Number 7 - Information on residents
1805 – 1815 William Burnett of Monboddo and Helen (neé Burnett)
Helen was the eldest of the daughter of the famous Scottish judge, scholar of linguistic evolution and philosopher, Lord Monboddo. When still young, Helen eloped to marry her father’s secretary, Kirkpatrick Williamson, reputed as an eminent Greek scholar. When her father died, her husband took the name of William Burnett of Monboddo. He became Keeper of the Outer House Rolls in the Court of Session.
Helen Burnett is referred to in a letter that Jane Carlyle (see Number 5) wrote to her husband, Thomas Carlyle: ‘And within doors, it has not been so dull as you might think! The day before yesterday there plumped down to us a little man, Arthur Burnett, the Sheriff of Lanarkshire, whom you may remember. He was a round faced, cherry-cheeked, black eyed young man, of the entirely uninteresting sort, when last seen by me! Now he has got transformed into the most ridiculous, yet touching likeness of Jeffrey! (Lord Francis Jeffery see Number 10) The little shock grey head, and round brow, the arching of his eyebrows, the settling of his chin in his neckcloth the jerking movements, the neither scotch nor English speech bring Jeffrey before one as if he were alive again! I have been instituting searching inquiries as to the character of Mrs Burnett of Monboddo; for I have not the slightest doubt in my own mind that Arthur Burnett is Jeffrey's Son (unofficially). I find that this Mrs Burnett was the Daughter of Monboddo, and contracted a secret marriage, with her Fathers Secretary, one (Kilpatrick) Williamson, who had “eventually” to take her family name. A woman who commenced with an irregular marriage, you see! Quite easy to arrive later at an irregular Baby!’ However Jane Carlyle’s scurrilous conjecture must remain unproven.The Monboddo family had a series of unfortunate deaths. Helen's mother died in childbirth and both her brother, Arthur, and sister, Eliza, died in their twenties. Eliza (shown in this drawing by James Edgar) sitting next to Robert Burns at an event at Lord Monboddo’s house) was a celebrated Edinburgh beauty and one of Robert Burns’ objects of affection, and after her death he wrote Elegy on The Late Miss Burnett of Monboddo, of which this is an extract:.
‘Life ne'er exulted in so rich a prize,
As Burnett, lovely from her native skies;
Nor envious death so triumph'd in a blow,
As that which laid th' accomplish'd Burnett low.’
William and Helen moved to Dundas Street
1815 – 1819 Mrs Wilson & 1819 – 1821 James and Margaret (neé Crawford) Wilson
Mrs Wilson was the widow of Major Wilson of Polmaily, Glenurquhart. When her son, James, an advocate, married Margaret the couple took over the Albany Street house, and Mrs Wilson moved to York Place. After having their first child in 1821, James and Margaret moved briefly to Bellevue Crescent and then to London where James went to work in Lincoln’s Inn reporting on cases decided in the House of Lords on appeal from Scotland. One of their many children, John, became a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy and Commander in Chief of the Australian Station.
In 1832, there is newspaper mention of another of Mrs Wilson’s sons: ‘Captain R. B. Wilson, of the Bengal Artillery, has come home on furlough to visit his friends in Europe, after passing nearly 20 years in India, where he served not without distinction. In the Nepal War, though a very young man, he was publicly thanked in General Orders by Lord Moira, the then Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief.’
In 1818 one daughter, Catherine, married Lieutenant Donald McLean, serving with the 16th Regiment of Foot.
1821 - 1860 John and Henrietta (neé Hunter) Fyfe
John Fyfe was a retired Royal Navy Captain and he and Henrietta moved here following their marriage. Fyfe served in the Royal Navy on various ships and while a midshipman on HMS Marlborough was involved in the war against the French during the American War of Independence. He took part in the 1782 Battle of the Saintes, the last major action of the war, fought just north of Dominica in the West Indies. Admiral Sir George Rodney's victory over the French fleet of the Comte de Grasse foiled the latter's attempt to invade Jamaica and enabled Britain to secure her position in the West Indies. The battle is also famous as the point of origin of the tactic of 'breaking the line', which was achieved with celebrated effect by Rodney in seizing an advantage created by a shift of wind as the fleets began the action. However, doubts were raised as to whether Rodney was responsible for the successful manoeuvre or one of his officers. Fyfe wrote in 1830 in reply to a letter from someone researching the debated question and in it mentions that Captain Alexander Robert Kerr is staying with him, and states that both he and Kerr recall the officers saying at the time that Sir Charles Douglas deserved the credit rather than Admiral Sir George Rodney.
Henrietta was the daughter of David Hunter of Blackness, a prominent Edinburgh figure. Henrietta’s mother lived at Number 35 for a time.
After Captain Fyfe’s death in 1835 Henrietta lived on in the house until her death around 1860. The house then was put up for sale for £1350 but lay empty until 1862.
1862 – 1870 Mrs McKean
Mrs McKean was the widow of John McKean, a solicitor and manager of the Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society. In 1863 her daughter Margaret married Andrew Bogle, a well-established solicitor living in St Andrews Square. Mrs McKean died in 1870 the house was empty for a time and then advertised to let for £110 a year.
1872 James Wilson
James Wilson was a doctor but nothing further traced.
1873 – 1877 Charles and Elizabeth (neé Hewat) Pearson
Charles J Pearson (photo c.1895) was sent to study at Corpus Christi College in Oxford, where he won prizes for Greek prose and verse. He began practising as an advocate in 1870 and rapidly built up a large practice. In 1879 he prosecuted the directors of the City of Glasgow Bank for deception. ‘This great social and commercial disaster - the result of utterly reckless and dishonest speculation on the part of the Board of Directors - was made public late in the evening of the 1st of October 1878’, was how one newspaper reported the collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank. As more information came to light the newspaper’s accusations of speculation changed to ones of fraud: ‘Shareholders have seen in the case of the City of Glasgow Bank how fraud may empty the coffers of such institutions. It has impoverished men of great wealth, and has created throughout the country a sense of insecurity among bank shareholders.’ Established in 1839, the City of Glasgow Bank catered particularly for small investors with branches opening in the evenings to receive deposits. In June 1878 the directors reported that there were now 133 branches of the bank, that business was booming with deposits of £8m, and the Bank had capital reserves totalling £1.6m. Given the health of the bank the directors declared a dividend to shareholders of 12 per cent. However, following the bank’s collapse soon after, it was discovered that in fact the Bank had a deficit of an astonishing £5.19m as a result of large loans made to borrowers on inadequate security, and speculative investments in land, sheep, farms and wool in New Zealand and Australia. To cover up these disastrous losses the directors fabricated the accounts and maintained the high share price by secret purchases of the Bank's own stock. As a result of the insolvency hundreds of firms, especially in Glasgow, folded and the 1,200 shareholders and their families lost their money. Among those who lost money was the Minister of Albany Street Church, John Pulford. The directors were found guilty of deception and sent to prison. Pearson acted as cashier for the Church of Scotland, and was appointed Solicitor General for Scotland and later Lord Advocate. He was knighted in 1886 and later became Lord Pearson. He died in 1910.
1877 – 1887 John and Grace (neé Mackenzie) Macdonald
John Macdonald was an accountant and for most of his career had acted as General Treasurer of the Free Church of Scotland. In 1877 he had recently retired from that post as he was 65 years of age. In the 1840s, when Dr Thomas Chalmers had the idea for the first Sustentation Fund for the Free Church, Macdonald had helped Chalmers work out the details. The Fund invented an approach whereby all congregations contributed according to their means, and the money donated paid all ministers an 'equal dividend'. This fund provided a modest income for 583 ministers in 1843/4, and by 1900 was able to provide an income for nearly 1200. This centralising and sharing of resources was previously unknown within the Protestant churches in Scotland, but later became the norm.
One of their sons, James, became a solicitor and another, William, a doctor. Mr and Mrs Macdonald moved to Lennox Street, and John died there two years later.
1888 – 1895 Law Chambers of George Whigham, George Cowan and John Baird
The house became the law chambers of these three solicitors.
Early in his professional career Baird acted for a number of well-known city builders. He was involved with the development of the east side of North Bridge, including the erection of the Carlton Hotel. He built up significant conveyancing business, although he also was involved in a variety of other legal business, including acting as agent in court cases. For more than fifty years Baird was the solicitor of the Salvation Army in Edinburgh and, at one time, President of the Edinburgh Burns Club and of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.
Baird and Whigham were both members of the Edinburgh Volunteer Forces. Whigham became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 3rd battalion.
In 1895 Whigham and Cowan moved to Number 3 and then to Number 23. Baird moved to Number 20 and later to Number 21 where he practised until his death in 1940, aged 80.
1889 – 1895 Miss Williamson’s Boarding and Day School
Miss Williamson’s school encouraged its female students to consider the opportunities available for women at universities and prepared them for the examinations at Edinburgh University and the female colleges in Cambridge. In 1895, Miss Williamson moved her school to Abercromby Place.
1899 Apartments These were managed by Elizabeth (neé Hutchison) Fulton. In the 1901 census Elizabeth’s brother, Alexander Hutchison, was living in the house, probably because he was between houses, moving that year from Pitt Street to Nelson Street. He described himself as a House Painter and Photographer. He was an early member of the Edinburgh Photographic Society and won an exhibition medal for one photograph. The National Galleries of Scotland collection contains this photograph of St Kilda taken about 1900 by him. St. Kilda’s inhabitants existed in isolation up until the 1880s when regular summer cruise steamers began to visit the island. Tempted by what they saw of the mainland's wealth, the people of St. Kilda, pictured here in front of one of their traditional straw-covered huts, began to leave in ever increasing numbers. In 1930 the island was finally evacuated. Hutchison would have been one of the summer visitors with a lively interest in the local 'primitive' community.
