Number 8 - Information on residents

1827 – 1846 Walter and Hannah (neé Avarne) Jollie

Walter Jollie was a solicitor (WS). His father, also a WS, lived and had his chambers in Duke (Dublin) Street, and Walter lived there before his marriage, and worked in partnership with his father from his becoming a WS in 1818.

In 1825, Walter married Hannah, and they then moved to live here, although he continued to share his father’s chambers in Duke Street. At this period many solicitors acted as accountants and auditors, and Jollie was employed as the auditor of the Edinburgh Life Assurance Company. This company was founded by another solicitor, James Thomas Murray, in 1823, and the company wrote its first policy for £1,000 on the life of yet another solicitor, John Donaldson. Initially, the directors limited themselves to insuring the lives of members of legal bodies, accountants, bankers and bank directors in Scotland. By 1824, the company was insuring between 400 and 500 lives.

Sir Walter Scott described attending the company’s yearly court as he was, in his words, ‘a graceful and useless appendage called a Director Extraordinary’ of the company: ‘There were moneyers, men of metal – counters and discounters – sharp, grim, prudential faces – eyes weak with ciphering by map-light – men who say to gold, Be thou paper; and to paper, Be thou turned into fine gold.’

Again underlining the interconnected relationships at this time, Walter Jollie’s father, James, was involved in the financial crisis affecting Sir Walter Scott: ‘John Gibson was a major player on the dramatic stage of Scott’s last years. Neither man was to know how each would soon be tested in the great financial crisis that lay ahead. With the crash of 1825 Scott was relieved to place his entire affairs and all his confidence in Gibson, an ideal man for the task, ‘prudent, painstaking … who let nothing pass him by…. It allowed the ruined man to do more for those to whom he owed money; and above all it preserved his honour as a gentleman, and helped to conceal his ‘un-gentlemanly’ involvement in the trade of printing and publishing. Gibson was appointed the principal trustee, and was joined in the complex and distasteful financial work by men with the singularly inappropriate names of Jollie and Monypenny.’

Walter Jollie, along with his father, acted as the Treasurer and Clerk of the Trinity Hospital, an institution founded in 1461, by Mary of Gueldres, the consort of King James the Second, as a refuge for decayed burgesses. When a merchant, Andrew Gardiner, was raising money by subscription to carry out repairs to Trinity Hospital, he became aware of the number of orphan children living in destitution, so decided to build an institution modelled on an Orphan House in Saxony. In partnership with the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge a house was rented and 30 orphans housed. This success led to a general collection in all the city’s churches that enabled land to be bought adjoining the Trinity Hospital, and in 1725 the new orphanage opened. Much of the building work was done for free by city tradesmen, and the candlemakers provided free candles annually. The new building initially housed seventy four orphans, but as a result of a call on charitable donation from the city’s new Charity Workhouse, which opened twenty years later, donations to the Orphans Hospital reduced, and so fewer children could be housed. However, when donations increased again in later years, the building was enlarged, and on average about 60 orphans were housed annually. Orphans could stay until they were 15.

1847 - 49 Catherine Ross (neé Hume)

Catherine Ross was the widow of Dr Adolphus Ross, Physician, and the daughter of David Hume, a highly regarded Scottish judge. That she was the daughter of a judge may make the events of 1835 all the more puzzling. In that year, her husband, Dr Ross was called to treat a Miss Grant Suttie, as her regular doctor was unavailable. Dr Ross then became her regular doctor and Catherine Ross a regular visitor to Miss Suttie. When Miss Suttie died, in her will she had written that Dr Ross had been more like a brother than a doctor, and so bequeathed £1300 to Dr Ross, and dresses and ornaments to Catherine. Miss Suttie’s brother challenged the will. In the court case, he pointed out that only certain parts of the will had been written her sister, while other parts of the will had been filled in by Mrs Ross. He claimed that his sister, who had been ill when she signed the will, had been unduly influenced by Dr and Mrs Ross. Furthermore, the court heard that Dr Ross had convinced Suttie to leave her country residence and move to Edinburgh, where almost her only visitor was Catherine Ross, who plied her with letters of a religious bent. A servant told the court that Miss Suttie had at one time been consuming a bottle of brandy every week, and, the servant insinuated, that this was increased to a bottle a day on Dr Ross’ recommendation; although some of the brandy was used externally. After hearing all the evidence the jury found in favour of Dr and Mrs Ross. A relief to the couple as they had six children to feed and clothe, and many bills to pay. Dr Ross died in 1842.

Information on one of the children, David, is known thanks to an Australian genealogist, Jenny Carter, who researched a number of applications for the post of Deputy Registrar for Collingwood, Melbourne in 1864. By chance one was from David Hume Ross. In his application he gave much detail on his illustrious ancestry, including that he was the great-nephew of the historian and philosopher David Hume, grandson of the late Chief Judge of the Exchequer in Scotland, Baron Hume, and cousin to the then Lord Advocate for Scotland, the Honourable James Moncrieff. He recounted that he had entered Her Majesty’s Service in 1834 at the age of eleven, became an Officer, and was rewarded with two honours and medals for his service in the Royal Navy. Ross said that he had been Moncrieff’s private secretary for a long time and was favourably mentioned in his letters, though unfortunately he did not have copies of his cousin’s letters at his disposal to support his claim. He did, however, add that he had ‘gained the firm friendship of the Chairman of the Royal Hudson Bay Company by his conduct in their first search for Sir John Franklin in 1847′. Ross also observed that he had first arrived in New South Wales, where he had re-modelled the Water Police in 1854, and later served with the City Commissioners of Sydney. Ross concluded his application by revealing that on his recent voyage to Scotland he was struck by illness, and consequently suffered financial hardship: “Until last January I was completely bedridden with Chronic Rheumatics. My means are all gone and I crave employment to continue the education of my two sons (all my family), the elder on the death of my aunt and myself comes into an inheritance of £3,600 per annum in an entailed estate viz the Hume Estate Ninewells, Berwickshire.” However, in spite of his fulsome application, he was unsuccessful, and what he then did is not known. It is known that he died in Melbourne in 1879, aged 55, leaving a widow Charlotte Isabella Hallam, who lived on until 1903.

1850 – 1854 Robert and Jane (neé Anderson) Rhind

Robert Rhind moved here from Number 20, soon after his brother, William, with whom he had been in partnership, died. Listed at this address were a number of the insurance companies for which Rhind acted as an agent, including The Legal and General Assurance Society. Legal & General was formed by six lawyers in 1836, in a Chancery Lane coffee shop. Originally called the New Law Life Assurance Society, the society was restricted to those in the legal profession. The name was changed to Legal & General Life Assurance Society when policies were made available to the general public, although share ownership continued to be restricted to those in the legal profession.

Robert’s brother was David Rhind, a well-known architect of the time.

Sadly Jane died in 1856, aged 34. She had already borne five children, although two died in infancy, and the two daughters, both died in their 20’s. The surviving son, John, became an advocate.

Robert moved to live in Portobello.

1854 – 1859 Miss Brown

Nothing traced.

1860 – 1871 Lodgings

These were run by Sophie Donaldson, a widow with time three infant children.

Of a later day, Alexander wrote: ‘It was now about eleven a.m., and the heat fearful, in fact, I have since heard that it was the hottest day on which British European soldiers were ever called upon to fight a general action. This I do know, that Brevet-Major Dawson of my regiment, who carried a thermometer in his holsters, showed it to me after I had joined the regiment in the afternoon, marking 151° where we were then standing in the sun. Yet the 93rd only lost one man killed by the sun, whilst the wing of the 82nd Foot lost eight men so killed, the whole of the European portion of the force losing only eighteen men altogether, of whom eleven died from heat-apoplexy. We — wearing feather bonnets — had, too, fewer men disabled by heat-apoplexy than any of the other regiments, although by the evening the hospitals were all crowded with cases. Curiously, the native troops suffered almost as much as the Europeans and I saw a driver of Native Horse Artillery, the only troop in the Bengal army that had not mutinied, drop off his horse that afternoon, close to Major Dawson and myself, and die in a few minutes of heat-apoplexy. We all suffered terribly from thirst, and I remember, as recorded in my diary, sucking up through the length of my pocket-handkerchief, as a filter, the water of a dirty puddle near the road, when with the siege-train that afternoon, after I had exhausted the contents of my water-bottle. The device, under such circumstances, is not a bad one, and the handkerchief marks how little sediment really reaches your mouth, for, while it was dark brown next the puddle, it was almost colourless at the comer held between my teeth.’ Major Dawson must have missed the chill of Edinburgh!

1871 George Alexander and Julia (neé Anderson) Ballard

George Ballard was born in India in 1826. He attended the East India College, Haileybury, where, in 1843, he won the History & Political Economics Medal. He then joined the Madras Civil Service, and in his last year of service was appointed to the Famine Commission, established by the Government of India. He married Julia in 1861. In 1862, Julia gave birth to twin girls, one of whom died in India when just six years old. They had three more children in India. It may be that as Julia was again expecting twin daughters in 1871, they returned to Edinburgh and took the Albany Street house for the birth. Sadly, again one of these twin girls died when only ten. However, the two surviving twins lived into their seventies. The Ballards had three more children, two being born again in India. There is information on three of the sons: Archibald became a solicitor, John was a clerk in holy orders, and Charles joined the Bengal Army, becoming a Lieutenant-Colonel but dying in the First World War in France. Ballard retired in 1879 and they returned to Britain to live in London. He died in 1892.

1873 W. B. Neilson

W. B. Neilson was a partner in the brewers, Macnair and Company. He may have rented the Albany Street house for a relatively short time while work was done on his house in Windsor Street, as he moved from, and returned, there. Brewing was a major business as described by John Ramsay McCulloch in 1840: ‘The brewing of ale had long constituted a principal, or rather, perhaps, we might say the principal, manufacturing employment carried on in Edinburgh, The best Edinburgh ale is of a pale colour, mild, glutinous, and adhesive. It is much stronger and more intoxicating than porter, from 4 to 5 bushels of malt being generally used in brewing a barrel of ale, with about 1 lb. of hops to a bushel of malt. At present (1843) the produce of the ale breweries of Edinburgh may be estimated at about 195,000 barrels a year. Very good ale is also made at Preston Pans, Alloa, and other Scotch towns. Considerable quantities of Edinburgh ale are sent to London; though this trade had latterly been decreasing. Very good ale may be produced by brewers on a small scale, but it is doubtful whether this be the case with porter; at all events the best porter is all produced in very large establishments. Formerly it was not supposed that really good porter could be made anywhere except in London. Of late years, however, Dublin porter has attained to high and hot unmerited reputation; though we certainly are not of the number of those who consider it equal to the best London porter. Large quantities of a light, pale, and highly-hopped variety of ale have been for some considerable time past exported to the East Indies, where it is in high estimation; and is now, also, rather extensively used in summer in this country.’

1874 – 1888 James and Lucy (neé Wood) Wallace

James Wallace was an advocate and, like other advocates, at times was appointed to act at the Spring Circuit Courts that travelled round the country. One year, when the court was held in Dundee, Wallace was acting as the advocate-depute. He heard a variety of cases from forgery of documents to burglaries and assaults.

Another year, he defended Andrew Spratt. Spratt was charged with having knocked a rabbit-trapper unconscious; the trapper later dying of exposure having lain unconscious in the open all night. Wallace was unable to keep Spratt from being convicted. At another time, he served on a Board of Trade enquiry into a boiler explosion in Glasgow which had injured three workers.

In the 1890s, Wallace was appointed first Sheriff of Chancery (responsible for rights of succession), and later, Sheriff of Dumfries.

Wallace published The Constitution and Law of the Church of Scotland. He also sat on the board of the Edinburgh Schools Board. The 1872 Education Act created School Boards and this system ran until 1918. Members of the Boards were elected every three years by owners or occupiers of property above £4 annual rental. Although women were eligible to vote and to stand for election, in the first election only 17 women were elected to the 5,650 places, and these were primarily in girls’ schools where there was the need for ladies to oversee them. In the early 1870s, at a meeting that Wallace attended, the members of the Edinburgh School Board discussed appointing women: ‘There is no doubt that out of fifteen members, two should be ladies (hear, hear), if not more, for there are many departments of education to which gentlemen do not naturally divert attention.’

The board then considered the merits of Flora Stevenson (Robert Louis Stevenson’s cousin) and Mrs McBride. ‘As to the ladies nominated, there is no doubt of their fitness, and as to the qualifications of Miss Stevenson, surely not two words require to be said. She is so well known, and has taken an active part in every School Board matter. She has interested herself greatly in the welfare of the destitute and neglected children. As regards Mrs McBride she has shown her competency in her care of the sewing department and also the domestic economy department.’ Flora Stevenson was elected and proved an energetic member of the board. She disapproved of girls in Edinburgh schools spending five hours on needlework each week, while the boys were having lessons, and promoted the Edinburgh School of Cookery and Domestic Economy. In 1899, a new school at Comely Bank was named for her, and it continues as the Flora Stevenson Primary School.

However, one issue raised by Wallace at a meeting of the Edinburgh School Board brought a rebuke from the editor of The Scotsman. As well as being a School Board member, Wallace was Secretary of the Edinburgh Academy. This was one of the two academic schools in Edinburgh, the other being The High School. The High School had advertised for an English Master and at the board meeting Wallace pointed out that the Edinburgh Academy saw no need for a teacher specifically for English. He said that he felt it was best to have English taught by the Classics teachers. The newspaper began by accusing Wallace of a conflict of interest, and then discounted his proposal. ‘Does Mr Wallace like his pet fox so much without its tail that he is prepared to order all other foxes to be docked of theirs?...The real question is whether English is to continue to be taught in the High School, as it has been in recent years, both scientifically and practically (by an English teacher), or is to be driven again into the cold shade of subordination to Latin and Greek.’

Wallace also was involved extensively in church matters, and at one meeting expressed concern that many young people were put off church services. He suggested making them more attractive, by the occasional service of music or the clergyman reading a story to the children. He also suggested that minister and church elders should take an interest in sports and other amusements for their young people. ‘Why should not the parish clergyman be captain of the cricket club?’ he asked. ‘If the clergymen were playing cricket along with the young men there would be no evil going on. There is one well well-known minister in Edinburgh whom I constantly see at football matches looking on. I am quite sure that if clergymen showed young people that they were interested in their work and amusements the young people would begin to take an interest in the church.’

One son, John, became a tea planter in India.

The family moved to live in Royal Circus.

1889 – 1895 Robert and Isabella (neé Paterson) Lindsay

Robert Lindsay was a solicitor (WS). The Lindsays came here soon after marrying. Lindsay worked in partnership with another solicitor, Thomas Wallace. The Edinburgh Academy and the Royal High School were fiercely competitive for pupils and intriguingly, while the previous resident, James Wallace, had been Secretary of the Edinburgh Academy, Robert was secretary of the High School Former Pupils Club.

1897 – 1902 Mrs Ellen Taylor, Alexander Taylor, Hugh and Mabel Coulson

Ellen Taylor was a widow and lived here with her was her son, Alexander, who had just qualified as an advocate and would later be appointed Sheriff-Substitute of Forfarshire. He joined the Volunteer Army in 1900 and although he resigned in 1913, he re-joined the army at the outbreak of the First World War. Mabel Coulson, Taylor’s married daughter, and came to live here after the untimely death of her husband, Hugh, in 1901, soon after the birth of their first child.