Number 46 - Information on residents
1818 – 1824 Alexander and Mary (neé Copland) Murchison.
Alexander Murchison graduated as a doctor from Marischal College in Aberdeen in 1813. Soon after, he married Anne Prendergast and they moved to Vere in Jamaica. Alexander was reported to be ‘the most experienced and talented doctor.’ The district was considered particularly unhealthy and it may be that Anne became ill for the couple returned to Edinburgh in 1817 where she died. Alexander briefly lodged at Number 2a before buying the newly built Number 46. In 1821, he married again to Mary, the daughter of Dr Patrick Copland, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Marischal College.
In 1824, Alexander returned to Jamaica with his new wife and continued to practice as a doctor. He also was elected to the Jamaica House Assembly, the legislature of the British colony of Jamaica. Around 1830 he bought the Grimatt sugar plantation at Vere from John Holmes. The plantation had around 130 enslaved people.
Life for the enslaved workers was one of endless labour, working up to 18 hours a day, sometimes longer at busy periods such as harvest, with no rest days. Thus, life expectancy was short, with many plantation workers only surviving for seven to nine years. The only people exempt from labour were children under the age of six, a few elderly people and some people with physical disabilities. Many women were separated from their children and sold to different 'owners'.
In 1833 the Slavery Abolition Act was enacted and as part of the Act, the plantation owners were handsomely compensated for the loss of their ‘slave property.’ Records show that in 1835, Murchison received £1,996.16s.10p for the release of 104 slaves, a further £1,645.12s.4p for 87 slaves and, as one of the trustees of the Free School, part of the £88 paid for the freeing of 4 slaves. In total the British Government authorised that £20 million (in today’s terms around £60 billion) be paid to the slave owners. Of course no freed slaves received compensation for their years of unpaid labour and suffering.
With their new wealth the Murchisons returned to live in Elgin.
1825 – 1829 James and Elizabeth (neé Spear) BegbieJames Begbie (portrait by unknown artists - collection Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh) married Elizabeth in 1823, and they lived at Number 18 for two years, before moving here. They already had one child, and another four were born here. James was born in Edinburgh, educated at the High School and Edinburgh University, and became a physician in 1821. One of his instructors was John Abercrombie, often deemed to be the first consulting physician in Scotland and after graduating, Begbie became Abercrombie's assistant. In 1822, he became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and, in 1847, a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He later served as President of the Royal College of Physicians and President of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh.
He was among the first physicians to give a detailed description of Grave’s disease (at one time called Begbie's disease) which is an autoimmune disease that most commonly affects the thyroid, and also was a key figure in the study of Dubini’s disease, the old name for myoclonicepidemic encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. After 1863, Begbie gave up his teaching and hospital appointments, to concentrate on his consulting practice, becoming one of the most popular and highly esteemed physicians in Scotland. For forty years, he acted as the physician to the Scottish Widow’s Fund and Life Assurance Society. When Begbie died in 1869, his the obituary in The Lancet stated: ‘throughout his entire life he exhibited an irreproachable Christian character—a character which during his trying illness and at death shone forth with peculiar brilliancy’.
The eldest son, Robert, became a merchant in India where, in 1852, he married Margaret Lyon-De’Luxbough. Later, he ran his trading company from London, with offshoots in the East Indies and Rangoon. He also was an agent for the Life Association of Scotland, and served in the Victoria Rifles and the East Middlesex Artillery. He died in 1886.
The second son, Warburton, followed his father into medicine. After attending Edinburgh University, he studied in Paris, with a special interest in diseases of the skin. About 1852, he settled in Edinburgh as a family practitioner, and like his father became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1853, he was appointed Physician In-Ordinary (Scotland) to Queen Victoria's Medical Household and, in 1854, was physician at the temporary cholera hospital in Edinburgh. He published anonymously A Handy Book of Medical Information and Advice, by a Physician in 1860. He died in 1876 and his obituary in the Edinburgh Medical Journal stated: ‘it must in fairness be owned he was no orator … Begbie as a teacher was greatest at the bedside. His clinical visits were masterpieces both in precept and example…he was great both in diagnosis and prognosis; and with a rarer power still had the patience to use and profit by the use of remedies—not merely drugs but diet’.
1828 – 1832 Joseph Bain
Joseph Bain was an advocate, and a director of the Union Bank of Scotland. He grew up near Glasgow, the eldest son of the owner of a stage coach company in Glasgow, which ran mail services across the country. During the 1810’s his father became extremely prosperous, and in his 60’s had sufficient fortune to purchase Morriston House, Cambuslang.
In the same year that Bain took the Albany Street house, he was one of the initiators of The Maitland Club, founded to edit and publish early Scottish texts. Since the distribution of the publications was usually limited to members, the typical print run was between seventy and a hundred copies. Bain acted as editor on a number of the publications and in 1829 was one of the three proposers for the nomination of Sir Walter Scott. Bain wrote, ‘Now, as to admissions – this now is a matter of serious determination for us, our members being so nearly completed. About Sir W. Scott there can be no difficulty. We are honoured by the name.’
Bain died in 1832 in Glasgow, when only 41 years of age. Although he remained unmarried it is reputed that he had a child, Joseph Kelly, although the child was not recognised in his will.
1832 – 1849 John Hamilton
John Hamilton was born in 1793, the son of Captain John Hamilton of the 73d Regiment. He became an advocate in 1815 and a solicitor (WS) in 1826. He worked in partnership with Samuel Wordsworth. Hamilton was appointed as one of the Substitutes that assisted the Deputy Keeper of the Signet Office, and also acted as a representative for the West of England Fire and Life Insurance Company. This company was established by Samuel Francis Milford in response to a fire at Chudleigh in 1807. The company's first fire policy was issued later that year on a property in the West Country area and in the same year, the company purchased its first fire engine, known as ‘Little West.’ Soon after, the company had engines in a number of English towns including Plymouth, Bath and Bristol. The company began to expand its business and by 1850 was the sixth largest insurer in the UK.
Hamilton died unmarried in 1870.
1849 – 1860 Thomas and Katherine (neé Brown) Blackwell
Thomas Blackwell purchased the house and he and his wife and four children moved in. Two further children were born in the house. Blackwell owned Blackwell and Munro Wholesale Fruit and Spice Merchants, located in Meuse Lane. Thomas died in 1858 and his widow and the six children all under the age of sixteen, lived here for two more years.
1860 – 1862 Bruce family
Five Bruce siblings shared the house: Helen (aged 42), Margaret (38), Mary (32) and Francis (28) - all described as shareholders so all with individual wealth – and Alexander (30), a Lieutenant in the East India Service.
1862 – 1869 William and Catherine (neé Hill) Kenmore
William Kenmore was an advocate. He and Catherine married in 1860 and the couple moved from London Street here. William died in 1868, and Catherine lived on in the house until 1899. She later died in Dover. Kenmore was a Captain in the City of Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers. See Scotland's Volunteer Force.
1869 - 1885 Lodgings
These were run by Joan Peat, a widow, and helped by her daughter, Mary. On the date of the 1871 census they had no lodgers.
In 1871, John and Sarah Warner took over the lodging house, moving here from Number 45 where they previously had run lodgings. With them came their long-term lodger, Henry Ferrier, who, by 1881, was Minister of St Peter’s Episcopal Church in Lutton Place. Also lodging here in 1881 was Charles Burt, a law student. John Warner died in 1885 and they gave up the house. Here the advert for the sale of the household furniture.
1886 – 1897 William and Beatrice (neé Ritchie) Russell
Dr William Russell was doctor and, when he moved to Albany Street, was working as a pathologist in the School of Medicine at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. In 1890 he gave an address to the Pathological Society of London in which he outlined his findings of “a characteristic organism of cancer” that he observed microscopically in tissue sections from all forms of cancer that he examined, as well as in certain cases of tuberculosis, syphilis and skin infection. Russell provisionally classified the parasite as a possible type of fungus, and called the forms “fuchsine bodies” because of their bluish-red staining qualities. Microbiology was still in its infancy at this time and it was generally thought that each microbe could only give rise to a single disease. Thus, the idea of a cancer germ (especially one that could also be identified in TB and syphilis) was received cautiously. Nine years later in an article The parasite of cancer published in The Lancet, Russell admitted that finding cancer parasites in diseases other than cancer was indeed a ‘stumbling block.’ Not being a microbiologist, Russell simply concluded: ‘It seems almost needless to add that there remains abundant work to be done in this important and attractive field.’ Russell’s 1899 paper ended his writings of a cancer parasite, but his discovery quickly became known to pathologists as Russell Bodies. These bodies continue to fascinate researchers and physicians up to the present time, and there are some who believe that Russell’s findings are still of importance in an as yet to be discovered link between cancers and microbes. When Russell died at the age of 89, the British Medical Journal published a large obituary noting that he was universally respected and imbued with the dignity and highest ideals of his profession, and that he had served at one time as President of the Royal College of Physicians. However, there was almost no mention of his discovery in cancer.
In 1894 Russell married Beatrice Ritchie, whom he had met when lecturing at the Jex Blake School of Medicine for Women. They had three sons and three daughters. four of whom qualified in medicine. (Photo of Beatrice with Margaret, Sybil, & Helen) Although the University of Edinburgh admitted the first female medical students in 1869, the University refused to award them degrees. Many went abroad to gain their qualifications. One was Sophia Jex-Blake [photo] who had to take her degree in Switzerland and get her licence to practise medicine in Ireland. Frustrated at the situation for women wishing to study medicine, in 1874, she founded the London School of Medicine for Women. Although an 1876 Act enabled British universities to allow women to take degrees, including medical qualifications, many did not think women suitable to be doctors and Edinburgh’s medical school remained closed to women until 1894. A number of Edinburgh women provided support to enable Jex-Blake (photo) to open a second medical school for women in Edinburgh. Among there were Flora and Louisa Stevenson, cousins of the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, who were members of the Edinburgh School Board and vociferous in the campaign for higher education for women, including the right to study medicine. Russell supported the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women by giving lectures. One of the students was Beatrice Ritchie. While studying at the Jex Blake School of Medicine for Women, Beatrice also had become friends with another student, Elsie Inglis, who would become a significant woman doctor and suffragette. Unable to graduate in Scotland, Beartrice went to Brussels to gain her qualification as a doctor. However, having married William, she never practised as a doctor, though she gave lectures at the Edinburgh Health Visitors Association. When the First World War broke out, Beatrice worked with Elsie Inglis on the organisation of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals: the War Office would not have women doctors caring for British casualties until 1918 when there was a crisis in medical care. As well as wishing to help the war effort, Inglis wanted to demonstrate the equal worth of female doctors as a vindication of the non-violent suffragettes’ beliefs. The organisation was entirely voluntary, and as well as helping raise funds, Beatrice was chairman of the personnel committee and had to deal staff squabbles, pay, uniforms, supplies and even politics. When the Scottish Women’s War Hospitals organisation was wound up, Russell became involved with the foundation of the Elsie Inglis Memorial Hospital in Edinburgh, run by women for women and babies, which flourished as a voluntary hospital from 1925.
Russell continued to explore various areas of medicine and was President of the Royal College of Physicians for a time. During the First World War he campaigned for better care for disabled soldiers.
One son, Ivan, died from tuberculosis in infancy, due to a pandemic as a result of tuberculous mastitis in urban cows.
The eldest daughter, Beatrice ‘Sybil’, qualified as a doctor in 1919. She worked in Northampton and Bolton, before spending the next 25 years working as a consulting physician training nurses and midwives in the Gold Coast Hospitals in Africa. She published papers on malaria and anaemia in Africa. She died in 1978.
Helen graduated as a doctor from the University of Edinburgh in 1920. She was one of two women who were first to pass the Member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh exam in 1924, and again one of just two women to become a Fellow of that Society in 1929. She worked as a house surgeon at Bolton, like her sister Sybil. She then became a resident at the Sick Children’s Hospital in Edinburgh. Her long and distinguished career ended with her appointment as pathologist at the Manchester Christie Hospital from 1944 until her retirement in 1962. She published 28 medical papers in her career. She also was a weaver, creating tapestries to her own designs. Her largest work, The Sun of Righteousness with Healing on its Wings, was left to the Cockburn Association. She died in 1986. William ‘Ritchie’ (photo) qualified from Edinburgh University in 1926. His MD thesis earned a gold medal in 1932, and is still cited as a landmark work in the field of head trauma studies. He worked for two years at the National Hospital in Queen Square and married Jean Stuart Low in 1932. After his marriage, he returned to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as an unpaid assistant physician. He worked in Oxford at the Military Hospital for Head Injuries during the Second World War and, later, became the first chair of Clinical Neurology at Oxford in 1966. He used his experience in rehabilitating the war disabled to help MS patients with severe disability. He died in 1980. His son, Michael became a third-generation doctor in Dorset. Charles ‘Scott’ Russell (photo) also graduated from Edinburgh University in 1935. He joined the newly formed Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Oxford, and later was appointed the first Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Sheffield University. He was a prolific author and researcher, and the first to link maternal smoking to increased risk from still birth and neonatal deaths. He also became an expert bee-keeper, grafter of apple trees, and prize-winner for his home-made wine. He died in 1971.
The third daughter, Margaret, while working in Russia with refugees, met Michael Chramtschenko, a Russian who had fled from the Nijnl-Novgorod region during the Russian Revolution of 1917-1918. Michael’s father had been a General in the Russian Army and Governor of Nijnl-Novgorod, but was killed during the revolution. When Michael escaped from Russia, he travelled across Europe to reunite with Margaret. They emigrated to Canada, and married in 1924. Margaret died in 1961.