28 Albany Street

1817 – 1901 George and Eliza (neé Brown) Robertson and other family members George Robertson had this house built specially for him by the architect Thomas Hamilton (architect's design for frontage), and moved in following his marriage to Eliza. His brother, Major David Robertson, was already living at Number 12. Robertson became Deputy Keeper of the Records of Scotland in 1835. Scotland was the first country to establish a national system of registration giving rights to the public, rather than particular groups. The registers were originally set up to give individuals the power to have their rights recorded in an official register, and to give legal protection of these rights. Registers were kept in Edinburgh Castle from about the 13th century. The register of deeds covering all of Scotland was set up by an Act of the Scots Parliament in 1617. The records were later moved to the old Parliament House at the end of the 17th century.

By the mid-eighteenth century, the need to provide accommodation for the national archives was widely recognised. In 1765, a grant of £12,000 was obtained from the estates of Jacobites, forfeited after the 1745 rising, towards building a 'proper repository.’ A site was chosen fronting the end of the North Bridge then under construction. The eminent architect Robert Adam and his brother James were selected for the project, and the foundation stone was laid in 1774. However, in 1779, the money ran out and the building remained an empty shell until 1785. The derelict site, described as 'the most magnificent pigeon-house in Europe', was the haunt of thieves and pick-pockets. The building finally opened to the public in 1789. (Engraving c. 1800 -View of the North Bridge and Robert Adam's Register House).

Robert Reid, also the architect of St George's Church (now West Register House), completed the building to Adam's plan in the 1820s, but with a much simplified north façade. Reid also designed the Antiquarian Room (now the Historical Search Room), which opened to the public in 1847. General Register House is one of the oldest custom built archive buildings still in continuous use in the world. The Robertson’s eldest son, also George, became a solicitor (WS) and married Christina Rose. Following his father's death, George took over as Deputy-Keeper of the Records until his death in 1873. George was one of a number of Albany Street residents who was a member of the Royal Company of Archers - see Sports – and was a regular winner of the Edinburgh Arrow, the company’s annual archery competition.Another son, Alexander, is noted as being one seven pupils of Mr Ballantyne’s school in Dublin Street awarded a silver medal for their examination results. Alexander became a Major in charge of Gun Carriages, and he and his wife and infant daughter were murdered at Futteyghur during the Indian Mutiny.

The third son, William, became a doctor and served as the Medical Officer of the New Town Dispensary, and as a physician at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Later, he was appointed to be Superintendent of Statistics in Scotland. This was an expanding area of work, compounded by the demands of the Vaccination Act. Vaccination against smallpox was one of the first major achievements of modern medicine, stemming from Edward Jenner's experiments in 1796. In spite of many doubters (James Gillray’s 1802 cartoon, The Cow-Pock—or—the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation!) vaccination spread rapidly through Western Europe, and epidemics of this dangerous and disfiguring disease greatly diminished. Although many people wanted vaccination for their children, particularly when an epidemic threatened, the poor had to rely on charitable organisations or, occasionally, the Poor Law authorities, to provide a vaccination service.