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1807 William Bell
William Bell, a merchant, was listed as living in Albany Row for one year but no number given. This seems the likely house as all other houses built at that time have identified residents.
Bell was a merchant but ran into financial difficulties at this time. Among his creditors that led to his sequestration was Rankines and Walton of Newcastle, Sugar Refiners. His debts presumably forced him to leave the Albany Street house just a year after moving in. He died in 1820.
1808 – 1809 Alexander and Elizabeth (neé Jackson) Binny Alexander Binny had been an Agent working for the East India Company; a position that he no doubt landed thanks to his brother, Charles, who had become Secretary to the Nabob of Arcot. The Nabob was an ally of the British East India Company, but also harboured great ambitions of power in the South Indian arena. However, he borrowed heavily, and as many East India Company officials, in India or in the United Kingdom, were his creditors, by the 1780s the debts of the Nawab were having a direct impact on British politics. In 1795 Arcot died from gangrene poisoning, and was succeeded by his son, Umdat-ul-Umara. It was at this time that Alexander was appointed as the vakeel (representative) of Nabob Umdat-ul-Umara in Calcutta. However, a few years later Umdat was accused of supporting Indian rebellion and was deemed an enemy of the British, and it seems likely that Alexander had to leave India. He married Elizabeth in 1758 and they had eight children. At least two of the sons were employed in India.
1809 – 1811 James Finlay & Alexander and Justina Camilla (neé Wynne) Finlay James Finlay, a solicitor (WS), was a widower in his seventies when he lived here, and had previously lived at Bogside, Lanarkshire. His wife, Helen Wedderburn, died in 1786. From 1787 he was a member of the Literary Society of Glasgow. Founded in 1753 as a forum for intellectual discussions and debates, the Society met every Thursday from November to May. It was associated with the University of Glasgow and the Glasgow tobacco lords. The Literary Society was a key institution of the Enlightenment in Glasgow. Anne M Powers book, A Parcel of Ribbons, mentions a visit to James Finlay by Robert Cooper Lee. Lee went to Jamaica when young and became an attorney there. He returned to Scotland a wealthy man and became a merchant. There is reference to ‘James Finlay of Jamaica’ so it may be that James Finlay also was in Jamaica a time there. In his letter of 1784 Lee writes: ‘and so on to Bogside, the Seat of our friend Mr Finlay by whom and his good lady we were received most hospitably. Finlay is a great Improver, not only in farming, but in a fine family of eight children – Miss Finlay, the eldest, about ten years old, entertained us after dinner with Musick vocal and instrumental very pleasingly. Our dinner was excellent and all, except the Moor Game, from the farm. Mrs Lee’s Health and Family’s was drunk, as indeed it is every day. Mr Allen has a story that Miss M. was much hurt at hearing there was a Mrs Lee.’ His son, Alexander, also became a solicitor (WS). He was reputed to be an extremely handsome young man and his bride Justina Camilla Wynne (portrait by Sir Henry Raeburn) certainly looks a beauty. Their marriage took place in 1810 in the romantic setting of the ruined Skipness Castle. In her portrait, Justina is painted with a dog, the symbol of marital fidelity. This portrait was probably painted in Raeburn's new custom built studio in York Place in Edinburgh, which had a complex set of adjustable window shutters that allowed him to direct the fall of natural light on to his sitters.
Alexander and Justina lived at Glencorse on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Sadly, Justina died there just four years after the wedding, and a year later James also died there, having left Albany Street to live with his son.
1811 – 1826 Josiah and Joanna (neé Wise) MaxtonThis impressive monument, dated 1788, is the grave of Josiah’s father of the same name. Josiah took over his father’s saddlery business in North Bridge Street. An advert for the firm’s move to new premises stated: ‘Mr Maxton takes the liberty of informing the Public, that he has removed from the cross to a ware- room in North Bridge Street, nearly opposite the General Post Office, where he has laid in a neat and fashionable assortment of every article in the saddlery branch. He returns his most grateful acknowledgments for past favours, and hopes for a continuance of them, which he shall always study to merit.’
The Maxtons had (at least) two daughters. Catherine married David Grieg, a solicitor (WS) and the son of the Rev. David Greig, Minister of the Associate Burgher Congregation of Lochgelly. In 1823, Grace married George Napier who lived at Number 23 and had recently become widowed. They had three children.
There were two sons, John and George, although no information has been traced for George. John ran a Wine Merchants business in Leith. He was, as were a number of other Albany Street residents of the period, a member of The Royal Company of Archers. Founded in 1676 as a private archery club, The Royal Company of Archers continues today with members of the Company competing for the 'Edinburgh Arrow' each year. The Archers also function as the official bodyguard to the ruler when they are in Edinburgh. The Company was granted the right of perpetual access to all public butts, plains and pasturages legally allotted for shooting arrows in return for giving the Sovereign three barbed arrows on request. Maxton was a skilled archer. He won the Silver Arrow competition in four years, 1819, 1828, 1829 and 1843. In 1828, he also won the Peebles Arrow, and the first ever Silver Bugle Horn competition for a prize shot at the distance of 100 yards. In 1822 Maxton may well have been part of the Royal Company of Archers bodyguard for George IV when he visited Edinburgh in 1822.
Maxton also was a director of the National Bank of Scotland and an investor in a range of projects, including the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway.
The Maxtons moved to Number 29 and it is possible that the Maxtons had rented the house and all its existing furniture from the Finlays for when they moved to Number 29, all the house’s furniture was put up for sale, including: ‘Turn-over tables, Four Post and Tent Beds with curtains and good bedding, a Writing table and two Desks, an excellent Eight-day clock; a number of prints, and Cupboard and Kitchen articles.’
1826 – 1844 John and Catherine (neé Logan) Campbell John Campbell was a doctor, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. The first formal association of doctors specialising in surgery was The Barber Surgeons of Edinburgh that was formally incorporated as a Craft Guild in 1505. In 1647 the Guild acquired a permanent meeting place in rented rooms of a tenement in Dickson's Close. In the 18th century The University of Edinburgh Medical School (established in 1726) and The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (seen here in an early engraving) were responsible for the rapid development of systematic medical teaching on a sound scientific basis. Surgery however was perceived by many as still being a manual craft rather than an intellectual discipline, so members of the Incorporation of Surgeons undertook the task of education and did much to establish Edinburgh's reputation as a centre of surgical teaching. By the beginning of the 19th century there was an urgent need to provide suitable accommodation for the large collection of anatomical and surgical specimens which had been presented to the College, and William Henry Playfair was commissioned to design Surgeons' Hall, containing a Meeting Hall, Museum, Lecture Room and Library. Campbell served as President Royal College of Surgeons around the time of the opening of the new building. There were seven children: four daughters and three sons. Two sons died young.
The surviving son, John Logan Campbell (1838 Portrait of him wearing the dress of the Edinburgh Alleion Archers - Mungo Burton) was nine when they moved to Albany Street. His memoirs, Poenamo, written many years later includes memories of this time, and his later years. These entertaining memoirs can be read in full here: https://archive.org/details/poenamosketches00librgoog
They include detail about his life in New Zealand. See New Zealand links for more info and his portrait.
Campbell became a considerable figure in the Auckland community. He gifted a large part of his One Tree Hill estate to the people of Auckland as a public park to be called Cornwall Park and, public subscription paid for a bronze statue of him in his in mayoral robes, inscribed 'John Logan Campbell He gave Cornwall Park to the People of New Zealand', to be erected at the gates of the park. He died in June 1912, and The Auckland Star announced 'The Passing of a Patriarch'. When his body was borne from his home to its burial place on the summit of Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill), it was followed by the largest funeral cortège in Auckland's history.
1844 – 1868 Jane Stewart of Crossmount
Jane (neè Campbell) was the widow of Captain John Stewart of Crossmount in Perthshire who had died in 1835. He had served with the 82nd Foot. In The Autobiography Of Lt.-Gen. Sir Harry Smith he is mentioned when the two men were in Spain in 1808 fighting in the Battle of Corona. ‘The Hon. Captain James Stewart and I got some excellent greyhounds. We were always out coursing or shooting, and were never sick a day; our more sedentary comrades many of them distressingly so. The seven right-hand men of Leslie's Company died in the winter of this year. Our outposts were perfectly quiet, although sentries, French and English, were at each end of the bridge over the Rio Mayor, and vedettes along each bank. There was most excellent coursing on the plains of Vallé, and James Stewart and I were frequently out. Here I gave him my celebrated Spanish greyhound, Moro, the best the world ever produced, with a pedigree like that of an Arab horse, bred at Zamora by the Conde de Monteron; but the noble dog's story is too long to tell here. In one year Stewart gave me him back again to run a match against the Duke of Wellington's dog. But the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo prevented our sports of that description. Colonel Beckwith going to Lisbon, and I being his A.D.C., it was voted a capital opportunity for me to go to have the ball cut out from under the tendon Achillis, in the very joint. I was very lame, and the pain often excruciating, so off I cut. After some hours in the trenches, when we returned I invariably ate and went out coursing, and many is the gallant course I had, and many the swift hare I and my dog Moro brought home from the right bank of the Guadiana. One day James Stewart, I, and Charlie Eeles set off; having three hours off duty, to look for a hare or two at a celebrated spot where the hares ran very strong because there was a rabbit warren which saved them. Moro, of course, was of the party. We soon found an unusually strong hare, and, although the greyhounds fetched round a dozen times, she still worked her way for the warren. I was riding a great stupid Irish horse bought from General Vandeleur, called Paddy, and as it was important for the soup to kill this hare, however unsportsmanlike on quiet occasions it would be deemed, I rode to head her from the warren. My stupid beast of a horse put his foot into a hole and rolled over me. Stewart and Eeles picked me up, but I was insensible. Although I have generally managed on such occasions to get away from the horse, the animal had rolled over me, and when I came to myself I was sitting on Eeles' knee, my arms tied up with a whip-thong, and James Stewart, with a blunt-looking penknife, trying to bleed me, an operation I quickly prohibited by starting on to my legs. Moro killed his hare, though, without my help.’
In 1811, at the Battle of Barossa, Stewart was reported as injured but ‘the anxiety of his family was relieved by a letter from him a few days ago his wound which is in the arm is quite slight.’ He was still in Spain in 1812 when his father died and he inherited the Crossmount estate. A letter written by Sophia Stewart in 1812 recounts: ‘I accompanied my Brother to Derculich, on his way to poor Crossmount's funeral, and only returned last night .Your predictions of his near approach to that "bourne from whence no traveller returns" were but too soon realized, altho from what I can learn the event was very unlooked for by his nearest friends. I agree with you that his loss is indeed an irreparable one. Yet much depends on James's future conduct in softening their grief. If his dispositions are good he certainly has much in his power by exercising them in kind and affectionate behaviour towards his Mother and Sisters. Their future comfort depends I understand in a considerable degree upon James's kindness in consequence of Crossmount's sudden Death.
In 1813 Stewart returned briefly to sort out the financial affairs arising from his father’s will. After retiring from the army he married Jane and they lived at Crossmount until his death.
Later, his two sisters brought an action against Stewart, claiming that he had not properly administered the will of their father and that as a result the sisters and their mother had not received the money they were due. By the time the case came to a conclusion both Mrs Stewart and James were dead and it was Jane who was the defendant. In the end, the court decided the sisters’ claim was invalid with one judge stating: ‘I must say that captain Stewart has, from first to last, been very ill requited for the kindness he showed to his mother and sisters.’
It is probable that Jane died around 1867 as she was by then in her late 70s and the house went on the market for £1,700.
1868 Robert Ellis & 1868 – 1881 Robert Ellis (son) and William Ellis
Robert Ellis was a solicitor (WS) and moved here from Royal Terrace. He was a widower, his wife Margaret (neé Mitchell) having died 15 years before. He had previously lived at Numbers 13 and 39. He ran a family law practice with two of his sons, Adam, an advocate, and William, a solicitor. The eldest son, Robert, was a civil engineer.
Robert Ellis senior died the year they moved back into Albany Street. Adam left having successfully applied to enter the Colonial Service and being appointed as the Substitute Procurator and Advocate-General of Mauritius. Five years later he became Judge of the Supreme Court. In 1879 he was selected for the office of Chief Justice, and transferred to Jamaica in a similar capacity in 1883, where he served until his death in 1894. He was knighted in 1882. Adam Ellis was described as ‘a distinguished colonial official as well as an able lawyer.’ He was twice married. Firstly to Sarah Harvey who died and then Alice Chesney, whom he married in Switzerland.
William, now a partner in Ellis and Blythe, and Robert, lived on in the house, with their two unmarried sisters, Ellen and Margaret. It appears that both brothers probably died around 1880.
1881 – 1899 Alexander Taylor and Sophia (neé Fordyce) Innes
Alexander Taylor Innes (1911 portrait by Robert Home) was an Advocate, and he and Sophia moved into the house following their marriage. Sadly, both their only son Alexander and Sophia both died in the house the following year. He lived on in the house with his sister Isabella.
Originally, Innes had planned to study theology and become a minister, but felt unable to accept the Westminster Confession of Faith so chose the law instead. However, he contributed to articles on a religious theme to various journals, and his interest in the legal aspects of church creeds and traditions led to the publication of his pioneering work, The Law of Creeds in Scotland, in 1867. He corresponded with the British politician Gladstone on the subject of the disestablishment of the Scottish Church and visited him in 1868. He was a staunch supporter of Gladstone and when Gladstone became Prime Minister for the second time, Innes was appointed as Advocate Depute.
John McMillan, a vicar, was staying with Innes, probably along with his third wife, Ellen, as he died in the house in September 1885. He had only married Ellen a few months before and they may have been visiting Edinburgh as he was Curate of Hackney St. Mark. John’s in London.
Innes moved to Morningside Park, having decided to withdraw from active legal practice to concentrate on ecclesiastical issues.
1899 – 1912 Robert Renton
Renton was unmarried, and his mother and sister lived with him here. Previously he had lived in Fife where he had practiced as a solicitor in Cupar, before becoming Procurator Fiscal of for Fife. He acted as Chair of the Association of Procurator Fiscals in Scotland and was directly involved in preparing all legislation submitted by the Crown Office to Parliament, including the important Summary Jurisdiction Act of 1908. He is best known for the book he wrote with Henry Brown in 1890, Criminal Procedure, according to the Law of Scotland, which remains, through updated editions, the accepted ‘handbook’ of criminal procedure in Scotland. Although to the popular press of the day he was best known as the procurator in a number of high profile cases.
One involved the alleged theft of a valuable pearl necklace from Mrs Cameron, wife of Lieutenant Cecil Cameron, winner of the Victoria Cross. Lieutenant and Mrs Cameron claimed that on their way back to their residence in Heriot Row, while he had gone into a chemist’s shop to make a purchase and Mrs Cameron waited outside, she suddenly had been grabbed from behind, and a hand forced down the back of her neck and her valuable pearls snatched from her neck. Mrs Cameron recounted that she had half collapsed in a fainting fit at the shock while the thief ran off; before struggling into the shop to raise the alarm. She explained that she had not cried out in the street for her throat had been compressed by the ripping off of the pearls. It later transpired that the pearls recently had been insured for £5,000 by Lloyd’s. There was the lack of witnesses, although the theft was supposed to have happened in a busy street. It also was discovered that Lt. Cameron’s finances were in a bad state and that just days prior to the alleged robbery he had enquired about how he might invest £6000. So the couple were charged with fraud and Renton took charge of the prosecution. The trial of a heroic army officer and his stylish wife engrossed the public. The newspaper reports gave full coverage to her style: ‘Mrs Cameron wore a cream coloured costume with black cuffs and collar. She had the same hat as the previous day, a black straw with a white feather. Her button-hole was of pink carnations and lily of the valley.’ The broker, who had provided the insurance, read out the letter he had received from Mrs Cameron. ‘I rather want them to be insured under the name I used to be known by in the singing world – Miss Ruby O’Brien. I always was lucky then.’ However, her luck ran out and she and her husband were found guilty and sentenced to three years hard labour. Throughout the case Cameron had refused to give evidence in his defence and remained silent. Later, when in prison, Ruby confessed that she alone was the guilty party and Cameron had only been protecting her. So, following his later release from prison, a petition for a pardon was signed by, among others, five dukes, twenty privy councillors, and 126 generals, and he received a full pardon and was restored to his rank of Lieutenant. During the First World War, he again served with gallantry, including running spies in German Occupied France. But in 1924 Cameron committed suicide. What became of Ruby is now known.
The other infamous case that involved Renton as prosecutor was the Dalkeith Poisonings, and again this ended in a suicide. The events, worthy of an Agatha Christie novel, happened in Bridgend, near Dalkeith. Charles Hutchinson lived there and in February 1911 he and his wife held a dinner party for a group of sixteen friends to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary. The dinner party was a joyous occasion until the coffee was served. For following the coffee, fifteen of those present (three fortunately not being coffee drinkers) fell violently ill. Hutchinson and one of his guests, Alexander Clapperton, a wine merchant from Musselburgh, both died. Although seriously ill, the other coffee drinkers survived. Initially, there were newspaper reports that it had been the result of an accident as a result of using copper pans; something thought to have dangers attached. However, the police had swiftly discovered that the coffee had been poisoned using arsenic and suspicion soon fell on John Hutchinson, Charles' son, as he was a chemist and had served the coffee. A warrant for John’s arrest was issued and the police tracked him down to Guernsey. When the police arrived at the Guest House they immediately recognised the wanted man. When approached he denied he was John Hutchison, and then dashed upstairs to his room, pursued by the policeman. He took a phial from his pocket and drank from it, in spite of the policeman attempting to knock it from his hand. The phial contained more arsenic and Hutchison died within ten minutes. The motive for the poisoning appeared to be that John and Clapperton were rivals for a local girl.
Renton died at Number 17 suddenly in 1912.
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