Number 15 - Information on residents

In 1795 Lady Rollo's daughter, Jane, married Captain Patrick Hunter (portrait by David Martin - collection Aberdeen Art Gallery) who served with the Bengal Infantry but was retired from the army when they married. Two daughters, Barbara, and either Isabella, Mary or Elizabeth, lived with their mother in Albany Street. Mary died in 1817, Barbara in 1824 leaving one daughter still living in the house until her death around 1840. Although John and Agnes lived at Duncrub, they used the Albany Street house as a place to stay when in Edinburgh, as both are recorded as being resident there in the 1841 census. The couple had six children and in 1841 their two daughters, Martha and Mary, and one of their sons were living with them in the Edinburgh house. John Rollo became an army officer and fought with The Scots Guards and participated in The Battle of Lincelles in August 1793 during the French Revolutionary Wars. He later became deputy lieutenant-general of Perthshire, a Scottish representative peer, and a director of the Commercial Bank of Scotland. The eldest daughter of John and Agnes Rollo, Mary, married Captain Robert-Knox Trotter in 1833. He was a Captain in the 17th regiment of Lancers. Trotter later became a Justice of the Peace. Martha married Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Richardson in 1850. He served with 3rd Dragoon Guards. Martha died just seven years after their marriage and Richardson later remarried and was knighted. The youngest son, Robert, became General Sir Robert Rollo, and in 1851 married Harriett-Anne Fergusson-Davie. General Sir Robert Rollo took part in The Battle of Balaclava, part of the Crimean War, in October 1854 as part of the Siege of Sevastopol. He became Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief in Canada before retiring in 1881.

1883 – 1889 Alexander Mackenzie

Alexander Mackenzie was Secretary of the Highland Association. Established in 1784 as a society for the improvement of the Highlands, the Association’s original objects included ‘the improvement of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and the conditions of their inhabitants, an enquiry into the means of their improvement by establishing towns and villages - facilitating communications by roads and bridges - advancing agriculture - extending fisheries - introducing useful trades and manufactures, and the preservation of the language, poetry and music of the Highlands.’ In its first year, a Professor of Gaelic was elected and the Society supported the compilation of a dictionary of the Gaelic language. This was published in 1828, having taken 14 years to compile and costing nearly £4,000.

In December 1822 the Society held its first General Show, the first open to competition from any part of Scotland, in the back garden of Queensberry House, then a barracks, in the Canongate. Between sixty and seventy five cattle were exhibited and, having paid one shilling each, 1,052 visitors and members attended the show. These and other initiatives led to the Society's title changing in 1834 to The Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, later adding Royal to the title. The change was appropriate and significant, as the Society had become less of a Highland Society, and more of an Agricultural Society. The Society went on to hold shows annually in different parts of Scotland (photo of one of the medals awarded in 1827) but in 1849 the directors decided that, in future, shows would be held triennially. They pointed out that, contrary to general opinion, the shows, instead of being a source of revenue, were actually losing the society money as they cost £5,000 to stage. The decision caused huge dissatisfaction among the agricultural community, and over eighty famers wrote in protest. The directors changed the timing to bi-annual shows but by the late 1850s the pressure forced the Society to return to annual shows. A newspaper account of the 1877 show in Edinburgh indicates that the problem of poor conditions underfoot is not something new. ‘Heavy though intermittent rainfalls previously had rendered the ground exceedingly disagreeable to walk upon, and in some places it was little better that a quagmire.’ In 1859, at the traditional after show dinner, the Lord Justice Clerk said: ‘ In my experience there has been a remarkable decay of the litigious spirit amongst the agriculturists of Scotland, and an equally remarkable falling off in the number of actions raised by them against their landlords, or against each other in the Court of Session. My learned brother and predecessor, Pleydell, held that the farmers of Scotland took to litigation only after the union of the two kingdoms had deprived them of their more natural amusement of slaughtering their sovereigns and making war. Now, however, another change had come over the farmers, and what could be the reason of it. I am perfectly convinced that the perfervidum ingenium Scotorum (the very ardent temper of the Scots) must get vent somehow, else it would burst its bonds; and I have little doubt the reason it did not find its vent in litigation was that it found sufficient excitement and relief in the honourable and kindly emulation of the show-yard.’

In 1856, the Society began to conduct examinations in agriculture, and encouraged the improvement of land and the development of machinery. From 1823 the Society had supported the Edinburgh Veterinary School lectures run by William Dick, and established Dick as the first Professor of Veterinary Studies at Edinburgh in 1840.

1890 – 1899 John Thomson Maclagan

John Thomson Maclagan was a merchant and moved here with his two sons and four daughters from James Place in Leith. His wife, Margaret (neé Pearson), had died in 1877. He was one of six sons born to Dr David Maclagan, a well-known Edinburgh doctor. All John’s brothers went into recognised professions. Andrew was a doctor, became President of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh and was later knighted. Philip and Robert also became doctors, while David became an accountant. William joined the army but soon after trained for the church and became Archbishop of York.

John worked as a merchant in India and on returning to Edinburgh became a partner in a firm producing printing ink. He was active in a wide range of church and philanthropic activities including the Foreign Mission Committee, the Longmore Hospital and the Widows Fund.

The Widows’ Fund was the first true insurance fund. Created by two Church of Scotland ministers Robert Wallace, with help from his friend Alexander Webster, in 1744, it eventually became Scottish Widows, and was an idea that initiated multi-million pound industry. The two men were hard drinkers and mathematical prodigies, and over many a glass bemoaned the fate of the widows and children left when ministers died, for unless the widow had family resources or savings to draw on they were often homeless and without money. Robert and Alexander had the idea of a mutual insurance fund. Instead of each family being left to the mercy of fate, ministers would pay premiums into a fund and the invested money would provide for widows and orphans. For this scheme to work required an accurate projection of how many widows and orphans there would likely be in the future, a calculation that the couple of Scots made with extraordinary precision – one hopes oiled by many large glasses of drink. The creation of the Scottish Ministers Widows’ fund was a milestone in financial history, for it provided a model not just for Scottish churchmen but for everyone who aspired to provide for life’s eventuality. Eventually the idea spread widely.

Both Maclagan’s wives died young. He had one son from his first marriage, David, who died the year they moved here. He had recently published a history of the Scottish Paraphrases. In the 18th century the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland appointed a committee to provide a collection of Paraphrases (equivalent to hymns) for presbyteries to consider using alongside Psalms. Maclagan’s book described in detail the lengthy deliberations which led to the publication of the Paraphrases, and observes that "as a matter of principle, the Paraphrases stand as a conspicuous warning of the confusion arising from hymn-tinkering’. In deciding on the paraphrases, the Church of Scotland ensured that those chosen remained closely aligned to scripture. This came from the powerful Reformation view that it was essential for the Word of God in public worship to be in the mouths of the congregation. Other hymn content might be alright for others, but not for good Scottish Christians. The music for the paraphrases was simple, initially there were just twelve tunes covering all.

His son from his second marriage, Charles, trained as an accountant, and became the senior partner in the accountancy firm of Carter, Grieg and Co. No information has been found on the daughters except all survived into their 70s.

Maclagan donated two stained glass windows to his church in South Leith; one in memory of his second wife, Margaret Pearson, and the other in memory of his first son, David, both of whom had died in their early thirties. Maclagan died in 1897.