Number 23 - Information on residents

1806 – 1809 Maxwell and Jane (neé Taylor) Gordon

Maxwell Gordon was the son of William Gordon of Nethermuir in Aberdeenshire. The family held their estate for nearly three centuries before, in 1872, it was sold by Gordon’s son, John, to Lord William Leslie, Provost of Aberdeen. Maxwell became a solicitor (WS) in 1793 and in 1799 married Jane. He appears to have carried on his law practice with John Morison. He may well have resided in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen, for he was a member of the Aberdeen Militia and a vote holder for Aberdeenshire elections.

He was a book lover; subscribing to a range of publications of Scottish books, including poetry. He also was a member of the Highland Society, which had been established in Edinburgh in 1784 as a society for the improvement of the Highlands. The original objects of the Society 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.’

Maxwell died in 1809 at the home of his son, John, in Boghall, near Ayr.

1810 – 1847 George Napier (and from 1813 with his wife, Grace (neé Maxton)

1810 – 1840 George Napier, son

1824 – 1885 Alexander Napier, son (and from 1867 with his wife, Elizabeth (neé Stevenson)

In 1797 George first married Mary Jeffrey, the sister of Lord Jeffrey, a Scottish judge and renowned literary critic, best known as the editor of The Edinburgh Review, a quarterly that was the pre-eminent organ of British political and literary criticism in the early 19th century. Sadly, Mary died in 1804, leaving George with at least four children under the age of five.

In 1810 George moved into the new Albany Street house with the children. Three years later he remarried, to Grace Maxton, who lived three doors away at Number 17 with her family. Grace’s father, Josiah, owned a Saddlery business. George and Grace had three children.

George Napier was a solicitor (SSC) and in 1832 became President of the Society of the Solicitors in Supreme Courts. In 1834 he was elected both Commissioner of Police and Commissioner for City Improvements for Edinburgh, and in that year attended the Grey Festival which honoured Lord Earl Grey for his many achievements. See Grand Occasions. George, died in 1847.

The eldest son of the first marriage, also George, studied the High School and in 1817 was presented with a Gold Medal with the inscription (in Greek): ‘To George Napier. An excellent boy, surpassing the second time, all his Schoolfellows in Greek Learning. The Lord Provost and Magistrates of Edinburgh presented this Honorary Premium.’ George became an Advocate in 1823. In 1840 George, who never married, moved Great King Street and in 1850 moved into Coates Hall which he had designed by David Bryce in the style of a small Baronial house. He lived there with his unmarried sister, Mary, until his death in 1883. Mary lived on at Coates hall until her death five years later. The house now is part of St Mary’s Music School.

As an Advocate George spent time overseeing Circuit Courts in various parts of Scotland. A report from a sitting attended by George in Aberdeen stated: ’The calendar was unusually light, there only being eleven cases in all, and none of these of much importance. John Davie pleaded guilty to three out of four charges of forging signatures to bills of exchange and was sentenced to fourteen years transportation. Four women were found guilty of theft and sentenced to transportation for ten years; and two men for the same crimes were sentenced to transportation for seven years. The others were punished with various terms of imprisonment.’

In 1840, George was appointed Sheriff of Peeblesshire. George, who was described as ‘amiable and of a kindly disposition’ was a member of The Marrow-bone Club. Although all the members were Whigs, it was more a social club, meeting at Cameron's Tavern in Fleshmarket Close. The Club’s crest was a marrow bone and standing dishes at their dinners were steaks, and, of course, marrow-bones, almost every member having his own marrow scoop, a heavy silver article with his crest or arms, as well as his name and date of membership, engraved on it.

Another son of the first marriage, William, also entered the law, becoming a WS. In 1828, he married Mary Low and they moved to Howard Place. However, he continued to share the chambers at Albany Street with his father and brother until his death in 1849.

The eldest daughter of the first marriage, Mary, remained unmarried and lived with her brother George at Coates Hall. The other daughter of George and Mary, Eliza, married James Boyd Fleming, a doctor in the Madras Army.

One daughter of the second marriage, Susan, died unmarried in 1865 and the other, also Grace, married Archibald Wilkie of Ormiston around 1855. The son of the second marriage, Alexander, also became a WS Alexander and served as a director of the Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Society. In 1867, he married Elizabeth Stevenson, the daughter of David Stevenson, an engineer and a reputed designer of lighthouses. She moved into the house with her new husband and the widowed Mrs Napier who died a few years later. In 1885, Alexander and Elizabeth moved to Heriot Row. They had three children. Their son, George, became a civil engineer, working for the Admiralty. In 1896 he was employed on the extension of Devonport Dockyard. He died in South Africa in 1898. Elizabeth married Arthur Badenach Nicolson of Glenbervie in 1897. No information traced for Alice.

1885 - 1888 James Dove Park

James Dove Park, the son of Ebeneezer Park, worked in the firm, James Dove & Co, that had been established by his family in 1831/32. The company produced fire-engine hoses and pumps and by the time James worked there was described as ‘fire engine, hydraulic, lighthouse engineers’. He moved to Nelson Street and in 1908 he was a member of the Forth Division (Electrical Engineers) Royal Engineers (Volunteers) and appointed a Lieutenant, and eventually became a Major.

The Fair Isle North Lighthouse is one of a number with equipment made by the company. The lighthouse plaque reads: ‘Group Flashing, Hyper-Radiant Light, Made by Barbier, Paris -James Dove & Co., Edinburgh - Stevenson, Civil Engineer, Edinburgh, - David A Stevenson, Engineers to the Board, 1892.’

1888 – 1891 Adam Shiell

Adam Shiell was an Advocate. One case in which he was part of the defence team involved the Greenock Telegraph. The paper was being sued by John Martinette, a circus comedian and director of the Musical Martinettes. The action arose because of a newspaper article entitled, “With Pickpockets in Greenock Tunnel”, in which one of the paper’s journalists described a rail journey. In the same compartment was Mr Martinette. The train had entered the unlit Greenock Tunnel. The journalist struck a match to light his pipe, and the flame lit up Martinette standing directly next to him. The article inferred that Martinette had been up to no good. Martinette claimed the slur would damage his professional career but the paper argued that the article was merely alerting people to the potential for theft in any dark tunnel, and a public call on the railway company to provide lighting. In the end the paper agreed to print an apology and the case was settled out of court.

Shiell died here in 1891.

In 1905, MacLeod was elected to the Edinburgh Council, representing Canongate ward, and served in that capacity to 1919. From 1912 – 1914, he was City Treasurer, and, from 1916 to 1919, the city’s Lord Provost. He held a diverse range of public and private positions including Chairman of Scottish Life Assurance Company , Food Commissioner for Scotland, chairman of the General Nursing Council for Scotland, and Chairman of the Consumers' Committees for both Scotland and Great Britain. He also was active in a range of organisations promoting Highland and Celtic culture, including the Clan MacLeod. He was knighted and in 1920 appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in recognition of his services as Lord Provost during the First World War.

The Whighams had two daughters, Mairi and Mena. The girls attended St. George’s School for Girls, and during the First World War, the school encouraged their ex-pupils to join the war effort by becoming nurses. The school had a link with Dr Elsie Inglis, who was the founder of the pioneering and voluntary WW1 field hospitals, staffed & run entirely by women, and so Mairi worked as a nurse, serving at the Royal Victoria Military Hospital, Netley, Hants and, at the war’s end, in Wimereux, France.

In 1922, Mena was the only women out of 94 students graduating from Edinburgh University, where she had studied law. Later, she joined the firm of her uncle, John Lorne MacLeod, whom she also lived with. In the late 1930s and 1940s, she questioned those aspects of the law that adversely affected women, including inequality in the law of intestate succession and anomalies in divorce law. Her extensive voluntary work included acting as Treasurer of both the Edinburgh French Circle and Edinburgh Old People’s Welfare Council; and serving on such committees as the Edinburgh Women’s Citizens Association and the Wages Council. Like her uncle, she was engaged with a number of organisations promoting Highland and Celtic culture. These included the Celtic Union, a literary and historical society; the Highland Fiell; the 1951 Mod which took place in Edinburgh; and as convenor of a ball to raise funds for the Celtic Conference: ‘The Assembly Rooms presented a gay scene when filled with the many-coloured tartans. Spirited reels danced to Pipe-Major Stark’s music figured largely on the programme.’

In 1950, at a dinner to mark the appointment of Sir Andrew Murray as Lord Provost of Edinburgh given by ‘the women citizens of this Modern Athens’, Mina proposed the toast to the guests. A subject raised at the dinner was the controversy at the time over whether the money spent by the city on the Edinburgh Festival was worthwhile or not. The incoming Lord Provost argued that it was as the Festival brought the city ‘tremendous value’.