Number 50 - Information on residents
1818 – 1845 Susan (neé Hamilton) Anderson and Charles Anderson
Susan Anderson was the widow of a WS, Patrick Anderson. She was the daughter of William Hamilton, the Minister of Cramond, Professor of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh from 1709 to 1732, Principal of the University from 1730 to 1732, and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1768.
Patrick Anderson’s father was an advocate and he apprenticed Patrick to the advocate, Walter Scott, father of the writer. Patrick became a lawyer in 1779. He died in 1809.
Susan had been living previously in Princes Street and now moved to the new house, together with her unmarried sister, Mary Hamilton, and two of her children – Charles and Susan and her new husband, the Reverend Abraham Home.
The Reverend Abraham Home was the son of the Reverend George Home, minister of Greenlaw Church, Duns. In 1799, various local members of the church wrote to the owner of the Berwickshire Ayton estate, John Fordyce, asking him to obtain royal approval for Abraham to be ordained as his father’s assistant. This clearly was obtained as Abraham was ordained. In 1821, Abraham was appointed in his own right to be the Minister of Greenlaw Church, Dunse. Although the Home’s first child, a daughter, was born in the house in 1822, presumably they moved to the Manse at Greenlaw soon after. Abraham wrote a detailed account of Greenlaws in The New Statistical Account of Scotland, Volume 4, published in 1834 (extract). He writes that ‘the church, is conveniently situated and was lately repaired and repainted, although it is too narrow considering the length of it, yet it is upon the whole a very comfortable place of worship…. Divine service in the Established church is well attended by about 204 families and the average number of communicants may amount to about 370. The average amount of church collections may be stated at £14 yearly. There are two dissenting chapels in Greenlaw, attended by about 98 families. The manse was built in 1817, and an addition made to it in 1829. It is a very commodious and comfortable dwelling. (Further extract shown)His uncle was the famed Scottish philosopher, historian and economist, David Hume. It is said that Hume liked his young cousin, Abraham, though no more than that is known about the relationship they may have had.
Mrs Anderson died in 1823 and Charles, lived on in the house. All that has been traced for Charles is that in 1838, he was admitted as a member of the Royal Society of Arts, and listed himself as living from independent means in the 1841 census. Living with him then was Ann. It is not known if she was his wife or sister.
The 1841 census also lists one servant. She was Ann Doig, unusually aged 60. Forty years earlier, she had been arrested for stealing clothes from a drying green and for stripping the clothes off a child she had decoyed into a close with the pretence of sweets. She was sentenced to sixty days solitary confinement in Bridewell, the new Edinburgh jail built in the 1790s on Calton Hill. The sentence states that she was to be ‘detained till she shall find bail for her good behaviour for one year, after expiry of the last mentioned period of punishment.’
1844 – 1849 James Graham of Leitchtown and Ellenor (neé Thwaites) Graham James Graham of Leitchtown (engraving by an unknown artist), was a landowner. His father had owned plantations in Jamaica but on the death of his father, returned to Scotland in 1796 as he inherited the Leitchtown family estate near Port of Monteith. When he died, James inherited the estate, but later sold it to a Mr Lee who changed the estate’s name to Blairhoyle.
James Graham was a Mason and in the 1830s, the Principal of the Edinburgh Royal Arch Chapter. The minutes from the time show that the Chapter’s issues were ones familiar to many who have served on committees. There was an issue of where the Lodge might meet as The Royal Exchange Coffee House, where some meetings took place, was not felt to be completely suitable. Although alternative venues were discussed the committee failed to come to any resolution. There were on-going problems with finding members to stand for office holder posts, and concerns over unpaid subscriptions and the need to raise more funds. It was reported, for example, that a meeting of the Committee on Subscriptions to the Burns Monument - about to be erected in the memory of Robert Burns on Calton Hill - had been summoned but no one had turned up! One member even expressed a wish never to be troubled further with notices to attend the Meetings of the Chapter. Not all the frustrations were to do with internal Lodge matters. A request to have a procession at the laying of the foundation stone for the Burns Monument had been turned down by the Magistrates of Edinburgh, as they would not sanction a public Masonic procession. However, the pleasures of social association alleviated the frustrations of committee membership. The Chapter members are recorded as ‘enjoying The Annual Celebration of the Vernal Equinox’ which took place at Turf Hotel in Princes Street, and ‘following a Lecture upon the Mysteries of the Order, delivered by Alexander Deuchar, the Companions sat down to an excellent supper.’
The Grahams had four children. Emily married a Mr Hughes from Denbeigh. James was a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and married twice: firstly to Elizabeth Vernon and secondly to Florence Pease, both daughters of American navy men. He died in Detroit. William died at sea when only 25. George married Jane Laing in Toronto, Following Eleanor's death in 1848, James sold the house and later moved to live in Toronto.
1849 – 1853 Boarding House
The boarding house was run by Mary Scott, the widow of John Scott. She was assisted by her daughter and the 1851 census shows the boarders to have been students at various institutions. In 1849 and 1851 two daughters of the late James Scott, an accountant , were married in the lodging house. Jane married Mr Muirson, an accountant from Perth, and Mary married James Stalker, a lawyer's writer from Galashiels
1853 to 1868 John Berwick
The 1855 Valuation record shows that at this time the house was owned by Captain Dinwiddie and Mr Cook, and leased.
John Berwick lived here with his widowed mother Marion (neé Scott) and his sister, Agnes. Berwick owned Wright, Berwick and Company, Corn Merchants and Commission Merchants in Bernard Street. His father, William Berwick, had been a brewer and a friend of James Hogg, the famous Ettrick Shepherd poet. One year William sent the poet a half hogshead of his best ale in bottles, with directions on how these should be stored, but due to Hogg, forgetting or misunderstanding the instructions, half the bottles burst and little of the ale saved. So the following year, when another supply was dispatched, Berwick ensured Hogg paid more attention to the storage instructions by writing them in verse! Hogg delighted, responded with a lengthy Epistle to William Berwick that begins:
‘Brave Berwick! Best of breath’s renewers.
Thou best of men, and best of brewers.
(For I defy the Scottish nation
To match me at alliteration,)
Thou are a hero, inch by inch, A friend, a brother in a pinch;
I thought I scann’d thy heart - thy head –
As many do – Not we, indeed!
For never could I ween that thou
Could have surprised me so as now.
Marion died in the house in 1857.
1870 – 1914 Archibald and Anne (neé Aikman) Cowan
Archibald Cowan was a partner in Cowan, Mason and Co. wine and spirit merchants based in Leith [Cowan, Mason & Co bottle], and he and Anne moved here after marrying. They had five children in the house, but one of their two daughters, Anne, died at just one year old. One son, Archibald, first worked in his father’s business, but then joined the army and was killed in 1901, while a Trooper with the 19th Lothians Impreial Yeomanry fighting in the Boer War. The two other sons, William and George, both became solicitors. William continued to live in the house with his family. Nothing known about the other daughter, Marion. It appears that Anne died earlier than Archibald, as when he died in 1914, aged 78, the house furniture and contents were put up for auction.
