Number 36 - Information on residents

1816 – 1817 John and Bertha (neé Brown) McFarquhar

John McFarquhar was a solicitor (WS) and the son of a coach-painter. He, his wife and their four young daughters, moved into the new house.

One of his legal clients was the piano-makers, Broadwood of London. The company were one of the main suppliers of pianos to Edinburgh, and developed its Scottish market by establishing specific trading arrangements with selected retailers in the Scottish capital. Unfortunately, in the early part of the 19th century, many of these music dealers were reluctant to pay Broadwood, and the issue became so problematic that the piano company appointed McFarquhar to pursue recalcitrant retailers. One letter of instruction read: ‘On the other side we send you a statement of account betwixt us and Mr Hamilton, Music Seller of your Town to whom we request the favour of your applying for the settlement - to which we are impelled by his dishonouring a Bill he gave us which, with the Protest, we now enclose desiring for to take what steps you judge best for our interests. Balance due from Mr Hamilton £100-5-6.’

Unfortunately John died the year after the family moved in, leaving his widow to bring up the four girls, aged 12 to 20, and the family moved.

1818 – 1826 Lord Robert Kerr and Mary (neé Gilbert) Kerr

1826 – 1834 George and Catherine (neé Erskine) Smith

George Smith was born in Aberdeen in 1793. In 1808, he was articled to Aberdeen architect David Hamilton for five years and during the period helped design the layout of the city’s new streets. In 1818, he advertised his services as an architect in the city and opened a drawing academy. However, finding it impossible to compete with the main Aberdeen architects of the time, he moved to Edinburgh to work for William Burn as his principal clerk. Burn was already a major architect and at this time had just completed the building that is now the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Unfortunately, Burn was unconvinced by Smith’s architectural skills and sacked him at the end of 1826 as 'ignorant and useless.’ Undeterred, Smith set up practice on his own account in Edinburgh; with David Rhind as an apprentice. In spite of Burns’ doubts, Smith began to attract work. He wrote Elements of Architecture for the students at the Edinburgh School of Arts of which the Caledonian Mercury said: We trust that the little volume before us will find its way into our schools as a text book on this noble and elegant branch of art.’

He married Catherine, the daughter of a plumber, in 1824, and it was while living here that he began to obtain his first building significant commissions. Contacts he had made working for Burn proved useful and he secured commissions in Dundee for a coffee room and a hotel. He also designed St Mary’s School in Canonmills (later rebuilt) and the Union Bank headquarters in Glasgow, while his street planning experience in Aberdeen was employed in laying out Woodlands Hill in Glasgow [engraving of his design for Woodside Terrace].

He successfully applied for the salaried post of architect to the Edinburgh Improvement Commissioners in 1834, and at that point moved to live in Wemyss Place. He continued to practice and won a competition sponsored by the Highland Society for the design of Cottages for the labouring classes and published his designs as Essay on the Construction of Cottages suited for the Dwellings of the labouring Classes illustrated by Working Plan.’

There was at least one child, Jane, who married William Ferguson, a civil engineer, Secretary to the Deeside railroad, and the manager of a Whisky Distribution Company, Black & Ferguson, in Aberdeen.

George died in 1877.

1834 – 1836 Andrew Coventry Dick

Andrew Coventry Dick was born in Glasgow in 1804. He was an Advocate and in 1835, was appointed to the Scotch Church Commission ‘to inquire into the means of extending religious instruction in Scotland’. In the same year, Dick published Dissertation on Church Polity, a pamphlet examining the issue much debated at the time of whether the church should be under the control of the state or not. A review said of it: ‘(this) is a masterly piece of sound and eloquent argumentation. Mr Dick has fairly grappled with the subject in all its bearings, planting his foot upon ground from which it will not be easy to dislodge him.’ However, the Reverend John Collinson of Gateshead, was prepared to try, publishing his own pamphlet, A Letter to Andrew C Dick. Although, at over 150 pages long, a letter hardly seems to describe the publication! In it, Collinson writes that while he dislikes controversy, he must challenge Dick’s arguments. After a lengthy disputing of Dick’s arguments, the Reverend Collinson ends on an optimistic note: ‘God grant that these troubles, in Church and State, may cease and pass away, of which deliverance we are not without good hopes and symptoms, so that leading quiet lives we may be enabled to serve him faithfully in all joy and thankfulness.’

In 1848, Dick published The Nature and Office of the State. The review in The Spectator was mixed: ‘There is still much of vagueness, assumption, or hypothesis, in discussing the principles of morals, politics, jurisprudence … and Mr Dick’s first principles are imperfect. …The Nature and Office of the State does not offer much that is conclusive in its general theory, or novel in its particular views. The book, however, is valuable as the production of a thinker who furnishes the student with materials for reflection and suggests new trains of ideas, even when the reader may not be disposed to agree with the writer in his conclusions. There are also many passages of considerable power and value.’

Dick later became Sheriff Substitute for Buteshire and lived in Rothesay with his sister, Eliza.

1836 – 1862 James Peddie, Junior, and Margaret (neé Dick) Peddie

The 1855 Valuation record shows that the house was owned by R. Condamine, a wine merchant in Leith and leased to James Peddie

Peddie became a solicitor (WS) in 1819, and married Margaret Dick in 1821. Years before, during the first year of his ministry, Margaret’s father, the Reverend John Dick of Glasgow, lived with Peddie’s father, the Reverend Dr James Peddie, and so the families were connected.

James’ father, the Reverend Dr James Peddie was Minister at the Bristo Church in Edinburgh. The Reverend Dr James Peddie married twice, his first marriage being to Margaret Coventry, which brought a link by marriage with the civil and railway engineers Benjamin Hall Blyth and Edward Lawrence Blyth. His second marriage to Barbara Smith, daughter of Lord Provost Donald Smith of the private bank Donald Smith & Company, brought further significant business connections.

James Peddie, Junior, clearly benefitted from these family networks, and he became a well-established figure in Edinburgh. He served on many private and public boards, including as a Municipal Councillor and Chairman of the City Roads Trust. He also was a committee member of the Association for the Protection of the Poor, and for thirty years, served as treasurer of the United Presbyterian Synod. When he finally resigned this latter post, he pointed out that during his thirty year term, more than half-a-million pounds had passed through his hands.

James Peddie was an apprenticed to a civil engineer, Mr Gunn, where he formed a friendship with another apprentice, Henry Wylie. Peddie and Wylie formed a partnership that executed a number of important public works. These included the Bridport railway, completed in 1857; the Kirkcudbright swing-bridge over the navigable portion of the River Dee; and the Selkirk and Galashiels railway, opened in 1866, including the impressive Leaderfoot Viaduct over the River Tweed.

Alexander was apprenticed to his father and in 1856 became a solicitor (WS) in his own right. In 1864, he married, Georgina Catherine, eldest daughter of another solicitor, George Waddell, and assumed the name of Waddell. Alexander was a member of The Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh which was formed in 1735, and thus has a claim to be the oldest golfing society in the world. Formed by the worthy merchants, writers, bankers and others of the time, they played their golf on Bruntsfield Links and drank their ale in the Golf Tavern. In 1790, the members adopted a uniform to distinguish the golfers: ' to give warning to pedestrians in such a way as to avoid injury.' By the early 19th Century, Bruntsfield Links became increasingly congested with people and traffic and so the members moved to Musselburgh where they shared the nine-hole course with The Honourable Company and the Royal Musselburgh societies. This painting is of the 1832 Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society Medal.

In 1882, the Peddie family were plunged into a scandal and a financial crisis. Their uncle Donald Smith Peddie was one of the members of the new Institute of Accountants in Edinburgh, but his own affairs were a long way from the financial probity expected of a Chartered Accountant. During the 1870s, he invested in some business ventures of William Cornelius. Not only did the two fall out over questions of unpaid debts and initiate various legal actions, but Cornelius instituted divorce proceedings against his wife, claiming that she and Peddie had had sexual intercourse. Cornelius wrote to Peddie: ‘These are the deeds committed by D S Peddie, Esq., my particular friend, who has gone every Sunday to Church. I say read this letter you fearful monster, you come as a Wolf in Lamb’s Clothing to my house, why could you not leave me alone. Satan look at your destruction, what have you made of my poor Wife: a hur, a hur corrupted with your filthiness, poor soul. God have mercy on her and forgive her. If the Law of this Country would permit me I should know how to deal with you, give me satisfaction and do not turn a coward in the bargain. I am entitled to revenge and will have it. I shall have some of this letter printed in large type and post them up on walls, yes even on the pulpit of your Church.’

Soon after receiving the letter, Peddie fled abroad. However, it was not the shame of the adultery that caused him to flee. After he had absconded, it was the discovered that not only was he bankrupt, but he had embezzled £25,940 from the Friendly Society of Dissenting Ministers, of which he had been the accountant. Further frauds came to light and a warrant for his arrest was issued in December 1882, with a lurid poster issued by Edinburgh City Police, offering a reward of £100. He was described as ‘an accountant, 74 years of age’ and possessing a ‘Scotch accent’ as well as ‘a furtive look and a reserved manner’. The Times reported that Peddie ‘was buried in Philadelphia two months ago in Potter’s Field, under the name of John North’. Peddie’s misdemeanours led to The Institute of Accountants later introducing a rule enabling it to expel any member found guilty of Breach of Trust, fraud or misdemeanour of a similar kind. The Peddie family had to subscribe heavily towards the many debts of the family’s black sheep. Although certainly not obliged to do this, it would appear an exercise in trying to limit the family shame.

To compound the family's problems, John Dick Peddie had invested heavily in several new self-designed Hydropathic Companies (including Dunblane and Craiglockhart) and, in 1880, these all went into liquidation. The collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank in the 1880s (which affected most of Scotland's businesses) worsened things further. Peddie sought foreign investments in the USA and Australia to win back some of his losses. On a business trip to Australia in 1885, his wife Euphemia (who travelled with him) died suddenly.

1862 – 1871 Charles George and Mary (neé Brown) Alves

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles George Alves joined the Indian Army in 1804 and progressed through various ranks, including serving with the 18th Madras Regiment of the Army of the Honourable East India Company where he was in charge of the artillery. In 1819, he married Mary in Arcot, Bangalore. He retired from the army in 1841. They moved here, having previously lodged at the Sutherland’s Lodging House at Number 55. Charles died within months of moving in. Mary received an annual army pension of £208, and lived on in the house, probably until her own death.

In May 1847, John Croall replaced a withdrawn mail coach service from Edinburgh to Dumfries with a new coach called ‘Hero' [photo of the original coach]. When the Caledonian Railway reached Beattock in September 1847, Hero collected passengers for the new terminus station, offering a quicker and cheaper service. Described as ‘a splendid, new, fast, four inside coach’ it operated for as few years until rail travel rendered hundreds of similar stage-coaches redundant. In 1849, the Caledonian Mercury reported: ‘Mr John Croall, the enterprising coach-builder and coach proprietor of this city, is now manufacturing an extensive series of mail coaches for the Emperor of Russia. The exterior panels are most elaborately painted, and varnished until they shine like glass, in the Russian Imperial livery of dark green, relieved with heads of gold, size etc. and adorned only with double crowned heads of the black eagle, with the sceptre and globe in its talons, the Imperial crest and shield representing the equestrian Peter the Great’. Over the years the company expanded to include undertaking, changing names as it expanded. In 1897, it became John Croall & Sons, taking over various businesses linked to the Croall family, including undertakers, coach builders, horse and carriage auctioneers, postmasters and livery stable keepers. The Croalls moved to Abercromby Place. William and Helen lived into the 1880s and 90s.

1879 – 1921 William Middleton and his unmarried aunt, Margaret Cochrane, and her brother, William Cochrane

Middleton was a teller with the National Bank of Scotland, Cochrane was a retired Corn Factor, and Margaret had income from an annuity. Margaret was a member of the Edinburgh Subscription Library. The library, founded in 1794 by the Reverend Dr Hall, opened because: 'it was a matter of considerable difficulty to procure books of value, without an expense which few are able to bear'. The aim of the Library was to collect 'the most valuable books in miscellaneous literature' as well as 'the most eminent publications of the season'. When the Library was founded the entrance fee was £1.11s.6d, and the annual subscription was 10s.6d. When a person paid the entrance fee they were given a share, which they could sell if the member no longer wished to use the Library, or pass on to a descendant. When the Library first opened the books were stored in the Session House of Rose Street Chapel, but by 1807 the Library could afford its own premises on South Bridge. This included books by a number of Albany Street residents, including the fiction of Mary Brunton.

By 1900, only William lived in the house; supported by a cook and a maid. He died in 1921, aged 83. His estate was valued at £42,414 and the bulk was left to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.