Number 44 - Information on residents
1818 – 1850 William and Helen (neé Mitchell) Ellis
1848 – 1850 William, junior, and Emily (neé Anderson) Ellis
The first resident of Number 44, William Ellis, was a Sea Captain. An account by Robert Louis Stevenson of his father’s lighthouse building mentions Ellis: ‘(Robert Stevenson) was instructed to take the opinion of persons acquainted with the navigation of the seas in the area. Accordingly, when on his annual voyage to the Northern Light-houses, he submitted the subject to the consideration of Mr William Ellis, Commander of the Ross Revenue Cutter, who had then been cruising for several months off these islands, by order of the Government, for intelligence relative to the motions of the Dutch fleet, which then threatened to attempt a landing on the Western Coast of Ireland.’
In 1803, Ellis married Helen in Campbletown . Living with them around 1820 was Lady Davidson of Cantray. Her link to the Ellis family is not known but presumably she was the wife or widow of one of the David Davidson’s of Cantray. It would be pleasing to imagine that the Scottish strathspey tune, Lady Davidson of Cantray by the fiddler John Lowe (1797-1866) was composed in her honour! Although Ellis did not die until 1831, for some reason the Ellis family moved to Inverleith Place around 1829, and Robert Barbour moved in the house for a few years. Barbour then moved to Warriston Crescent and Mrs Ellis, now a widow, and her children, moved back in. By this time the eldest son, William, had become an advocate.
In 1839, their daughter, Mary Anne, married William Burke Captain of the HM Revenue Cutter ‘Kite’. The cutter was a coastguard vessel operating mainly off the West Coast of Ireland and was: ‘a great and deserved favourite on the Irish coast, commanded by as brave and honest seaman who ever trod a ship’s deck – Captain Burke…she is a sea boat that for hard service is fit to compare with any cutter carrying Her Majesty’s pennant.’ There is an intriguing mention that in 1832 Burke was employed on secret service on the ‘Kite’ off Galway, but nothing more about the activity. Most likely hunting for smugglers as there is a report that: ‘the very active and intelligent Officer, Captain Burke, of His Majestie’s Cruiser ‘Kite’ has brought into the Royal Harbour at Kingstown, a smuggling vessel with a crew of 6 persons, having on board 500 bales of contraband tobacco, concealed under salt, captured by him off the coast of Scotland’.
Helen died around the mid-1840s and in 1848, William married Emily, the younger daughter of John Anderson of St Petersburg. Sadly, a year later, Emily died while giving birth to a son and William sold the Albany Street house, including all its ‘elegant furnishings’, and moved to Duddingston.
When she was in her 80s, Mary Anne Burke, now a widow, returned to live in Albany Street, lodging at Number 11, where she died in 1892.
1850 – 1870 John and Elisabeth (neé Lawthen) Milne
John Milne bought the house and moved in with Elizabeth (whom he had married in 1844) and their three young children, four more being born in the house. John’s father, James, had built up a significant brass foundry business, James Milne and Son (company advertisement), and John, along with his elder brother James, joined the family business. The company was located at Milton House in Canongate until 1885. His father and mother, Euphemia, and his three unmarried sisters lived in the palatial 10-bedroom Borthwick Hall at Heriot. A description of the brass foundry business shows the scale of the operation. ‘The brass-foundry of Messrs Milne and Son, which embraces an extensive manufactory of gas metres, is the most extensive establishment of the kind in Scotland. It covers about an acre of ground, and upwards of 350 persons are employed. In the foundry, taps, valves, joints, couplings, and the other portions of "plumber-work" made of brass are cast. …Messrs Milne & Son do a considerable trade in making lanterns and apparatus for lighthouses. One of their latest works of this kind was an earthquake-resisting lighthouse for Japan. …Lighthouse fittings and machinery have been brought to great perfection under the auspices of the Northern Lights Commissioners, who showed a magnificent collection of apparatus at the Paris Exhibition. The gas-meter factory is a large building three storeys in height. From 1000 to 1500 meters are turned out every month. Most of them are for houses; but large ones for use in factories and public buildings are also made… (These are) usually ornamented in front by pilasters, pediments, and other architectural details. The firm send large numbers of meters of all sizes to Australia, South America, and other foreign parts.’ John’s father had been one of a small group who, in 1821, established the Edinburgh School of Arts for: ‘the purpose of enabling industrious tradesmen to become acquainted with such of the principles of mechanics, chemistry, and other branches of science as are of practical application in their several trades’ and John took forward his father’s interest in education. He was a Director of the Philosophical Institution at 4 Queen Street, which aimed: ‘to place within the reach of the public the means of cultivating and extending the growing taste for Literature, Science and Art, and of acquiring full and authentic information on all topics both of immediate and permanent interest.’ He also served on the Board of Examination for Schools, and became an Edinburgh City Councillor. In 1878, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
The Milnes and Stevenson families knew each other through business - James Milne’s company created some of the optical equipment for Robert Stevenson who had become Engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board in 1808 - and the Stevensons lived in Heriot Row, just along the road from Albany Street. Thus, John's son James, and Robert Louis Stevenson, (photo aged seven), being of a similar age, attended the same local school (see Education - Boys) and became firm friends. Robert visited 44 Albany Street for children's parties, and James visited Colinton Farm, where Robert's favourite cousin and childhood play friend, Henrietta Traquair, lived. Stevenson often depicted Henrietta in the characters of his books, and he wrote back to her when she questioned if some of the characters in A Pirate Story in Penny Whistles, the privately-printed trial issue of A Child's Garden, were based on her: ‘My dear Henrietta, Certainly; who else would they be? More by token, on that particular occasion, you were sailing under the title of Princess Royal; I, after a furious contest, under that of Prince Alfred; and Willie, still a little sulky, as the Prince of Wales. We were all in a buck basket about halfway between the swing and the gate; and I can still see the Pirate Squadron heave in sight upon the weather bow. I wrote a piece besides on Giant Bunker: but I was not happily inspired, and it is condemned. Perhaps I'll try again; he was a horrid fellow, Giant Bunker! and some of my happiest hours were passed in pursuit of him. You were a capital fellow to play: how few there were who could! None better than yourself. I shall never forget some of the days at Bridge of Allan; they were one golden dream: see 'A Good Boy' in the Penny Whistles, much of the sentiment of which is taken direct from one evening at B. of A. when we had had a great play with the little Glasgow girl. Hallowed be that fat book of fairy tales! Do you remember acting the Fair One with Golden Locks? What a romantic drama! generally speaking, whenever I think of play, it is pretty certain that you will come into my head. I wrote a paper called 'Child's Play' once, where, I believe, you or Willie would recognise things. Yesterday I had toothache, and today I have a crick in my neck. These are details, but eloquent to me.’Clearly Henrietta was not only the favourite of RLS, for she later became James Milne’s wife. James later wrote this account of his friend : ‘The earliest I recollect of R. L. S. is his mother running him along Heriot Row in the mornings to warm him up on his way to Henderson's School in India Street, where we both went. …He always came to our children's parties, and my sisters and I went to Heriot Row on the two or three occasions there was a children's party there….At the University he and I belonged to the Dialectic Society the same year. It used to meet at eight or nine P.M., and often continue till eleven or twelve. When Stevenson turned up he always had something to say, and his remarks were always so very far from the mark that he provided material for all the later speakers to rag him. He usually bolted as soon as he had done speaking. ..We have an unpublished novelette of his, which he dashed off one wet Saturday when he was staying at Colinton Farm, or spending the day there. It is a very weird tale of the time of the plague in Edinburgh - thoroughly Stevensonian, written closely on both sides of seven or eight half-sheets of paper all different sizes. He made no corrections, and it requires none. He must have been about fourteen when he wrote it, and tossed it to my wife, who was a favourite cousin. She always kept it among her treasures. The last time I saw Stevenson was at Heriot Row, when my wife and I went there to lunch and to say good-bye before he left for the South Seas. He could not come down to lunch, so I went and saw him in bed. He looked very frail and far through.’
John and Elisabeth had five sons and three daughters. James and John became the third generation to manage the family business of Milne and Son. William died aged 23. Nothing traced for Frederick, Charles or Euphemia.
In 1864, the eldest daughter, also Elisabeth, married John Barbour from Lisburn in Ireland. Unusually for the time they married in St Paul’s Church in York Place, rather than at home as was the fashion on the time. John Dougherty Barbour joined his family’s linen thread business founded by his grandfather, and by his efforts extended its operations all over the world. In his time the firm had mills at three locations and offices at Belfast. It also had a mill near Hamburg. An American branch of the firm was founded in 1852 by John’s brother, Thomas, in a loft at Exchange Place in New York. In 1864, it was decided to begin manufacturing in the United States in the town of Patterson in New Jersey, already the site of much industrial innovation. The company expanded with further mills and offices across America, This huge expansion was largely possible due to the fact that the Barbour family remained closely knit, and well led by John's business acumen. The crowning achievement of his life was the formation of the Linen Thread Co. Ltd. in 1898, a grouping of interested companies. John was a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Antrim for many years, High Sheriff of County Down in 1892 and County Antrim in 1896, and Mayor of Royal Leamington Spa, where they later lived.
Euphemia married Robert Thorburn. The third daughter, Alexandra, married Robert Henry Usher, who became Master Brewer at the Usher family brewery in Edinburgh. The brewery was started in 1824 by his parents, Thomas and Hannah, who acquired a small brewery in Trowbridge, renaming it Usher's Wiltshire Brewery. In 1844, Robert and his two brothers joined the partnership, allowing the parents to retire in 1869. After this, the beers and brand developed a loyal following, facilitating a quick expansion of the company through the 19th century.
John and Elizabeth moved to Trinity Grove, and John died there in 1886 amd Elisabeth in 1903.
1870 – 1874 George Henry and Maria (neé Drummond) Ebsworth
George Ebsworth was a merchant. His father, Joseph, was an artist, actor and writer, and his mother, Mary, was a dramatist, pantomimist and fencing-master. Mary’s most performed play was The Sculptor of Florence. Joseph and Mary both grew up in London, married and had the first five of their ten children there, before moving to Edinburgh. Their reason for heading North was that Joseph had landed a job at the Theatre Royal as an actor and prompter. In Edinburgh he also taught music and singing, accepting the position of leader of the choir at St. Stephen's Church. From 1828, he ran an ‘English and foreign dramatic library and caricature repository’ in Elm Row, and mounted concerts at the Hopetoun Rooms in Queen Street.
One of George’s brothers, Joseph, became a priest, but also was an artist.
George did not follow in the artistic steps of his parents, but instead became a corn merchant and an importer and exporter of fish. He married Maria three years before they moved to Albany Street, and they had three children, Joseph, Charles, and Isabella. Maria died in 1879, and it would appear his children were looked after by others in his family. George dallied unsuccessfully in diverse money-making schemes, and was declared bankrupt in 1877. He then had a series of jobs, including as a commission agent, a newspaper porter and a coal merchant. He moved to Forth Street.
1874 – 1881 Susanna (neé McDonald) Burt Mrs Burt was the widow of Dr John Graham MacDonald Burt (portrait by unknown artist) who had been a surgeon at the City Dispensary and Vice-President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh at the time of his death in 1868. He also had been a High Constable of Edinburgh and a Commissioner of Police When Mrs Burt died in 1877, her children, Dora, Henry, Anna and Charles, continued to live here. Henry and Charles were among a number of individuals who were named as having exploited the voting regulations to gain votes. The term ‘faggot voter’ was coined and hence them being listed under a headline that would be much misconstrued today: ‘New Tory Faggots for Midlothian’.
1881 – 1897 Jane, Alice and Helen MacKenzie
The three were the daughters of Richard and Jane (neé Hamilton) MacKenzie. Their father was a solicitor (WS) and, from 1828 until his death in 1850, Joint Deputy-Keeper of the Signet. On his death the family estate and house, Dolphinton House, in Lanarkshire passed to another member of the MacKenzie family, and so the daughters had to move out. All three were in their 60’s when they moved to Albany Street. Within months of moving in Jane died, and Helen a year or so afterwards. Alice then lived in the house on her own until her death in 1897.
1898 – 1908 John McLaren
John McLaren moved here from Number 52. He ran a merchants business in Assembly Street, Leith, and also was owner of the Chemical Manure Manufacturers, William Gray & Company, trading from Salamander Street. His two sisters, Maria and Beatrice, lived with him. He died in 1910.
The Edinburgh Baha'i Centre, the current residents, had already researched in great depth the history of the house and put it on their website. I have borrowed extensively from their work, so my thanks to the Centre.
