Number 40 - Information on other residents

1818 – 1830 Alexander and Janet (neé Bow) Douglas

Alexander Douglas (portrait by John Watson Gordon - collection The Signet Library) was a solicitor (WS), and he and Jane married in 1810. Alexander was the son of a doctor from Kelso and Janet the daughter of a merchant. They had thirteen children, although eight died before they were ten. Their one surviving son, Christopher, also became a WS.

In 1816, Douglas was appointed Clerk and Treasurer to a new committee formed to manage the development of West Princes Street Gardens, a post he held for thirty five years, before handing it over to his son, Christopher. In that year, an Act of Parliament had been passed to prohibit any building on the south side of Princes Street, thereby paving the way for the development of pleasure gardens at the west end of the then North Loch. The future of the open area had been under discussion for many years, and already plans were under way for pleasure gardens at the eastern end of Princes Street. To create the gardens required numerous significant obstacles to be overcome. These included divergent views on what the area might be used for, a range of ownerships to be negotiated, and uncertainty as to where the money to pay for it all would be found. Douglas proved adept at surmounting the many hindrances, and the Princes Street gardens, largely as we know them today, were created. An excellent account of how these, and the other gardens of the New Town, developed, can be found in Connie Byron’s book, The Edinburgh New Town Gardens.

From 1844, to his death in 1852, Douglas was Fiscal to the Signet. In addition to his law work, he was the auditor of the Edinburgh Life Assurance Company. Although Alexander Douglas had a reputation as a first-rate lawyer of ‘strong and upright character’, his unkempt, shabby appearance resulted in him being widely nicknamed ‘Dirty Douglas’.

The joint gravestone for Alexander and Janet has the following unusually lengthy inscription - a quote from The Life of William Crowper, Bishop of Galloway: ‘For in my thoughts in the night, there seemed a man to lead me by the hand to a little pleasant city in a plain valley on a river’s side, having some banks lying at the shore thereof (as indeed it had the first time that after this I was brought to it; such a sight I got of it in that vision as afterwards I saw with my own eyes.) He led me a long time up and down the streets of that town, from one to another; at length carried me over the water to a hill, and led me up into it by many turnings and windings from one earth to another very near the top thereof. Then did I awake, my face looking to the south-west. This made such an impression on my mind, as after that I could never get forgotten.’

The 1855 Valuation record shows that the Douglas family still owned the house and leased it.

1830 - 1897 Lodgings

These were run by Mrs Logan and then by Mrs Armitage. In 1834, the lodgings hosted two weddings. William Patrick Lindsay, a trainee solicitor, married Elizabeth Colquhoun, and William Allardice married Anna McDiarmid. In the house at the 1841 census were Mrs Samuel Armitage, the lodging keeper, her daughter, Margaret, and her son, Alexander, an accountant. There were three lodgers, all listed as merchants, plus one servant. By the 1861 census no lodgers are recorded. Margaret was still living there, aged, 81, with her unmarried son Alexander, and an unmarried daughter, Margaret, who had shareholdings. In 1864, presumably on the death of Mrs Armitage, Alexander, and possibly his sister, moved to Dick Place, and Mrs Donaldson took over running the lodging house to 1870. 1868 Lodger - Monsieur Henri Van Laun Henri Laun advertised that, as the former French master at Cheltenham College, he was available to give lessons in schools or families in French language and literature. He also offered to ‘prepare pupils for the army, Sandhurst, Woolwich and Civil service Examinations, in all of which he has had great experience.’ Van Laun was Dutch, but had lived in Britain from his mid-twenties. After teaching at Cheltenham he taught at the Edinburgh Academy, and was a French examiner for the Civil Service Commissioners and War Office. He translated various books and wrote a History of French Literature, published in three volumes. He returned to live in London, where he died in 1896. His obituary recounted that ‘while at the Edinburgh Academy he made the friendship of Professor Blackie, Lord Neaves, and many other intellectual celebrities, with the result that he was stimulated to undertake his great work, the translation of Molière. He brought to his task a knowledge of French and English idiom such as few men possess, a cultivated critical taste, and a vast store of scholarly erudition.’

By 1871 the lodgings were being run by Jane Patterson and at the census in that year, just two lodgers were present: Colin McLachlan, an advocate, and James Cochrane, a corn merchant.