer, when their Lordships proceeded to try the case of RAEBURN &c. against KEDSLIE. This was an action relative to the erection of a steam engine at Stockbridge-mills, which the pursuers contend, is a nuisance. (Edinburgh Evening Courant, 22…
I was made redundant from my main job in July but I have been lucky enough to have not one but two of my ex-employers take me on in temporary part-time roles while I looked for a new role and started forming a portfolio career for freelance work. (UPDATE: I’m delighted to say that I…
‘Articles to be left in the house’, the 1801 roup Another manuscript, also in the Library of Scotland, lists items that were to be left in the house after Lady Alva’s death. These were described as Lady Alva’s property and some of them went on to be auctioned in May 1801. It is interesting to…
Portraits The Alvas displayed their most important family portraits in their dining room. Most were recent – from the previous or present generations – but there was also an ‘old family’ portrait in a white frame and ‘Three old family portraits of the Marr family white frames’.[1] These must have been gifts from Lord Alva…
Special inventories were taken for linen, coins and jewels, pamphlets, and pictures and prints found at Drumsheugh House after Lady Alva’s death in 1797. These were designed to resolve inheritance queries raised by her step-daughter-in-law Isabella Erskine. Linen The linen inventory is particularly interesting since it includes the marks the family used to identify their…
When he died in 1796, James Erskine, Lord Alva (b. 1722) left a complex estate. One of his homes was Drumsheugh House in the West End of Edinburgh. When his descendants contested the provisions of his will early in the nineteenth century, the Court ordered that an inventory of the contents of the manor house…
