ITHACA, N,. Y, 14853 
 
 JOHN M. OLSS 
 LIBRAR"^ 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DA 890.E2M64 
 
 John Knox and the Town Council of Edinbu 
 
 3 1924 010 167 330 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924010167330 
 
John Knox and the 
 Town Council of Edinburgh 
 
John Knox and the 
 Town Council of Edinburgh. 
 
 With a Chapter on 
 The So-called "John Knox's House" 
 
 By 
 
 Robert Miller, F. S.A.Scot. 
 
 Lord Dean of Guild 
 
 , 3 
 
 Edinburgh, 1898 
 
 Andrew Elliot, 17 Princes Street 
 
Preface 
 
 '"p^HE following pages are the outcome 
 of an investigation that I have made 
 into the possibility of locating accurately any 
 residence of Knox in Edinburgh. The third 
 chapter may be regarded as the body of the 
 work, which branched out later into the wider 
 field from which I have taken the title. The 
 first two Chapters are in this light introductory 
 and explanatory, and the last chapter — that on 
 the so-called " John Knox's House " — comes 
 in as an Appendix to the conclusions arrived 
 at in Chapter III. Readers of the book who 
 are acquainted with the difficulties of anti- 
 quarian research will readily understand the 
 enormous amount of time and labour that 
 goes to produce a very few pages of original 
 work, but I may be allowed to state here for 
 the benefit of what is called the "ordinary 
 reader" that no trace of the greatest and 
 
 V 
 
Preface 
 
 heaviest part of the work involved will be 
 found in the results. Whole bundles of 
 papers were gone through time after time 
 without finding anything germane to my 
 purpose, and clues were pursued often for 
 months, only to find at the end that the 
 scent was false. 
 
 The inquiry into Mowbray's house was 
 facilitated somewhat by the site of the 
 building having been acquired recently by 
 the Corporation of Edinburgh. It was very 
 interesting to find — what had not been sus- 
 pected and which it took me a considerable 
 time to discover — that John Knox lived during 
 the greater part of his career in Edinburgh on 
 a site that is to be occupied in the immediate 
 future by the Town Council of the Burgh. 
 The quotations given from the Records show 
 how intimate were the relations between Knox 
 and the Council in the early years of this 
 period. After having thus, with considerable 
 diificulty, located Mowbray's house, I insti- 
 tuted a fresh examination of documents with 
 a view to discovering if any indications could 
 vi 
 
Preface 
 
 be found that might guide to the site of 
 the John Adamson's house referred to in the 
 Council Records in 1568 and 1569. I regret 
 that the result of this portion of the investiga- 
 tion is not so definite as I should like, but 
 the examination of documents has shovra for 
 the first time the neighbourhood in which 
 Adamson's house — whichever one of the three 
 which he possessed it may have been — was 
 situated. 
 
 I have to acknowledge in connection with 
 this latter part of the work, valuable assistance 
 given me by Mr J. A. Wenley, Treasurer of 
 the Bank of Scotland, in granting access to 
 various Inventories of Title-deeds belonging 
 to the Bank, which was the owner of much 
 of Adamson's former property. These In- 
 ventories, along with certain old plans, enabled 
 me to trace more readily than would otherwise 
 have been possible, the connection between 
 the owners in 1568 and 1898, and rendered 
 easier an exact identification of the sites 
 concerned. 
 
 I now publish the conclusions arrived at as 
 vii 
 
Preface 
 
 being the result of a thoroughly independent 
 investigation into the question of the residence 
 of Knox in Edinburgh. My official connec- 
 tion with the Town Council of Edinburgh for 
 several years back as Lord Dean of Guild gave 
 me special facilities for such an enquiry. The 
 only merit I claim is that of careful research. 
 I had no particular view to defend or contro- 
 vert, and, as a matter of fact, I had to change 
 my opinions on many points many times, as 
 fresh evidence came to light. 
 
 ROBERT MILLER. 
 
 38 Lauder Road, 
 Edinburgh, October 1898. 
 
 vni 
 
Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Scotland and Edinburgh before ij6o . i 
 II. Payments made by the Town Council for 
 
 John Knox and the Ministers . . 23 
 
 III. Houses occupied by John Knox in Edinburgh 63 
 
 IV. The Legend of "John Knox's House" . 113 
 
 Notes to Chapter IV. , . . 161 
 Index . . . . . . .170 
 
 IX 
 
Scotland and Edinburgh 
 before 1560 
 
Scotland and Edinburgh 
 before 1560 
 
 ' I ""HE nineteenth century has been for Scot- 
 land in the main a time of continued 
 peace. Those who live in its closing years 
 can hardly realise how novel a state of things 
 this is north of the Tweed, and how quiet- 
 ness and Scotland were formerly anything but 
 synonymous terms. 
 
 "When Scott gave his first novel of "Wa- 
 verley" the sub-title of "'Tis Sixty Years 
 Since," he brought before our grandfathers 
 a condition of society which was very far 
 removed from anything that could by the 
 greatest stretch of courtesy be called civilis- 
 ation now. The Wizard of the North de- 
 scribed life in "Waverley" as it had been 
 in Scotland a hundred and fifty years ago. 
 Even when he wrote, the life he pictured 
 
 3 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 had disappeared and was being forgotten. 
 But far back, behind "Waverley," there was 
 a tumultuous history of Edinburgh into which 
 the great magician has also allowed us to 
 glance. Before 1805, with its interest for 
 us all, there had been 1745, with its life of 
 romance and adventure, but before 1745 there 
 had been a 1545; and the stirring times of 
 1745 were, as compared with it, only as water 
 unto wine. 
 
 Edinburgh had been captured in 1544 by 
 an English force under the Earl of Hertford. 
 The city was set on fire, and burned for three 
 days; and very few of the buildings, con- 
 structed as they nearly all were of clay, wood, 
 and straw, can possibly have escaped. Smart- 
 ing under a defeat at Ancrum Moor, the 
 English returned again the following year, 
 and completed a victorious march through the 
 south of Scotland, by destroying all that the 
 citizens of Edinburgh had built within the 
 past few months. The whole border district 
 of Scotland between the Forth and the 
 Cheviots was laid waste in this raid of 1545, 
 4 
 
Edinburgh before 1560 
 
 and it is to the visitors from England — "our 
 auld enemies of England," as they are called 
 in the Statute Book— tthat we owe the stately 
 ruins of the Border Abbeys of Jedburgh, 
 Kelso, Dryburgh, and Melrose. The work 
 of destruction was rendered more complete 
 if possible in Edinburgh during the English 
 occupation of the city after the disastrous 
 battle of Pinkie in 1547, when the Abbey 
 Church of Holyrood was given over to the 
 flames. Edinburgh has, mainly in consequence 
 of these raids, no buildings oilie r than the 
 second half of the sixteenth century, with the 
 exception of the church of St Giles and 
 portions of the Castle, and the walls of the 
 north-west tower of Holyrood and the ruined 
 walls of its chapel. 
 
 The Scottish people turned in their distress 
 to their old ally France, and the key to the 
 troubled period that ensued is to be found in 
 the question whether French or English in- 
 fluence was to be dominant in the politics 
 of Scotland. The situation was complicated 
 by the storm of the Reformation, which had 
 
 5 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 not yet reached Scotland as an active force, 
 though its murmur was already felt. George 
 Wishart was burned for heresy at St Andrews 
 in 1545. In the next year, 1546, the Cardinal 
 Archbishop of St Andrews was murdered in 
 his own castle by a band of conspirators, no 
 doubt largely in retaliation for Wishart's death. 
 The castle was held afterwards by the arch- 
 bishop's assassins for fourteen months in de- 
 fiance of the Regent, until a French force 
 was brought over in sixteen galleys, and an 
 attack opened upon the rebels both by sea 
 and land. The English army had retired 
 southward after the final destruction of Edin- 
 burgh in 1547, but another invasion took 
 place in the following year under the Earl 
 of Surrey — invasions had now become almost 
 annual — and an appeal was made to France 
 for help. A French fleet landed at Leith 
 on the 1 6th of June 1548, with an army 
 of 6000 foreign auxiliaries and a supply of 
 cannon, and the work of driving the English 
 out of Scotland was nearly completed when 
 peace was arranged in 1550. f Meantime, the 
 
Edinburgh before 1560 
 
 young Queen, so well-known afterwards as 
 Mary Queen of Scots, had been sent to 
 France for security. She remained there as 
 maiden, wife, and widow for nearly thirteen 
 years. 
 
 "For a few years now," to quote Hill 
 Burton's History of Scotland, "the country 
 was peaceful, and therefore for historical pur- 
 poses nearly a blank. As a contemporary 
 puts it, ' every man addressed himself to 
 policy, and to plant, and plenish those places 
 which through the troubles of the wars, by 
 Enghsh or others, had been wasted, burnt, 
 spoiled, or destroyed.' " ^ When war next 
 broke out, it was between two parties within 
 Scotland itself, and was carried on largely 
 under the name of religion. A riot in Edin- 
 burgh in 1558, when an image of St Giles, 
 the patron saint of the town, was ducked in 
 the North Loch and afterwards burned, marks 
 the outbreak of a civil strife which was pro- 
 tracted for over fourteen years. The war — 
 for war it may be regarded to have been 
 
 1 "History of Scotland," Edition 1897, Vol. III., p. 181. 
 
 7 
 
John Knox '^ Edinburgh 
 
 during all this time — was originally one 
 between the Crown on the one side and a 
 body of the Scottish nobles, enrolled under 
 the name of "Lords of the Congregation," 
 on the other. The Crown had the support 
 of France in the earlier stages of the war 
 as the defender of the old-established state 
 of affairs in religious matters; the Lords of 
 the Congregation had the general support 
 of Queen Elizabeth in the prosecution of 
 their designs, since they professed to have 
 taken arms in defence of those principles 
 of the Reformation that had already become 
 dominant in Geneva and England, and were 
 also asserting themselves strongly in France. 
 It was agreed early in the struggle that the 
 French troops should go home; but the 
 fortunes of Mary and the old religion seemed, 
 nevertheless, on the point of triumphing, when 
 all was lost by her ill-judged marriage with 
 Bothwell, and the subsequent defeat at Lang- 
 side in 1567, which was followed by the 
 flight of Mary into England. In spite of 
 this her cause was not yet despaired of, and 
 8 
 
Edinburgh before 1560 
 
 Edinburgh Castle was still held for the Queen 
 in 1572, when the news arrived of the 
 massacre of the Huguenots in France on St 
 Bartholomew's Day. This sealed the over- 
 throw of the former regime in the Church, 
 and the principles advocated by the party 
 of reform were accepted by the Parliament 
 of Scotland. 
 
 The popular hero of this struggle is John 
 Knox. He was one of those who had been 
 captured in the Castle of St Andrews after the 
 murder of the Archbishop in 1546, and had 
 acted as religious adviser to the conspirators. 
 He served for nineteen months as a slave on 
 the French galleys, and spent five years in 
 England after his release, and five more on the 
 Continent where he pursued that " call " to 
 the ministry which he had received at St 
 Andrews. He had in the meantime visited 
 Scotland in 1555, and had been cited to appear 
 before the Bishops to answer a charge of 
 heresy. This resulted in his condemnation 
 after he had retired to Geneva, and his being 
 burnt in efiigy at the Cross of Edinburgh. 
 
 9 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 He started again for Scotland in 1557, but 
 was stopped at Dieppe ; and he arrived finally 
 in Edinburgh in 1559, when he judged the 
 times to be ripe for his designs. The Bishops 
 of the old Church seemed ready to allow judg- 
 ment to go against them by default, and it was 
 not through any exertions on the part of 
 its rulers that the ultimate victory of the 
 Reformation was postponed until 1572. A 
 visit made by Knox to Perth immediately 
 after his return to Scotland resulted in the 
 sacking of the churches and monasteries of 
 that city by the mob. He came back to 
 Edinburgh by way of Dundee, and attempted 
 to guide the fortunes of the Reformation from 
 the capital until his death, with the exception 
 of two periods when Edinburgh was not judged 
 a safe place of residence for himself or his 
 friends. He was thus absent from Edinburgh 
 when Rizzio and Damley were murdered, and 
 when Mary married Bothwell — the troubled 
 months of 1566 and 1567. The second 
 period of absence lasted from May 1571 to 
 August 1572, when Kirkcaldy of Grange held 
 10 
 
Edinburgh before 1560 
 
 Edinburgh Castle for the Queen, and had 
 declared himself hostile to Knox. Knox was 
 during the whole of this time minister of 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 The kingdom was, as has been seen, for the 
 fourteen years between 1558 and 1572 in a 
 state of civil war, with religion as the nominal 
 subject at issue between the factions ; and the 
 strife of the country at large was focussed in 
 the capital. The city records of Edinburgh 
 bear an eloquent though practical witness to 
 the discords of the time. The "Extracts" 
 published by the Scottish Burgh Records 
 Society show that the Town Council was 
 preparing early for the storm, and the passages 
 already published might be largely supple- 
 mented on this point from the records still in 
 manuscript. The entry of December 29th, 
 1557, runs as follows: — "The quhilk day the 
 bailies, dean of guild, assessor, councillors, and 
 deacons, being convenit in the Tolbuith of this 
 burgh to the effect underwrittin, all with ane 
 consent thinkis expedient and ordanis this 
 town to be fortit strenthit and the wallis 
 II 
 
John Knox S^ Edinburgh 
 
 thairof reparit in all places of the samin eftir 
 the devyis and sicht of the personis eftir 
 following, namit to that effect, that is to say : 
 — Maister Thomas M'Calyeane [and nine 
 others.] " The citizens requested on May 
 9th, 1558, that they should be given a 
 governor in the absence of the Provost, Lord • 
 Seton, on account of "the present apperance 
 of weris and invasioun of inimeis, and how 
 that this said burgh wes desolait of ane 
 superiour of jugement, knawledge, and habilite 
 to haue the charge caire and reuU of the 
 samyn in case of invasioun as said is." The 
 Council appointed on May 21, 1558, Robert 
 Caldour and William Kelle "gunneris for 
 thre monethis," and " Gilbert Balfour to be a 
 maister of the townys artailye " ; and ordered 
 at the same time that the " futtis " or exits of 
 the " closes " on both sides of the high street 
 should be closed and built up with stone and 
 lime " in case of invasioun of inimeis." The 
 exits of the " wynds " or thoroughfares, as 
 they may be regarded, were still to be left 
 open. A muster of the citizens was also 
 12 
 
Edinburgh before 1560 
 
 commanded that it might be known how many 
 the Council could depend upon "for defence 
 of this burgh." 
 
 It was ordered within a week after this 
 (May 27) that all the town records and the 
 silver work and ornaments of St Giles' should 
 be taken to the Castle for safety, and that 
 no one should leave the town lest they should 
 be required to repel an enemy. Who the 
 enemy was appears from the entry of June 
 jth, commanding every citizen to have his 
 servant " sufEcientlie prouidit for defence of 
 this burgh in case the samyn be invadyt be 
 our auld inimeis." This item from the Minutes 
 shows that at that date the machinations of 
 England were of no avail with the rulers of 
 Edinburgh. Cjt would seem, indeed, from the" 
 records generally that the better class of the 
 citizens of Edinburgh had little sympathy in 
 these early years with the principles that at 
 last gained the upper hand, though they 
 accepted them quietly enough when Mary 
 had discredited her own cause. Religious 
 afeirs were in a state of chaos. The Church 
 
 13 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 of St Giles — the parish church of the town — 
 was held at this time by the "Congregation." 
 John Knox had been appointed " minister " on 
 July 7th, 1559, apparently by a show of hands, 
 and worship was celebrated in accordance with 
 the Reformed rites. It had been agreed 
 between the Queen's Commissioners and the 
 Lords of the Congregation that a truce should 
 be granted in religious matters in Edinburgh 
 until January loth, 1560, "swa that euery 
 man may hawe fredome of his conscience vnto 
 the said day." The Earls of Arran and Huntly 
 and Lord Erskine appeared before the Town 
 Council as a deputation from the Queen to 
 propose that the question of which religion 
 should be maintained unto that date should 
 Tse submitted to a popular vote<. But the 
 reformers were in possession and were not 
 inclined to accept the popular voice at this 
 juncture, since "the maist pairt of men hes 
 euer bene aganis God and his treuthe, at the 
 leist hes nocht planlie embraced the samyn." 
 They characterised the proposed plebiscite as 
 " the voting of the wikkit," and their opposition 
 14 
 
Edinburgh before 1560 
 
 was so strong that the Queen's representatives 
 withdrew the proposal. 
 
 The Town Treasurer's accounts for these 
 years when the old order in religious matters 
 was giving way to the new have been recently 
 printed, and give additional evidence of the 
 disordered condition of Edinburgh, and the 
 preparations for defence against an English 
 invasion before the arrival of Knox gave the 
 populace a leader. These accounts show also 
 how quietly the Town Council accepted in 
 1560 the rule of the "Congregation" for the 
 time. War with a foreign enemy was the one 
 evil to be guarded against in 1557, 1558, and 
 1559, but in 1560 this danger had vanished 
 through the temporary victory of the cause 
 that had been looking for foreign aid. The 
 following entries refer to the year 1557-58 : — 
 
 Item to Robert Gray be ane speceall precept 
 of the djut the vj Aprile, anno quo supra, 
 throw the skayth sustenit be him throw 
 the tramping doun of his herbis and di- 
 stroying of his flowers and treis of his 
 yaird be ane oppin passage to the biging 
 of the walls of the toun, the sowme of . iiiji* 
 
 15 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 Item be command of the presidentis, baillies, 
 and Counsale to Maister Alexander Sym, 
 advocat, for his labores and pynis takin in 
 making of the Appellatioun in name and 
 behalf of the saids Presidents, Baillies, 
 Counsale and Corte, appeling frome the 
 Bischop of Sanct Andrews monitors for 
 non upputting of Sanct Geill ^ . . x" 
 
 Item, the xxiiij day of Januare, gevin for ane 
 gryt Slott to the Nether Bow, weyand 
 xij", the price of the stane of maid wark 
 xij" ; summa is ..... ix' 
 
 Item for twa silver culverings ^ to Michaell 
 Gilbert to gif the young men occasioun to 
 leir (learn) to schut with the culvering, 
 price thairof ..... xl* 
 
 Item, gevin to Thomas Coke, with the twa 
 gunnars to pass to Bruntiland to vesy 
 artailzerie twa syndrie tymes . . xiiij* 
 
 Item, gevin for ane horss to Thomas Coke to 
 
 ' This refers to the image of St Giles, which had been removed 
 from its position in St Giles' Church, and had not been restored. 
 " It was stolen during night-time in the month of July 1557, and 
 was said to have been ' first drowned in the Nor' Loch, afterwards 
 burnt.' The Archbishop . . . appealed' to the town, and as St 
 Giles' day was approaching, when an effigy of the saint would be 
 needed for the procession, he requested them ' either,' as John 
 Knox in his History puts it, ' to get again the aid Saint Gile, or 
 else on thair expenses to malie a new image.' The council 
 apparently refused to do either." "St Giles', Edinburgh," by 
 J. Cameron Lees, D.D., LL.D., &c., 1889, p. 103. 
 
 ' Long, slender pieces of ordnance. 
 
 16 
 
Edinburgh before 1560 
 
 ryde to Dunbare and to Haymouth, for 
 outserfing of bulletts .... x' 
 
 Item, for an (blank) to hing the lok of the 
 
 new wall upone xij** 
 
 A list is also given of the expenses 
 
 "maid upone the Butt at the Nether Bow in the 
 moneth of Maij anno 1558, upone the bying of the 
 Artailzerie and furnessing thairof, upone Johnne 
 Morisonis two slangs (guns) with thair irne werk, 
 and the expenses and bying of the four zetlings^ 
 coft^ fra David Duf and James Litstair, and coft 
 fra Johnne Bad ij brassin peces, preceidand the iiij 
 day of September, anno 1558." 
 
 The same " dreadful note of preparation " is 
 heard in the accounts for 1558-9. 
 
 The moanings of the storm that was to burst 
 about the heads of the Regent and clergy had 
 already been heard. The Minutes of Council 
 and the general history of the time show that 
 preparations were made to avert its violence if 
 it came, though they proved of no avail. The 
 jewels of St Giles' Church were weighed in 
 December 1558 and in March 1559, and 
 
 1 Cast guns. See " Council Records," July 17, 1576. 2 Bought. 
 B 17 
 
John Knox 'zS' Edinburgh 
 
 ordered into safe custody. When the storm 
 burst in the devastation of the religious houses 
 in Perth on May i ith, 1559, a letter was sent 
 by the Queen Regent to the Provost and 
 Bailies directing that " ye fra thyne furthe gif 
 gude held and attendence that na sic vproir 
 nor seditioun rys within your toun, bot that 
 the religious places be surelie kepit." The 
 Council took all proper precautions. A night- 
 watch was appointed for the church (June 21). 
 The jewels and vestments were entrusted for 
 safe keeping to certain named "honest men," 
 "to be furth cumand and deliuerit be thame 
 quhen thai suld be requirit thairto be the 
 counsall" (June 27). "Thre score men of 
 weyr " were " hyrit " (June 29) "for keping of 
 Sanct Gelys Kirk and vphald of the stawis 
 (stalls) of the queyr," and orders were given 
 a fortnight later when the danger became 
 extreme, that these carved stalls of the choir, 
 which seem to have been regarded as of special 
 value, should be removed for security to the 
 Tolbooth. But in spite of Regent and Council 
 the party of reform obtained the upper hand 
 18 
 
Edinburgh before 1560 
 
 for a time, and on July 14th, two days after 
 the order concerning the stalls, the sacred 
 edifice was " purged of idolatrie " as far as 
 possible "under the superintendence of the 
 Earls of Argyll and Glencairn, and other 
 leaders of the "Congregation." The victory, 
 however, of the reformers was for the pre- 
 sent only temporary. Reinforcements for 
 the Queen Regent arrived from France on 
 September 24th, and on November 9th the 
 Church was again "purged," but this time 
 from its "heretical pollutions," and re-con- 
 secrated by the Arch-Bishop of St Andrews. 
 The vestments and ornaments were recovered 
 from their custodiers, and mass was said within 
 the walls of the church as before until its 
 celebration finally ceased on March 31st, 1560. 
 The church itself was fortified during this 
 disturbed period, as will be seen from the 
 following extracts from the treasurer's accounts 
 for the year : 
 
 Item, for rowing furth of the artaillzerie of 
 
 the Flesche Markett .... v' 
 
 Item, to xij men for rowing doun of v pece 
 
 19 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 to the Nether Bow, and bringing up of 
 sex pece to the Provest huss . , vj' 
 
 Item, for laying of thre pece abone the Re- 
 
 vestrie ^ . . _. ~ . . . xij* 
 Item XXV Maij for carrying of the artalzarie 
 
 through the tonn at ewyne . . . vj' 
 Item xxvi maij, gewyne to foure werkmen for 
 
 walking ^ of the artalzarie all nycht . iiij» 
 Item xiiij day of Junij at the Quenis command 
 to xxvij werkmen for drawin of the 
 artalzarie upoun th^ gait,* to ilk ane of 
 
 thame xyj* xxxvj* 
 
 Item xxij Mdj to George Tod for schoting 
 
 of the said artalzarie .... xxx' 
 Item, for redding of the fulze * fra the Nether 
 
 Bow bowt, to lay the slangis . . xviij* 
 Item xxij Septembris, to viij werkmen that 
 laid furth the haill artalzarie furth of 
 the Flesche huss to the Hie gait, and 
 carying of two sclangis to the Greyfrier 
 port, and uther twa to the blok huss at 
 
 the Blak friers vj" 
 
 Item, foure Octobris, aucht werkmen for 
 drawing of foure greit pece and thre 
 cuthrollis ^ to the Stepill « . . . x' viij* 
 
 1 The vestry of St Giles' Church. " Watching. 
 
 s Street, way, or road. 
 
 * Cleaning away the town filth. ' Pieces of ordnance. 
 
 ' The tower of St Giles, which was fortified for defence. The 
 church was again held as a fortress by the partisans of the Queen 
 in 1571-2. 
 
 20 
 
Edinburgh before 1560 
 
 A list is then given of the expenses 
 
 " of the casting doun of th'e North Loche sensyne, 
 taking furth of the red ^ of the aid wall, the beging ^ 
 of the portis, wyndokis and durris of Leyth and 
 Sanct Mkrie Wynd, precedand the iiij of Junij be 
 the space of viij dayis, the expenses maid upoun the 
 Klirk of Feild and Grey Freir Portis and the expenses 
 of the North Loch wall and redding of the Fowsye * 
 and biging up of certane sloppis [gaps] of the Freir 
 yard, of new casting doun."/ 
 
 But the tone ^changes in 1 560. The last 
 mass had been said in March. Another party 
 is in possession, and the town church must be 
 altered to suit the change of taste. Altars 
 and all their adornments were removed. Guns 
 give way to pulpits, and the wages of soldiers 
 are replaced by the " sustentation and furness- 
 ing of the ministers of this burgh." 
 
 Item the xxiij Apryle 1560, ressavit ane pre- 
 cept to content and pay to Johnne Inglis, 
 massoun, for lyme and workmanschip of 
 ane new powmpet * and ane lectroun and 
 ane stoupe to hald the watter at the mini- 
 stratioun of babtyme, the sowme of .(blank) 
 
 Item xxiij Apryle 1560, ressavit ane precept 
 
 1 Rubbish. 2 Building. 'Ditch. ^Pulpit. 
 
 21 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 to content and pay to James Baxter, 
 wrycht, for the workmanschip of ane 
 new powmpet and ane lectroun and ane 
 stoupe to hald the watter at the mini- 
 stratioun of baptyme, the sowme of . iiijii 
 
 Item, the samyne day [8 May 1560] ressavit 
 ane precept to content and pay to the 
 honest sustentatioun and furnessing of 
 the ministers of this burgh, the sowme of xl" 
 
 Item XXV. Maij [1560] ressavit ane precept to 
 content and pay to Mungo Hunter, 
 smyth, for makin of thre keyis to the 
 Kowgait Port, and for ane lok and ane 
 ke to Johnne Knokis dur . . . xx* 
 
 This last item marks the completion of the 
 first stage in the victory of the Reformation. 
 Knox was no longer only the minister of the 
 "Congregation." He was now minister of 
 Edinburgh, and the Town Council of Edinburgh 
 acknowledged the obligation of the citizens 
 to support him as their minister, and to defray 
 the expenses of the Reformed Establishment 
 of religion within their bounds. 
 
 22 
 
Payments made by the Town 
 Council for John Knox and 
 the Ministers 
 
Payments made by the Town 
 Council for John Knox and 
 the Ministers 
 
 /^NE of the most striking points of differ- 
 ence between the Edinburgh of Knox's 
 time and the Edinburgh of to-day is the care 
 that was exercised by the Town Council for 
 the spiritual wants of the citizens. When 
 the cause of reform gained at length the 
 upper hand, the Council took upon itself, 
 along with as much of the property of the 
 old Church as it could get into its possession 
 from time to time, the duty of dividing the 
 revenues equitably between the Roman clergy 
 and the ministers. The old Church had been 
 disestablished and disendowed, but in Edin- 
 burgh, as elsewhere, it was held that its 
 clergy should be granted a suitable mainten- 
 ance. Two sets of ministers, in fact, were 
 
 25 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 supported in the city in Knox's time, and, 
 so far as appears, without objection from 
 either side. It may be stated generally that 
 specific endowments were continued to the 
 Roman clergy, but that any sums payable 
 out of the burgh funds were diverted to the 
 new teachers of religion.^ 
 
 The record still exists of the appointment 
 of two new chaplains to altars in St Giles' 
 Church on April 12th, 1559, and on August 
 4th "thankfull payment" was made to the 
 prebendaries of St Giles "of all annuellis and 
 dewiteis awin to thame in tymes begane." 
 The break with the old order of things was 
 not yet complete. Signs of change appear 
 on February i6th, 1559-60. Three of the 
 prebendaries and one chaplain are to receive 
 
 1 " Though the stipends of the priests directly in the pay of the 
 burgh were thus curtailed, they seem to have been otherwise 
 unmolested in the enjoyment of their old revenues. They held 
 the chaplaincies of the various altars to which they were attached 
 to the time of their death, and drew the various annuals and 
 pittances belonging to them. . . . Two instances may suffice. 
 The provost of the church possessed a house in virtue of his 
 office ; this dwelling he was allowed to retain and finally to 
 dispose of when it became uninhabitable." "St Giles', Edin- 
 burgh," by J. Cameron Lees, D.D., LL.D., 1889, p. 128. 
 
 26 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 the usual payments ; and the Treasurer is 
 forbidden to disburse anything to the other 
 prebendaries "becaus thai hawe nocht awatit 
 vpone thair devyne service." A touch of 
 irony may be felt in this reason for with- 
 holding payment, as it was impossible for the 
 unfortunate prebendaries to discharge their 
 duties at the time. The entry of October 
 15th, 1563, marks perhaps a temporary 
 victory for the old faith. A priest, James 
 Crawfurd, was ordered to produce " the 
 rentell of the prebendariis rentis, and dewiteis 
 quhilk pertenit to the queir," and the Council 
 appointed another priest, John, or in the 
 phrase of the time, Sir John Lithgow, to the 
 benefice and prebendary of Craigcrook, which 
 had fallen in by the decease of the former 
 incumbent. But whatever may be the full 
 statement of the case, it shows that the 
 old system still survived. The storm was 
 probably fiercer in the next year, 1564, 
 when "Sir Jhonn Beyr," chaplain, renounced 
 his yearly annual of jT^ payable out of 
 the common good, or, rather, commuted it 
 27 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 in view of the evil days that threatened 
 for the sum of ^27, ids., "in full of said 
 annuale." 
 
 Care was taken that nothing should be 
 lost when the old Church finally went under. 
 A record of all the monies that belonged to 
 the prebendaries and chaplains, and of the 
 annuals of the priests and friars was lodged 
 in the Charterhouse in November 1 565 ; and 
 a collector was appointed in September 1567, 
 " with awys [advice] and consent of Maister 
 Jhone Craig, minister, and haill kirk of this 
 burgh of Edinburgh," to whom minute and 
 exhaustive instructions were given concern- 
 ing the funds for which he would be 
 held responsible. Yet the two orders of 
 ecclesiastics must have existed curiously side 
 by side. On March 3d, 1567-8, the Provost, 
 Bailies, and Council, at the desire of the 
 chaplain of St James' altar in St Giles' Kirk, 
 consented, as patrons of that altar, that a 
 tenement situated at the head of the Over 
 Bow should be set in feu, the purchaser 
 paying to the chaplain during his lifetime, 
 28 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 "and efter his deceis to the hospitall foundit 
 be the gude toune in the Trinitie College, 
 the sowme twelf merkis yeirly feu maill." 
 On April 7th of the same year the Bailies 
 and Council, "efter consideratioun of the 
 pouertie and auld decrepit age of Freir Andro 
 Leis, blak freir," instructed the collectors of 
 " the saidis freris renttis," to pay him yearly 
 £16 during his lifetime. These examples 
 show that the same spirit of fair dealing 
 animated the Town Council of Edinburgh, 
 which led the Parliament of 1567 to settle 
 two-thirds of their incomes upon the ousted 
 clergy for life. The Roman clergy continued 
 also to occupy their old manses in St Giles' 
 churchyard. 
 
 John Knox was appointed minister to the 
 " Brethren of the Congregation " at a meeting 
 held in the Tolbooth on July 7th, 1559. The 
 position he was granted then was by no means 
 secure, as he found it expedient to leave Edin- 
 burgh three weeks later, on July 24th. He 
 seems to have been back in Edinburgh in 
 April 1560, when a bond was drafted, possibly 
 39 
 
John Knox 'zi' Edinburgh 
 
 by Knox himself, to consolidate the ranks of 
 the Confederate Lords ; and he took a leading 
 part on July 19th, 1560, in a solemn thanks- 
 giving in St Giles to commemorate a treaty 
 signed on the 6th, by which the French 
 troops were to be removed from the country. 
 By this treaty England gained all that she 
 could reasonably wish, and the Lords of the 
 Congregation became practically the masters 
 of Scotland. The Magistrates of Edinburgh 
 accepted the situation at once, and treated 
 Knox, as was complained of at the time, like 
 a lord.^ He was now the minister of Edin- 
 burgh in reality as well as in name. 
 
 The authorities for the financial side of 
 Knox's connection with Edinburgh are pri- 
 marily the manuscript records in the City 
 Chambers. Extracts from them have been 
 published by the Scottish Burgh Records 
 Society. The Treasurer's and the Dean of 
 
 1 The " curious comparison " was made that " there were many 
 lords who had not so much to spend " as the Reformed clergy. 
 Knox admits the justice of the comparison by implication in his 
 "History." Hill Burton's "History of Scotland." Vol. IV., 
 page 41. 
 
 3° 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 Guild's accounts for the years 1549 to 1567 
 have been printed recently by order of the 
 Town Council. The manuscript minutes for 
 this period have also been examined for the 
 purposes of this investigation, and the entries 
 of payments made to John Knox brought 
 down to the latest date. The Treasurer's 
 accounts introduce an expression under the 
 date May 1560, which has been already 
 quoted. It shows the kindly feeling of the 
 rulers of that year toward the ministers, and 
 is the precursor of many more of the same 
 tenor — "ressavit ane precept to content and 
 pay to the honest sustentation and furnessing 
 of the ministers of this burgh the sowme 
 of xl"" 
 
 The first reference in the Council minutes 
 to any payments on account of the Reformed 
 clergy occurs under date October 30th, 1560, 
 — "the Prowest, Baillies, and Counsaill ordanis 
 James Barroun to content and pay to John 
 Knox the sowme of sax scoir poundis of the 
 reddiest money of the townis being in his 
 handis, and siklyk the sowme of xx" for 
 
 3» 
 
John Knox '^ Edinburgh 
 
 irne and fyre werks furnesit and maid to his 
 hous." 
 
 The items that refer to the payment of 
 stipend to the new order of ecclesiastics 
 follow each other after this in rapid suc- 
 cession. The next entry referring to Knox 
 is that of December 20th, 1560, which 
 refers to stipend alone, — "the Prowest, 
 Baillies, and Counsall ordanis James Barroun 
 to content and pay to Jhone Knox, minister, 
 the sowme of fyftie pund money of this 
 realme for the second termes payment, of the 
 reddeist money that the said James hes in his 
 handis of the gud townis." Orders were 
 given on January 3rd, 1560-1, to pay forty 
 pounds to John Cairns, who was reader in St 
 Giles', "for his expenssis maid and service 
 in tymes bigane ; " on February 1 2th to pay 
 to "John Knox, minister, the sowme of fyftie 
 poundis for supporting of his chargeis ; " on 
 April 5th, 1561, "to deliver and pay to the 
 minister, Jhone Knox, the sowme of fyftie 
 poundis as for the compleit payment [for a 
 quarter^;" on April 24th "to deliver to John 
 32 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 Camys the sowme of ten pundis to ane compt 
 of his dewtie for his service ; " and on May 
 30th, "incontinent to deliver to Johne Knox, 
 minister, the sowme of fyftie poundis, as for 
 his quarter payment." The treasurer's ac- 
 counts from Martinmas 1560 to Martinmas 
 1 56 1, record a payment to John Knox of 
 one hundred pounds out of the rental of 
 the burgh mills : — 
 
 Item maire givin to the said Jamis [Adamsoun] 
 of the fermis of the common [milnis] to 
 Johnne Kaox, minister, as the said Jamis 
 compt givin to me thairupon beris . jc" 
 
 The entry of September 26th, 1561, identifies 
 John Cairns, and gives orders as to his main- 
 tenance for the future — " the prouest baillies 
 and counsale, vpoun consideratioun of the 
 necessar and godlie seruice dailie done by 
 Jhone Camys, lectour of the momyng prayeris, 
 ordanis the collectouris of the taxt to deliver 
 to the said Jhonne Carnys the sowme of thre 
 score of pundis, in recompense and compleit 
 payment of his seruice of all tymes bigane 
 vnto the feist of Mychaelmes nixt; and 
 c 33 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 ordanis the coUectouris of the annuellis ap- 
 poyntit for the ministeris of the kirk to re- 
 found the said thre score of pundis agane to 
 the saidis coUectouris of the taxt, and forther 
 in tyme cuming appoynttis yeirlie to the said 
 Jhonne Carnys the sowme of ane hundredth 
 merkis in the yeir of the radeast of the saidis 
 annuallis, to be payit to him termelie as vse 
 is, bigynnand at the said feist of Mychaelmes 
 and to endure induring thair willis." Cairns 
 received forty pounds -again on November 8th. 
 The minute of June 19th, 1562, is a 
 particularly interesting one for many reasons. 
 The Town Council are found here electing a 
 clergyman, and the citizens are to provide the 
 needful funds for him and those whom he is 
 to assist — " the prouest baillies counsale [and 
 deacons of crafts] efter lang ressonyng vpoun 
 the necessite of ministeris, fyndis that thair 
 salbe ane vther minister electit be the prouest 
 baillies and counsale dekynnis and eldaris, 
 of this burgh, and adionit to Jhonn Knox 
 minister, and for sustenyng of thame bayth, 
 togidder with Jhonn Cairnys reder, ordanis the 
 34 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 baillies, everyane within his awin quarter, to 
 convene the merchanttis and requyre of every- 
 ane of thame quhat thay will quarterlie gyf 
 for the cans foresaid; and siclike the saidis 
 dekynnis to convene thair craftis, and report 
 thair ansuerris vpoun Wednisday nixt." 
 
 On January 21, 1563-4, "the bailleis and 
 counsale ordanis David Forster and Maister 
 Jhonne Prestoun, coUectouris for the ministeris, 
 to deliver to Jhonne Carnys, reder, the some of 
 xP' of the radeast money in thair handis." 
 Was the zeal of the citizens for reform cool- 
 ing, or were the city funds low, that the hat, 
 in popular language, was sent round on April 
 24th, 1564? 1 — "the baillies and remanent 
 
 ^1 The cause of the Reformation was in imminent peril several 
 times between 1560 and 1567. A formidable riot in July 1561 
 showed that the populace had not yet been won over. They 
 brolie out on account of the suppression of the games of Robin 
 Hood, and, defying the Magistrates and Knox, who had refused 
 to interfere, forced their way into the Tolbooth, and released one 
 of their number who had been condemned to death, along with 
 several other prisoners who were awaiting their punishment, 
 "From the general tendency of affairs since Mary's arrival, the 
 Catholic clergy were naturally encouraged to form good hopes 
 for the near future. As the law stood, they were forbidden 
 the public exercise of their religion ; but the slackness of the 
 Government had in some degree made the law a dead letter. 
 During the Easter of 1563 the mass was celebrated in different 
 
 35 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 counsale befair writtin ordanis James Barroun, 
 James Adamson, Maister Johne Prestoun, 
 Eduard Hoipe, to pas out throuch the quarteris 
 of the toun amangis the faithful! and require 
 of every ane of thame quhat thae will frelie 
 gif be yeir for sustening of the ministeris, and 
 to report thair ansueris in writ vpoun the nixt 
 counsale day." Stricter measures were taken 
 within a fortnight — "May 3d, 1564 — [the 
 bailies and council3 ordanis the haill com- 
 municantis to be convenit befoir thame vpoun 
 Friday nixt, and first the northwest quartar, 
 
 parts of the country in such open fashion that the Protestants 
 resolved on stringent measures" (Hume Brown's "Life of John 
 Knox," II., 184). "In the Autumn of 1563 Knox took a step 
 that seemed likely to put him at last in the Queen's power, and 
 seriously to weaken his authority in the country" (Hume Brown's 
 " Knox," II., 197). " In less than three months after her marriage 
 [July 29th, 1565] Mary had beaten him [Moray] at all points, 
 and triumphantly driven him and his associates across the 
 Border to be further humiliated by a chilling reception at the 
 English Court. In this ruin of the Protestant politicians, Knox 
 must have had the grim satisfaction of seeing the fulfilment of his 
 endless prophesying. These youths, who had first sat at his feet, 
 and then scorned his counsels, had been taught who was the true 
 interpreter of God's ways with His people. But if this feeling 
 touched him, it was lost in the gloom of the new situation. As 
 far as eye could see, the cause of true religion seemed at length to 
 be fatally wrecked. Its most powerful friends were in exile, two 
 Papist sovereigns sat on the throne, and Papists ruled all their 
 councils" (Hume Brown's "Knox," II., 107, Jo8). 
 
 36 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 and sa furth quarterlie that it may be sene 
 quhat euerie ane of thame will frelie grant for 
 sustening of the ministeris, and euerie baillie 
 to convene his awin quarter." Fresh orders 
 were issued on November 30th to the same 
 effect — "the prouest, bailies, dene of gild, 
 thesaurer and counsale, ordanis Robert Kar, 
 Alexander Clerk, James Lowrye, and James 
 Nichole, to travell amangis the faythful for 
 collecting of the ministeris stepend, and to 
 report ansuer to the counsale." A deputation 
 from the craftsmen of the town appeared 
 before the Council on January 2d, 1564-5, to 
 undertake the care of their own poor and to 
 remind the Council of its duties to the min- 
 ister and the poor generally — "the prouest, 
 baillies, and counsale and hale dekynnis, being 
 convenit within the counsalhous of this burgh, 
 comperit Jhonn Purves, dekin of the talyeouris, 
 and for him self and remanent of the hale 
 craftis oblist him and thame to sustene the 
 hale pure of all occupatiounis within this 
 burgh, sic as craftismen, craftis menis wyffis, 
 seruandis and wedois, vpoun thair awin proper 
 
 Z1 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 chargeis fra this day furth, sua that the gude 
 toun nor nane resortand thairto salbe trublit 
 with thair purys; and siclike, quhatsumever 
 ordour salbe found gude be the prouest, 
 baillies and counsale forsaid for sustenyng of 
 the ministers, that they sail glaidlie beyr and 
 deburse thair ressonabill pairt thereof at thair 
 sychtis ; and heirfor requestit the said prouest, 
 baillies, and counsale to be mynderful of the 
 saidis ministeris and pure, and in case they 
 wantit thair ressonable charges that na fait war 
 imput to thame heirafter." 
 
 The voluntary contributions of the " faithful" 
 of April 24th, and of the " communicantis " of 
 May 3d, had not proved a success, for in 
 January we read " [the provost, bailies, 
 council, and deacons of crafts] all in ane voce, 
 consenttis granttis and ordanis that the haill 
 inhabitantis of this burgh be set to certane 
 particulare sowmes be the provest baillies 
 and counsale, and the samyn to be upliftit 
 and inbrocht quarterlie, to be distributit for 
 sustenyng of the pure and sic as lauboris in 
 publict service of the kirk, and till indure 
 
 38 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 quhill vther remeid may be prouidit." The 
 minute of March 12th, i^66-yy shows that 
 some of the old funds had at last been released 
 for the payment of the ministers, — " the quhilk 
 day, deliverit, at the baillies and counsallis 
 command, to Maister Jhone Craig, minister, 
 the writting of the lordis of secreit counsall 
 direct to the provest and baillies of this burgh 
 for taking of ordaur and setting of taxt for 
 sustening of thair ministerris, makand mentioun 
 that hir grace had given the annuallis for that 
 effect." These "annuals" were evidently the 
 " vther remeid " that the Council had in view 
 on May 3d of the previous year. Damley 
 had been murdered on the 9th of February, 
 and we may read in this minute of March 1 2th 
 the desire of Bothwell to secure to himself the 
 Reformation party, a design in which he was 
 " signally defeated." ^ The confederate Lords 
 won the day at Carberry Hill and Langside, 
 and the cause of the Reformation was at last 
 fairly secure. Yet the remaining entries of this 
 period show that however generous the inten- 
 
 1 Hill Burton's "History of Scotland," IV., 212. 
 
 39 
 
John Knox 5^ Edinburgh 
 
 tions of the magistrates might be, there was some- 
 times considerable difficulty in securing money 
 for the minister's stipends. John Knox is only 
 mentioned in this later period in connection 
 with the payment of his house rent or "maill." 
 Orders were given on July 29th, 1569, that 
 John Cairns should receive 1 6 marks for house 
 rent in part payment of stipend still due, and 
 the following significant record appears under 
 the date of August 10th, " the counsale ordanis 
 the baillies to put all sic personis in waird as ar 
 decernit be decrete befoir the tovne's commis- 
 saris to pay the annuallis of thair landis to the 
 hospital and ministrie, thair to remane vpoun 
 thair awin expenses ay and quhill the said 
 decreit be satefeit, and that becaus it is provin 
 this day befoir thame be George Gourlay, officer, 
 that he hes chairgit the said personis and thay 
 refusit." A collector "for the ministrie " was 
 appointed in this same month, August 1569. 
 
 Five entries are found in the printed minutes 
 
 for 1570 which refer to stipend. A meeting 
 
 of council was held on August nth "for 
 
 provisioun to be maid for Maister Jhone Craig, 
 
 40 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 minister." Orders were given to the deacons 
 of crafts on October 25th to convene the 
 members of the crafts " and inqu3nre of thair 
 benevolence quhat thai will geve to the support 
 of the minister! s." The deacons reported to 
 the council on November ist "quhat ilk craft 
 wald perfumis and gif." The sums voted 
 ranged from twenty shillings Scots on the 
 part of the "wobstaris" or weavers to twenty 
 pounds by the skinners, and the entries that 
 cover the period of Knox's residence in Edin- 
 burgh end with the appointment at a meeting 
 of Council on November 15th of " collectouris 
 for procuring of the beneuolence of the godlie 
 to the support of the ministaris stepend." A 
 resolution of considerable historical interest 
 had been passed in the meantime on August 
 24th. It marks another stage in the gradual 
 diversion of the old revenues to the support 
 of the ministers of the Reformed faith, but it 
 shows also that the step referred to was not 
 taken without some hesitation — "efter lang 
 ressoning vpoun the ministeris stipend and how 
 and quhair vpoun thai sail be sustenit, it is 
 41 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 thocht guid be the baillies and counsall foirsaid 
 that the auld dewtye quhilk wes payit be the 
 inhabitantis of this burgh to the prouest vicare 
 and clerk of the paroche kirk be coUectit of 
 new and appoyntit vpoun the said ministrie, 
 and the saidis dekynis desyrit till awys with 
 this quhill the morne, quhilk wes grantit." 
 The extracts for this period close with the 
 minute of May ist, 1571.^ After that there 
 is a blank until nth November 1573. 
 
 The Town Council did not limit its ex- 
 penditure upon the ministers to the provision 
 of stipend; it secured also houses for them 
 and furniture to at least a considerable extent, 
 and carried out all necessary alterations or 
 repairs. The house-rent was generally paid 
 through the treasurer; the furnishing and 
 miscellaneous expenses in which Communion 
 expenses were included, were defrayed by the 
 Dean of Guild. The following extracts from 
 the Treasurer's Accounts, 1559-66, refer speci- 
 ally to the payments of house-rent for John 
 Knox himself: — 
 
 1 See pages 49 and 131. 
 42 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 Item, to Robert Mowbray for the Witsoun- 
 dayis terme mail laist of ane ludgyn per- 
 tening to him in heritage, occupiit be 
 Jhonne Knox, be ane precept of the dait 
 the XXV day of August [ 1 560-61] xxxv marks 
 
 Item to Robert Mowbray be ane precept of 
 
 the date the xxv Februar [1561-2] xxvmerks 
 
 Item, delyverit to Robert Mowbray, be ane 
 precept of the dait the (blank) day of 
 (blank), for the maill of his ludgyn quhilk 
 johnne Knox, minister occupiis xxxiij" vi' viii"^ 
 
 Item, the vij day of Mairche, [1563-64] re- 
 savitt ane preceptt to answer Androw 
 Mowbray for the Mairtemes terme of 
 the minister Jhonn Baiox duelling 
 hous xvj" xiii" /[^ 
 
 Item, the xvij day of Junij 1564 resavitt ane 
 preceptt to answer Andrew Mowbray, 
 the Witsonday terme of Jhonn Knox 
 duelling houss ; summa . . xvj'' xiij' 4*^ 
 
 Item to Robert Mowbray be ane precept for 
 Jhonn Knox houss maill in the yeir of 
 the comptaris office of the daitt threttie 
 day of November jm. vc. Ixiiij. yeris xvi" xiij* 
 
 Item — Julij — be ane precept to answer Robert 
 Scot for Jhonn Knox houss maill, daitit 
 the xvj day of July T565 yeris xvj" xiij» iiij*^ 
 
 Ane preceptt daititt the ix day of Januar, 
 I565-[66], to delyuer to Robert Scott, 
 wrytar, for the mertimes maill of his 
 
 43 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 hous, occupeitt be Jhonn Knox, minister, 
 the soume of ... . xxv marks 
 Ane preceptt, daititt the xxv day of September 
 1 566, to contentt and pay to Robert Scott, 
 wrytar, and his spous, the soume of xxv 
 marks for the Witsondayis termes mailes, 
 1566, of the luging occupeitt be Jhonn 
 Knox, minister ; inde . . . xxv marks 
 
 These entries in the Treasurer's accounts 
 can be supplemented at great length from the 
 burgh records themselves. The first item is 
 that of May 8 th, 1560, which "ordanis 
 Alexander Park, theasaurer, to delyver to 
 Johne Carnis the sowme of xl" for fumesch- 
 ing of thair minister, Johne Knox in his 
 household, and because the said Johne Knox 
 hes bene furnesit vpone Dauid Forresteris 
 expenssis sen his coming to this toun be the 
 space of 15 dayis lastbipast, ordanis the said 
 Johne Carnis to ressave the said Dauid comptis 
 and mak him payment of the sowmes debursit 
 be him on the first end of the sowme of xl" to 
 be delyverit to him." It will be observed that 
 this goes far beyond the payment of house 
 rent alone. On August i6th the Treasurer 
 44 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 was ordained to pay to John Camis fifty pounds 
 "for fvimessing of the minister." This sum 
 appears in the printed extracts as "fyue," but 
 in the original transcript it is "fifty." Up to 
 this time Knox had been accommodated in 
 what would now be called "furnished lodg- 
 ings," but an attempt was made at once to 
 obtain for him a settled abode — " 4 September 
 1560, the Baillies and Counsaill, having con- 
 sideratioun that, for the eis of Johne Knox 
 minister, John Durie, talyeour, removit him 
 furth of the ludging occupyit be the abbot of 
 Drumfermeling, to the efiect the said minister 
 mycht enter thairto, ordanis Alexander Park, 
 thesaurer, to content and pay to the said John 
 Durie the sowme of viij merkis, and the samyn 
 sail be allowit, &c. ; and als the saidis baillies 
 and Counsaill feithfuUie promettis that how 
 sone thai may provide the said minister ane 
 vther ludgeing, to enter the said Johne to the 
 possession thairof." 
 
 It appears from the item of February 12th, 
 1560-61, that John Knox was then settled in 
 that house of Robert Mowbray's in which the 
 
 45 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 extracts from the Treasurer's accounts already 
 given show that he was living in 1564, — "the 
 treasurer to pay 'Robert Mowbray, heretour 
 of the hous occupyit be Johne Knox,' ten 
 merks, as the duty thereof to the preceding 
 Martinmas, 'and fra thineforth to pay him 
 termlie according to fyftie merkis in ^he yeir 
 sa lang as the samyne sail be occupyit be 
 him.' " Is there any curious story behind the 
 entry of November 29th, 1564, or was it 
 merely as a matter of form that the Treasurer 
 was "ordained to mak gude and thankfull 
 payment to Robert Mowbray of Johnne Knokis 
 hous mail! induring the tyme of his oiEce, as 
 vther thesauraris hes done of before." If it 
 was only a formal entry, it is a little strange 
 that two years later we find that the house 
 which Knox occupied has changed ownership, 
 and that he was compelled to engage a lawyer 
 to claim his rent as he had himself been sued 
 for it through non-payment, — "25th September 
 1566, the prouest [bailies and council] being 
 convenit for chesing of the new counsall, 
 compeirit Jhone Johnstoun, writer, declarand 
 46 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 that John Knox, minister, had written to him 
 that he wes craifEt, at the leist sutit, for his 
 Mertymes termes maill, in the yeir of God 
 jm. vc. and Ixv. be Robert Scottis spous, desyrit 
 thair wisdomes outher to cans the samyn be 
 payit, other wayis it behuiffit him to find the 
 way to satifEe the samyn." It is satisfactory 
 to find that the treasurer was ordained to make 
 payment of the sum craved. But what had 
 happened by February 20th, 1567-8, when the 
 treasurer was ordained " to deliver to Mungo 
 Bradie, goldsmyth, cautinare and suertie for 
 Jhone Knox hous maill, the sowme of x 
 merkis ? " Shall we read the entries as proofs 
 of what we know from other sources that the 
 cause of the Reformation was still hanging in 
 the balance and that very little would at this 
 time have turned the scale the other way, 
 when the Reformer himself was processed for 
 house rent and his cautioner or surety was 
 compelled to pay ? 
 
 Knox had changed his residence before 
 November of this year, but his troubles still 
 continued. The treasurer was commanded on 
 47 
 
John Kjiox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 the 19th of that month "to caus mend and 
 repair the necessaris of Jhone Knox dwelling 
 hous, vpoun the expenssis of Johne Adamsoun 
 and Bessie Otterburne his spous, conjunct fear 
 thairof, and deduce the samyn of thair hous 
 maill, becaus thai haif bene aft tymes requyrit 
 to do the samyn and refussit." The repairs 
 referred to were carried out exactly as such 
 repairs would be carried out in similar circum- 
 stances to-day, — "March 4, 1568-9. The 
 bailies and counsell ordanis Andro Stewinsoun, 
 thesaurer, to pay to Jhone Adamesoun the 
 sowme of fourty merkis for the maill of his 
 hous occupeit be Jhone Knox the yeir past, 
 deduceand thairof the sowme of aucht pund 
 debursitt be the said thesaurar in reparalyng 
 of the said hous in defalt of the said Jhone 
 Adamsoun, being requyrit to do the same, and 
 als xij merkis xij^ debursit mair be the said 
 thesaurar in repairing of the samyn hous by 
 the viij" above mentionat debursit be the 
 said Jhonn." 
 
 The last entry in the Council Records 
 referring to John Knox's house rent is that 
 48 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 given in the Manuscript Minutes under date 
 November 23rd, 1569 — "the quhilk day the 
 Baillies and Counsale ordanis Thomas Henrison 
 treasurer to deUver John Adamson the sum of 
 twentie markis for the Mertymes male of John 
 Knox's house and the same salbe allowit in his 
 comptis. " Knox left Edinburgh for St Andrews 
 in May 1571, and returned towards the end of 
 August 1572. He died in the November 
 followkig. No entry appears in the minutes 
 to guide us as to where he lived during these 
 three months. In all probability no minutes 
 of Council were taken or entered during that 
 unsettled period of practically civil war. 
 
 The Dean of Guild's accounts for the early 
 years of Knox's ministry give elaborate par- 
 ticulars of the pains that were taken to secure 
 his well-being in other respects. As early as 
 May 15th, 1560, the Treasurer was ordered 
 by the Council to supply "ane lok to John 
 Knox ludgeing." The Dean of Guild supplied 
 him with "ane Frenche lecteron buk" about 
 October 15th, at a cost of twenty shillings. 
 On October 18th he paid for "lokkis, bandis, 
 D 49 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 and [blank] to the minister's ludging," and 
 defrayed the slater's expenses "for poynting 
 ane parte of his house and cleinging gutters." 
 These payments were natural enough, but, 
 descending to more minute particulars, we find 
 the Dean accounting on December 22d "for 
 ane lok to Jhoun Knox yet [gate] and twa 
 key is," "for mending ane throwch lok and 
 ane new key," and "for putting in of ane 
 stepill to his chek lok, and leid." Selecting 
 a few more of these items from the palmy 
 days when the cause of reform was enjoying 
 a foretaste of success, and the Town Council 
 of Edinburgh was open-handed, we find that 
 in January 1560-61, payments were made 
 "to the Glaschinwrycht for xij fute of new 
 glass to John Knox xviij** the fut, summa 
 xliiij' ; " that there was purchased in April 
 1 56 1 "xij dressit daillis to Johnne Knox 
 study," and "xiij uther daillis to Johnne Knox 
 study; " and that between October 1560 and 
 1 56 1 an account of eighteen shillings was 
 paid "for ane moudewall and ane lok to 
 Johnne Knox study." The study seems to 
 50 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 have been still unsatisfactory in spite of these 
 repairs, as on November 5th, 1561, the Dean 
 of Guild was ordered "with all diligence to 
 mak ane warme studye of daillis to the 
 minister, Johnne Knox, within his lugeing, 
 abone the hall of the samyne, with lychtis and 
 wyndokis thairto, and all uther necessaris." 
 
 An exhaustive list of the expenses incurred 
 in the construction of this study is preserved 
 in the Dean of Guild's accounts. A "poor 
 man" received eight shillings for removing 
 rubbish. Stones were carried from the 
 churchyard at the cost of sixpence, "to be 
 soill, lintell, and vtheris necessaris to the 
 said windo." It cost thirteen shillings to 
 saw " ix gestis and twa daillis to the said 
 studie." Three dozen "doubill garroun" nails 
 and some " plancheaur " nails cost four shillings. 
 Candles cost ninepence. "To Johnne Cun- 
 nynghame and Johnne Melross, wrychtis, and 
 ane servant with thame, for ane oulk and 
 iij dayis labouris, viz., to the said Cunnyng- 
 hame in the oulk xxvij"' to the said Melrose 
 xxiiij^' and thar servand xxij^- summa togidder 
 51 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 iiij" xvj'" Item mair, the said awld middle 
 wall cuttit and the tymmer thereof sawin for 
 makinge entrees fre the ministeris chalmer 
 to the study, for naillis to the standartis, 
 stappis, bilzeittis of the entre therto, vij' iiij''-" 
 "Item, mair for candill ix^-" "Item, for ane 
 lok and key and snek within to the said 
 study dur." Forty shillings was paid to 
 Patrik Schange and his servants " for making 
 of lange skelffis and letteronis and saittis in 
 the ministeris study, be the space of aucht 
 dayis." He received also thirty shillings for 
 designing and making " ane greit foure square 
 lettrane [desk] to the ministeris, tumeand 
 upon ane wyce " [vice]. The exceptional 
 nature of this desk is quaintly implied in the 
 wording of the item, from which it appears 
 that this sum of thirty shillings included an 
 allowance "for troubling of his spreit in the 
 inventing of that consait." The "lettrane" 
 was furnished with a " loke and bandis " at 
 the cost of six shillings. The accounts for 
 1562 afford also a passing glimpse of some 
 of the ordinary discomforts of civilised life : — 
 52 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 "Item, to the ministeris lugeing being falthie 
 in diverss pairtis of the sklattis tharof and 
 the rane comand done abone his bed and 
 buikis, for pointinge of the samin haill throche 
 xxiiij'" 
 
 It is plain from numerous entries in the 
 Council minutes that John Knox was not 
 specially favoured in these matters. A few of 
 these may suffice for this purpose. Three 
 items in the Treasurer's Accounts for 1559 
 are as follows, and relate to the "ministers," 
 by which we are to understand the preachers 
 of the "Congregation," who had come to 
 Edinburgh along with the Lords in that 
 year : — 
 
 Item, the first Junij ressavit ane precept to 
 content and pay to Johnn Carnis for 
 furnissing of Johnne Willokis and re- 
 manent of the ministers . . . xx" 
 
 Item the xxvj Junij ressavit ane precept to 
 content and pay to Johnn Carnis for 
 furnessing of the ministers, the sowme . Ix" 
 
 Item xxvj August ressavit ane precept to 
 content and pay to Jhonn Carnis for 
 furnessing of the ministers ; summa . I'' 
 
 53 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 John Willock, or Willocks, officiated in St 
 Giles' instead of Knox during part of 1559, 
 when Knox was compelled to retire from 
 Edinburgh on account of the arrival of the 
 Queen-Regent. He celebrated communion in 
 St Giles' according to the Reformed rite in 
 August 1559, probably the first occasion on 
 which it was done. The Regent, Mary of 
 Lorraine, accepted his ministrations on her 
 death-bed on June loth, 1560. Orders were 
 given on August 30th, 1560, that Willock 
 should receive " xxti crownis of the sone,^ for 
 recompans of the greit travell sustenit be him 
 
 ^ The "crowns of the sun" were French gold pieces, the 
 value of which varied considerably during the sixteenth century. 
 In 1523 a " crown of the sun " was worth twenty shillings and 
 threepence Scots; in 1555, twenty-three shillings and sixpence; 
 and in 1582, fifty shillings (Cochran-Patricli's "Coinage of 
 Scotland ")■ The extract from the Treasurer's accounts given in 
 the text settles the value of a "crown of the sun "in 1560 as 
 one pound six shillings and eightpence Scots. The only similar 
 piece in the Scottish coinage is the unique gold crown of Mary, 
 dated 1561, which has the sun for mint mark. Any "crowns of 
 the sun " current in Scotland before 1560 were of French minting ; 
 after 1561, they may have been coined either in Scotland or 
 France. Kenyon states in his " Gold Coins of England " that in 
 152Z and 1525, in consequence, it must be presumed, of the in- 
 sufficiency of the English coinage, foreign coins both of gold and 
 silver were proclaimed current in England. Every crown of gold 
 not soleil (i.e. not being a French crown of the sun), nor clipped, 
 
 54 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 this haill yere bigane in preching and minister- 
 ing of the sacramentis within this burgh ; and 
 [the minute] ordanis ane member of the 
 counsaill to thank him for his greit beneuo- 
 lence for the greit travaill foresaid "^ It is 
 this same twenty "crowns of the sun" that 
 are referred to in the following extract from 
 the treasurer's accounts for this year : — 
 
 Item, XX September, ressavit ane precept to 
 content and pay to Robert Watson, xx 
 crownis of the sonn to be deliverit be 
 him to Jhonn Willokis ; summa xxvj'' xiij' iiij'' 
 
 This was in the opening days of the 
 Reformation. It was the same in later years. 
 Two entries in the Dean of Guild accounts for 
 1565 show that in the minor details referred 
 
 was ordered to pass in 1521 for four shillings, and every " crown 
 soleil of weight" in 1525 for four shillings and fourpence 
 sterling. 
 
 ' Willock was a prominent figure of the time. He was the 
 principal coadjutor of Knox in the early stages of the Reforma- 
 tion. He took part, along with Knox and others, in the 
 preparation of the "Confession of Faith" of 1560, and the 
 "First Book of Discipline." He was appointed "Super- 
 intendent " of Glasgow, an office created under the provisions of 
 the " First Book of Discipline," but he did not hold the office for 
 long. He was an Englishman, and returned voluntarily to 
 England, where he held the rectory of Loughborough. 
 
 55 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 to in the preceding paragraphs, all the Reformed 
 clergy shared in the generosity of the Council. 
 The Town Council considered it their duty to 
 attend not only to the necessities but also to 
 the comforts of all teachers of the new feith. 
 — "item, 8 Nov. 1565. For tua braid dailes 
 quhilk I cofti and gaif to Maister Jhonn 
 Craig, minister, the quhilk he desyritt to mak 
 skelfis and lettronis to his buikis, pryce of pece 
 T* iiij"^; somme x^ Tiij"^-" — "Item, for baring 
 of thame fra Leyth to the said Maister Jhonis 
 hous, viij"^-" This John Craig had been 
 minister of the Canongate, but was induced 
 about 1563 to become colleague to Knox in 
 St Giles'. It will be remembered, on the other 
 hand, as against this generosity on the part of 
 the Council, that very considerable diiEculty 
 was experienced in procuring stipends during 
 these years. The statement is made in one 
 place, June 11, 1563, that a collection was 
 ordered for John Craig and John Cairns, since 
 they had received nothing for a half-year past, 
 and the items concerning the shelves and 
 
 1 Bought. 
 56 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 desks may be interpreted as another proof 
 that in general the Council seems to have been 
 more favourable to the cause of the Reforma- 
 tion than the bulk of the citizens, who had to 
 pay the cost. 
 
 The following items, selected from amongst 
 many others of similar import, show the atten- 
 tion that was given by the Town Council to 
 miscellaneous ecclesiastical matters. They 
 were not content in the earlier years of 
 religious agitation with defraying the expenses 
 of their " minister " when at home, but they 
 took upon themselves also the charge of his 
 disbursements when deputed on business of 
 the "Kirk." — "December 31, 1561, the 
 prouest, baillies, and counsale, vnderstanding 
 that the minister, Jhonne Knox, is requyrit be 
 the hale kirk to pas in the parttis of Angus 
 and Memys for electing of ane superintendent 
 thair, to the quhilk thay thame selffis hes 
 granttit, thairfor ordanis Alexander Guthre, 
 dene of gild, to pas in cumpanye with him for 
 fumessing of the said ministerris charges, and 
 to deburse and pay the samyn of the radeast 
 SI 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 of the townis guddis in his handis, quhilk salbe 
 allowit in his compttis, and forther to haist the 
 said minister hame that the kirk heir be nocht 
 desolait." It appears from the Dean of Guild's 
 accounts that John Knox was absent from Edin- 
 burgh eleven days on this business, and that 
 payments were made on behalf of himself and 
 two servants and three horses to the amount 
 of twenty pounds, fifteen shillings. John Knox 
 and John Craig were deputed on a similar 
 errand in 1564, and the Town Council of 
 Edinburgh defrayed all charges as before, — 
 " 18 August 1564, the prouest [bailies and 
 councilj vnderstanding that be the command 
 of the kirk Johnne Knox and Johnne Craig, 
 ministeris, ar instantlie to depairt, the tane to 
 the north and the vther to the south pairttis 
 preiching of the evangell in tha pairttis, and 
 that it is appoynttit that Christopher Gudeman, 
 minister of Sanct Androis, sail abid and remane 
 in thir pairttes to thair returnyng, and in thair 
 places to minister and preche ; quhairfor they 
 ordane Jhonn Spens [and four others] to pass 
 to the said Maister Gudman, offer him in 
 58 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 thair names all honorable intertenement, and 
 cans the stewert of Jhonne Knox hous to keip 
 table to him vpoun the townis expenssis, and 
 ordanis the said Alexander Park [the trea- 
 surerj to pay the samyn ouklie." Twenty 
 pounds were paid on behalf of Goodman^ 
 under this order in September. The Dean 
 of Guild's accounts for 1563- 1564 speak of a 
 journey contemplated by Knox through Merse, 
 Teviotdale, and Nithsdale ; and record a pay- 
 ment of three pounds to John Chalmers, 
 "servand to the said minister," who was 
 sent to St Andrews to ask that Goodman 
 should be permitted to remain in Edinburgh 
 until Knox's return, as the Council had been 
 informed that he was to make a protracted 
 tour through the southern districts mentioned. 
 The Council elected, on the i8th of June 
 1563, two commissioners or, in modem phrase- 
 ology, "representative elders," to attend the 
 
 ' Willock, Goodman, and Knox were the challengers in a dis- 
 cussion held on the principles of the old &ith before the Con- 
 vention of 1561. Goodman had been colleague to Knox at 
 Geneva in 1555. He also, like Willock, returned to England, 
 his native country, where he died at Chester in 1601. 
 
 59 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 forthcoming General Assembly at Perth [Sanct 
 Jonistoun] in company with John Knox. They 
 appointed a master of the High School in 1568, 
 and in the exercise of theh- general superin- 
 tendence of both educational and ecclesiastical 
 matters they issued an order on February nth 
 1568-69, when the new master [Thomas 
 Bucquhannane] was about to enter on his 
 duties, that " the minister " should " publische 
 the samyn to the pepill." The Town Council 
 had in the meantime taken a bolder step than 
 usual, in 1565, out of consideration for the 
 Reformers. Mary and Darnley had requested 
 that Knox should be silenced during their stay 
 in the capital. Knox had offended Darnley by 
 a sermon preached in St Giles' on August 
 19th. The minute of August 23d in that 
 year contains the record of the emphatic re- 
 fusal of the Council to obey their Majesties. 
 Instead of muzzling Knox, they exhorted him 
 to persevere, — " all in ane woce concludis and 
 deliveris that thai will na maner of way con- 
 sent or grant that his mouth be closit or he 
 dischargeit in preiching the trew word, and 
 60 
 
Payments to Ministers 
 
 thairfor Willit him at his plesour, as God sould 
 move his hart, to proceid fordwardt in trew 
 doctrine as he hes bene of befoir, quhilk 
 doctrine thai wald approve and abide at to 
 thair hfis end." It would appear, however, 
 that Knox's preaching must have ceased for 
 a time, as Craig, his colleague, desired assist- 
 ance "in respect he was alone." ^ 
 
 ' Calderwood, II., 340, 
 
 61 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 in Edinburgh 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 in Edinburgh 
 
 nr^HE first reference to any house provided 
 for the use of John Knox in Edinburgh 
 is to be found in the minute of Council dated 
 May 8, 1560, "the provest, bailies, and coun- 
 sall ordanis Alexander Park, thesaurer, to 
 delyuer to Johne Camis the sowme of xF for 
 fumesching of thair minister John Knox in his 
 household, and becaus the said Johne Knox 
 hes bene fumesit vpone David Forresteris 
 expenssis sen his cuming to this toun be the 
 space of XV dayis lastbipast; ordanis the said 
 Johne Camis to ressave the said David comptis, 
 and male him payment of the sowmes debursit 
 be him on the first end of the sowme of xl" 
 to be delyuerit to him." The Dean of Guild's 
 accounts for the period May to October 1560 
 contain also the following item, " to Margaret, 
 E 65 
 
John Knox 9^ Edinburgh 
 
 his barae^ [^Hepburn], the relict of umquhill 
 Patrik Irland, for the said Johnis howss maill 
 at the heving [leaving?] thereof x marks." 
 On the 15th of May in this same year, 1560, 
 the treasurer was ordered to pay for " ane lok 
 to Johne Knox ludgeing." 
 
 A difficulty arises at this point as to how 
 many houses are indicated in these references 
 to payments. There might possibly be three, 
 there are almost certainly two, but there might 
 only be one. It is quite permissible to interpret 
 them, in the absence of further identification, 
 as applying to the separate houses of Cairns, 
 Forrester, and Ireland. It is equally permissible 
 to assert that Cairns had made provision for 
 Knox being lodged in Ireland's house at For- 
 rester's expense. The dates would authorise 
 such a supposition, but the probabilities and 
 the natural interpretation of the Council minute 
 are against it. 
 
 The minute of June ist, 1560, by which the 
 treasurer was ordained "to delyuer to Johne 
 
 1 This curious mistake was made by the cleric when transcribing 
 the accounts in i5£o. 
 
 66 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 Camis the sowme of xx" for furaesing of 
 Johne Willok, precher," is one amongst several 
 that would seem to indicate that Cairns, who 
 held the position of " Reader " in St Giles, was 
 also the agent through whom payments were 
 generally made on account of the ministers. 
 The entries, interpreted in this light, refer to 
 him rather as paymaster than as what, in 
 modem parlance, would be described as a 
 "keeper of furnished apartments."^ As re- 
 gards Forrester, however, the case is different. 
 It was in his house that Lord Seton, who was 
 Provost of Edinburgh in 1558-59, was lodged, 
 and his expenses were defrayed by the Council. 
 The minute of September 2nd, 1559, which 
 orders these expenses to be paid, indicates 
 that Lord Seton resided there from Whitsunday 
 until August. Forrester's house would thus 
 be naturally regarded by the Council as a 
 fitting abode for Knox when he arrived in 
 
 ' Hume Brown takes the other view. " For the next few 
 months Knox has a new landlord, John Cairns, whose name 
 appears twice in the Records as the recipient of the minister's 
 rent" ("Life of John Knox," 11., 316). The statement in the 
 text accords better with what is known of Cairns. 
 
 ^1 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 Edinburgh in 1560, or at least until a more 
 permanent residence could be secured. Shortly 
 before Knox's death, Forrester's house was still 
 a place in which a visitor to the Scottish capita] 
 whom the authorities wished to honour could 
 find a lodging suitable to his rank. The 
 "Diurnal of Occurrents," Part II., p. 326, 
 states that when Killigrew, the Ambassador 
 of Queen Elizabeth, arrived at Edinburgh to 
 congratulate the Earl of Morton on his acces- 
 sion to the Regency, he "depairtit to David 
 Forrestaris lugeing above the Tolbuith." 
 
 David Forrester was a Bailie of Edinburgh, 
 and a member of one of the old patrician 
 families of the burgh. Adam Forrester was 
 "Alderman" or Provost in 1373. His de- 
 scendants became the Lord Forresters of Gor- 
 storphine, and were the founders of its ancient 
 collegiate church. Forrester's Wynd had its 
 name from them, and it was here that David 
 Forrester lived. This wynd ran from the 
 High Street to the Cowgate, and opened on 
 the High Street on the spot where the Buc- 
 cleuch statue now stands. Almost opposite 
 68 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 Forrester's Wynd, but a little farther to the 
 west, was the entrance to Ireland's Close, 
 named,' as was the custom of the time, from 
 a family of Ireland or Irland who resided there. 
 Their house was at the bottom of the close, 
 and stood on a spot opposite the south-east 
 comer of the Bank of Scotland which is now 
 occupied by the houses of St Giles Street. 
 This close was afterwards called Dunbar's 
 Close, changing its name, as was the common 
 practice, with its owner. A sasine of February 
 I, 1754, records that at that date three genera- 
 tions of Dunbars had owned property here. 
 Popular tradition asserted that it was given the 
 new title because houses in it were occupied 
 by the Actors after the battle of Dunbar, and 
 a house in the neighbouring close was pointed 
 out as the residence of Cromwell himself, but 
 sober history must record the more prosaic 
 reason. 
 
 As far back as 1536 (November 21) sasines 
 
 bear witness to a tenement in this locality 
 
 which had been possessed by "the late John 
 
 Ireland," and the property can be traced 
 
 69 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 through sasines of 1538 (May 28), 1538-9 
 (March 3), 1540 (November 4 and 13), 
 1 541 (August 19 and December 23), 1543 
 (December 20), to 1543 (December 21), 
 when a tenement here came into possession 
 of Patrick Ireland, son of the late John 
 Ireland and Margaret Hepburn, his spouse, 
 by resignation from David Ireland, "son and 
 heir of the said late John," who was seized 
 in the property on the same date by assigna- 
 tion from his mother and her second husband. 
 David possessed already what had been 
 apparently the front portion of his father's 
 property abutting on the High Street. 
 
 The property of Patrick Ireland is identified 
 (Dec. 21, 1543) as being bounded by "a 
 tenement and lands respectively of John 
 Arbukill and Robert Adamson on the west, 
 the North Loch on the north, and the waste 
 backland of the said tenement on the south, 
 and the tenement and lands respectively of 
 the heirs of the late James M'Calzeane and 
 the late Walter Young on the east." The 
 identification of property from a description 
 70 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 of 1543 might possibly be open to challenge 
 as vitiated by the burnings of Edinburgh in 
 1544 and 1545, but a sasine of Oct. 22, 
 
 1 55 1, identifies the tenement by practically 
 the same boundaries — "tenement of Patrick 
 Ireland burgess on the north side of the 
 High Street, between a tenement of Mr 
 Thomas Makcalzeane on the east, a tenement 
 of the late John Arbukle and the late Robert 
 Adamson on the west, and the North Loch 
 on the north." Thomas Makcalzeane had 
 become proprietor on September 4th, 1551, 
 of the half of the property of Walter Young 
 referred to in the sasine of 1543. This 
 makes the descriptions of 1543 and 1551 
 identical. It appears from another sasine of 
 1 55 1 (July 31), and a sasine of April 13, 
 
 1552, that Patrick Ireland was a bailie at 
 that time. His ownership of the property 
 described can be traced further through 
 sasines of January 12, 1552-3, and March 
 3(», 1554, until he is referred to in connec- 
 tion with the ownership of the same and 
 surrounding properties as " the late Patrick 
 
 71 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 Ireland" on April ist, 1559. But his name 
 had not quite disappeared from the neigh- 
 bourhood in 1754, when in the sasine of 
 February ist, already referred to, the tene- 
 ment in question was described as situated 
 "at the end or foot of the close of old 
 called Ireland's Close, now Dunbar's Close." 
 The next item that refers explicitly to any 
 particular house as retained for John Knox 
 is that in the Council minutes for September 
 4th, 1560,— "the bailies and counsaill, have- 
 ing consideratioun that, for the eis of Johne 
 Knox, minister, Johne Durie, talyeour, removit 
 him furth of the ludgeing occupyit be the 
 abbot of Drumfermeling to the effect the 
 said minister mycht enter thairto, ordanis 
 Alexander Park thesaurer to content and pay 
 to the said Johne Durie the sowme of viij 
 merkis, and the samyn sail be allowit, etc. ; 
 and als the saidis bailies and counsaill faith- 
 fuUie promittis that how sone thai may 
 provide the said minister ane vther ludgeing, 
 to enter the said Johne to the possessioun 
 thairof." No other item has yet been dis- 
 
 72 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 covered that can help to identify the " abbot 
 of Drumfermeling's ludgeing." Wherever it 
 was, it was clearly intended that the occupa- 
 tion should only be temporary. A comparison 
 of dates would indicate that it might either 
 be Patrick Ireland's house akeady referred 
 to, or another house in which John Knox 
 was residing five months later, but in any 
 case his occupation of Ireland's house and 
 of this, if it be a separate house, was in 
 each case of very short duration. 
 
 The next item in order, that of February 
 i4th,^ 1560-61, brings us to Knox's first 
 settled residence in Edinburgh, if it again 
 should not be identified with the house that 
 Durie vacated. The treasurer was ordered 
 on that date to pay "Robert Mowbray, 
 heretour of the hous occupyit be Jhone Knox 
 . . . the sum of x merkis as for the de'wtie 
 thairof the tyme the samyne wes occupyit be 
 the said Johne to the fest of Mertymas last 
 and fra thinefurth to pay him termelie accord- 
 ing to fyftie merkis in the yeir so lang as 
 
 ' In the printed extracts thii is February iith. 
 
 73 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 the samyne sail be occupyit be him." This 
 extract shows that a fifth part of a year's 
 rent was paid for the time that Knox occupied 
 this house before Martinmas 1560. Allow- 
 ing that sum for the broken period of two 
 months, it brings the date of Knox's entry very 
 close to September 4th, on which day he 
 was clearly living in Durie's house. The 
 evidence, however, in favour of the identifica- 
 tion of Mowbray's house with Durie's is not 
 conclusive, as it is quite possible, though it 
 can hardly be said probable, that the Council 
 may have succeeded in renting Mowbray's 
 house as a permanent residence for Knox 
 within a few days of the passing of the minute 
 of September 4. The phraseology of that 
 minute, on the other hand, scarcely points 
 to an occupation of Durie's house that was 
 to extend to over six years. 
 
 The Council records show that rent was 
 ordered to be paid for Mowbray's house on 
 February 12, 1560-61, November 29, 1564, 
 "as other thesavraris hes done of before," 
 and September 25, 1566. It was, therefore, in 
 74 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 this house that the "warm study of deals" 
 was erected, which has always been so 
 prominent in the popular accounts of John 
 Knox. The order to build it, which was 
 given to the Dean of Guild on November 
 5th, 1 56 1, was one of the few items from the 
 Council Records referring to Knox that had be- 
 come public property: — "with all deligence to 
 mak ane warme studye of daillis to the minister, 
 Jhonne Knox, within his lugeing abone the 
 hall of the samyn, with lychtis and wyndokis 
 thairto and all vther necessaris." It was in 
 this house that Knox's first wife, Marjorie 
 Bowes, died in the close of the year 1560, and 
 it was to this house that Knox brought his 
 second wife, Margaret Stewart, in 1564, a 
 girl of seventeen. It was here also that Knox 
 entertained the Duke of Chatelherault and the 
 English resident Ambassador Randolph at the 
 historical supper party of the last Sunday in 
 November 1562, when Knox did his best to 
 secure the adhesion of the Duke to the side 
 of the English and the Reformers. 
 
 The history of the property on which 
 
 75 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 Mowbray's house stood has been traced back 
 in the protocol books to before 1539. The 
 names of two John Browns, father and son, 
 are prominent in the title-deeds that refer to 
 it. John Brown, the father, had possessed the 
 whole strip of land with the buildings upon 
 it, that extended from the High Street to 
 the North Loch. John Brown, the son, would 
 seem to have been the owner only of the 
 portion that fronted the High Street. This 
 John Brown, the younger, was executed in the 
 year 1539 as a heretic in virtue of a sentence 
 pronounced by Cardinal Beaton, and his house 
 in the High Street was granted on the for- 
 feiture of his properties to a Mr James Foulis 
 of Colinton, Clerk of the Rolls. The " back- 
 lands " extending from this house to the North 
 Loch are found in possession of Elizabeth 
 Carkettill in the year of this John Brown's 
 death. She, with the consent of her husband, 
 Adam Stewart, resigned this property on 
 September 23 in this same year to her three 
 daughters, Katherine Hopper, Janet Hopper, 
 and Helen Stewart, and their husbands, with 
 76 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 the exception of a small portion at the extreme 
 north end, bounded by the North Loch, and 
 extending si ells from north to south, which 
 she had disposed of to Thomas Chisholm and 
 Helen Napier his spouse. The first-named of 
 the three daughters was married to Andrew 
 Mowbray. On November 22, 1549, George 
 Lundy, son of Helen Stewart and David Lundy, 
 became seized of the third of the property that 
 had passed to his mother, and he executed a 
 resignation of this on the same date to Katherine 
 Hopper, described as the relict of the foresaid 
 Andrew Mowbray. On May 4, 1555, Robert 
 Mowbray, son of Katherine Hopper, obtained 
 possession of the whole property that had passed 
 from Elizabeth Carkettill to her daughters, by 
 seizin of his late father's third part of his 
 mother's share, and of the third that belonged 
 to Janet Hopper, described as relict of Mr 
 Hugh Rigg. 
 
 It appears from the Protocol Books of 
 
 Alexander Guthrie, Town-clerk of Edinburgh, 
 
 that an instrument of sasine was expede on 
 
 April 8th, 1563, in favour of Robert Mowbray, 
 
 77 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 son and heir of the late Andrew Mowbray, 
 and Jonet Cant his future spouse, in certain 
 properties on both the north and south sides 
 of the High Street, including that already 
 referred to in the sasine of 1555.^ The de- 
 scription of this latter property is interesting, 
 as it is more particularly identified by being the 
 residence of John Knox, — " thereafter the said 
 Bailie (Andrew Sklater) passed to a tenement 
 of land of the late John Brown, lying on the 
 north side of the said burgh, between a 
 tenement of land of David Fernelie on the 
 east and a tenement of land of Robert Hopper 
 on the west and there the said Robert 
 (Mowbray) resigned, by delivery of earth and 
 stone into the hands of the said Bailie, All and 
 whole his great mansion and building, together 
 with the garden and tail of the same now 
 inhabited by John Knox, minister, with their 
 pertinents, lying within the said tenement 
 between the North Loch on the north and the 
 foreland of the said tenement on the south." 
 
 1 The properties already belonged to Mowbray. They were 
 now, in accordance with custom, settled jointly on himself and 
 his future wife. 
 
 78 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 A progress of titles connecting Mowbray's 
 sasine with the title of the present proprietors 
 of the greater portion of the ground, who are 
 the Corporation of Edinburgh, has been made 
 out partly from the protocol books of the 
 various Town-clerks and partly from existing 
 titles. From these the exact situation of the 
 subjects contained in Mowbray's sasine can 
 with certainty be ascertained. 
 
 The first link in the progress after Mowbray's 
 sasine is a sasine of date March 28, 1565, in 
 favour of Robert Scott, one of the clerks of 
 the Lords of Council, and Elizabeth Scott, his 
 spouse, proceeding on a resignation by Robert 
 Mowbray and his spouse "of the backlands 
 of the said Robert Mowbray, built and waste, 
 under and above, with garden, tail, waste, 
 porch, close, and transe thereof, having ish 
 and entry by the front and by the back, lying 
 within a tenement of the late John Brown, 
 burgess, on the north side of the High Street, 
 between a tenement of land of the late David 
 Fairlie on the east, and a tenement of the late 
 Robert Hopper on the west, the foreland of the 
 
 79 
 
John KJnox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 said tenement on the south, and a certain piece 
 of tail of the said lands pertaining to the heirs 
 of the late Thomas Chisholm, lying beside the 
 North Loch, on the north." It will be noticed 
 that this latter boundary- — that by the late 
 Thomas Chisholm's "piece of tail" on the north, 
 carries back the identification to the resignation 
 executed by Elizabeth Carkettill on September 
 23d, 1539.^ The Contract of March 24th, 
 1564-5, in pursuance of which this sasine of 
 1565 was effected, identifies the property 
 further as inhabited by John Knox — "the 
 samyn and all their pertinentis now inhabet 
 be Johnne Knox, minister of Edinburgh, lyand 
 within the burgh of Edinburgh, on the north 
 syd of the Hie Streit thairof, within the tene- 
 ment of umquhile Johnne Broun, betuix the 
 foirland of the said tenement at the south 
 pairte, and the Pece Taill of land pertening to 
 the airis of umquhile Thomas Chisholme on the 
 north pairte, with the Yet, Throchgand, and 
 Enteres thairto, and all utheris thair per- 
 
 ' As showing the persistence of these old boundaries this 
 "piece of tail" of Chisholm's is found referred to regularly as 
 late as 1678 (May lo). 
 
 80 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 tenintis ; quhilk Tenement of umquhile Johnne 
 Broun lyis in the said burghe, on the north 
 Pairte of the Hie Streit thairof, betuix the 
 tenement of umquhile Farnhe on the east 
 pairte, and the tenement of land (of) umquhile 
 Mr Richard Hopper on the west pairte." 
 
 With this full identification of the property 
 in question, there is no necessity for entering so 
 minutely into the particulars of its history since 
 1565. Mr Robert Scott, son of the Robert 
 Scott, clerk of Session, was infeft in the 
 subjects on September 23d, 1568, and to him 
 succeeded his son, John Scott, in 1593 (March 
 30) (designed in a later sasine as Mr John 
 Scott 1 of Tarvet), who sold the property in 
 1 61 2 (Dec. 10) to Thomas Speir, merchant, 
 burgess of Edinburgh. On the death of 
 Thomas Speir, his three daughters succeeded 
 (16 1 6, Dec. 28.) to the property, and on one 
 of them dying a few years later the other two 
 became pro indiviso proprietors of one-half 
 each. In 1629 (May ist), Rachael Speir, one 
 
 ^ The title "Mr" implies that he had proceeded to the 
 University Degree of Master in Arts. 
 
 F 81 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 of the surviving daughters of Thomas Speir, 
 and then wife of John Jackson, alienated her 
 half to Thomas Charters, merchant. Process 
 of division followed in 1 630, and the property- 
 was divided up between Thomas Charters and 
 Sarah Speir, who was the other surviving 
 daughter of Thomas Speir, and is described 
 in the sasine to her that followed the pro- 
 ceedings on July I St, 1 63 1, as "relict of Mr 
 Robert FouUis, advocate." The position of 
 Mowbray's property becomes localised in more 
 modern terms in the sasine to Charters (1630, 
 April 29) as bounded by "Bruce's Close on 
 the West." ^ Henry Charters, son of Thomas 
 Charters, succeeded to his father's portion of 
 the subjects, and alienated it to Sir James 
 Hope of Hopeton, Knight, one of the Senators 
 
 ^A Sasine of January 25, 1566, and previous Sasines give the 
 origin of the name "Bruce's Close." Robert Bruce of Binning 
 granted in that year 14 marks yearly out of his " Backland" to 
 Thomas M'Calzeane of Cliftonhall, Advocate, the same who is 
 referred to frequently in the text. This " Backland " is described 
 
 as bounded on the east by "a tenement of the late Car- 
 
 kettill, now pertaining to Robert Scott, writer," — the tenement in 
 which John Knox lived. Bruce's Close has been better known 
 for more than two hundred years as Warriston (or Warriston's) 
 Close. It ran between the properties owned in 1566 by Bruce of 
 Binning and Scott. 
 
 82 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 of the College of Justice, sasine in whose 
 favour was recorded 13th October 1652. The 
 other portion of the subjects also fell into the 
 hands of the Hopeton family, and in 1686 
 (Sep. 29) Charles Hope of Hopeton alienated 
 the whole subjects to Alexander Abercrombie, 
 vintner. In this sasine the property is again 
 referred to as bounded by "the close called 
 Bruce's Close on the west." Abercrombie 
 appears soon afterwards to have got into 
 difficulties, and Robert Watson, one of his 
 creditors, obtained from the Court of Session 
 on December i, 1694, a "decreet of vendition 
 and alienation " of the subjects in his favour. 
 That decreet was assigned to Robert Mill (or 
 Milne) of Balfarg, the King's master mason, 
 and Patrick Stiell, merchant, burgess of Edin- 
 burgh, who were infeft in the same subjects 
 on November 18, 1696. The sasine in their 
 favour narrated that they had built a great 
 new tenement upon the " greater part " of the 
 subjects. The property is referred to in the 
 various documents that passed between Aber- 
 crombie, Watson, Mill, and Steill as bounded 
 83 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 by Bruce's Close on the west. A property 
 that intervened between Abercrombie's pro- 
 perty and Mary King's Close was acquired 
 also by Mill and Steill from Thomas Young 
 of Rosebank, one of the Bailies of Edin- 
 burgh. The sasine in their favour bears date 
 November i8th, 1696, and the property is 
 described as bounded on the west by "the 
 lands of the late Robert Scott," and on the 
 east by " the transe of the said [King's] Close." 
 The building erected by Mill and Steill on 
 Scott's property extended also over this 
 property as far as the line of Mary King's 
 Close. 
 
 Subsequent sasines of the years 1697, 1698, 
 and 1699 recorded in the protocol books of 
 ^neas MacLeod give the history of the 
 alienation of the different portions of the 
 building erected by Mill and Steill between 
 Bruce's Close and Mary King's Close, and in 
 these documents the name Bruce's Close is 
 replaced by the modem designation, Warriston's 
 Close, as the boundary on the west. A large 
 part of it was acquired in 1699 by the Society 
 84 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 of Writers to the Signet, who ordered a board 
 to be put up with the inscription "Writers' 
 Court," which has been a familiar name ever 
 since. Its boundaries are accurately defined 
 in these and later title-deeds. A sasine of 
 1702 (Nov. 17) refers to "that new stone 
 tenement of land lately built by Robert 
 Milne, wright, and Patrick Steill, merchant, 
 commonly called The Writers' Court, lying on 
 the north side of the High Street, bounded 
 between the close called Mary King's Close on 
 the east, the close called Warriston's Close on 
 the west. ..." 
 
 The history of the " backlands " of John 
 Broun, father of him who was executed for 
 heresy in 1539, is now complete, along with 
 that of the buildings which had existed on 
 them at different times. They are represented 
 by a strip of land on the eastern side of 
 Warriston's Close, which has been recently 
 appropriated for the extension of the Royal 
 Exchange Buildings, and the corresponding 
 piece on the north of Cockbum Street, 
 between it and the site of the North Loch. 
 85 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 The front portion of the elder John Broun's 
 property, which, it will be remembered, passed 
 into the hands of Mr John Foulis of Colinton, 
 belongs now also to the Corporation of Edii)- 
 burgh, which thus possesses so much of that 
 long strip of his which extended to the North 
 Loch as is bounded by the High Street on the 
 south and Cockburn Street on the north, 
 and by the line of the present Warriston Close 
 on the west. Mowbray's property, which had 
 John Knox as one of its tenants, contained a 
 house and garden situate, as the better class 
 of houses were situate, at a little distance from 
 the front or high street. John Knox's house 
 was thus either the second or third house 
 in what is now Warriston's Close, and was 
 situated on the east side of the close, with 
 another property — that purchased in 1696 by 
 Mill and Steill from Thomas Young — inter- 
 vening ^ between it and Mary King's Close, 
 
 'Reference may be made here to a curious sculptured stone 
 picked up from the foundations of a house in Mary King's Close 
 when the present Cockburn Street was being formed, which is 
 now preserved in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edin- 
 burgh. A representation of it is given in Sir Daniel Wilson's 
 "Memorials of Edinburgh," ind Edition, II., 20. It represents 
 
 86 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 which was the next close to the east. The 
 western portion of the Cockburn Hotel now 
 extends over part of the garden that was 
 attached to Mowbray's or Knox's house. 
 
 The tenement erected by Mill and Steill 
 stood until quite recently at the north-west 
 corner of the Royal Exchange Square. It was 
 acquired in 1896 by the Corporation of Edin- 
 burgh, who demolished it to make way for an 
 extension of the City Chambers buildings. 
 Among the titles of the tenement, which were 
 handed to the city when it was purchased by 
 the Council, is an inventory of writs dated 
 April 8th, 1696, which contains most of the 
 writs in the progress which have been already 
 mentioned. The new additions to the Council 
 Chambers are to occupy its site, and, together 
 with their corridors, will extend right through 
 from the site of Mary King's Close on the east 
 to Warriston's Close on the west. It appears, 
 
 in minute detail a death-bed scene, in which "four priests are 
 apparently administering extreme unction to a dying person, 
 presumably of wealth and rank." It is supposed to be fifteenth 
 century work. This stone must have been buried either in or 
 very close to the site of John Knox's garden, if it did not actually 
 form part of his house. 
 
 87 
 
John Knox 'zi' Edinburgh 
 
 then, that as the building which the Burgh 
 Court and Council Chamber is to replace 
 occupied the " greater part " of the ground 
 on which the house formerly stood that was 
 occupied by John Knox, the western part of 
 the new home for the deliberations of the 
 Town Council of Edinburgh will occupy the 
 exact site of the home for the most important 
 years of his life of the great Scottish Reformer, 
 who was so intimately associated with the 
 Town Council of his day in the years which 
 he spent on this spot. 
 
 The next reference to rent paid by the 
 Town Council of Edinburgh is that contained 
 in the minute of November 19th, 1568 — the 
 Treasurer ordained " to cause mend and repair 
 the necessaris of Jhone Knox dwelling hous, 
 vpoun the expenssis of Johne Adamsoun and 
 Bessie Otterbum his spous, coniunct fear thair- 
 of, and deduce the samyn of thair hous maill, 
 becaus thai haif bene oft tymes requyrit to do 
 the samyn and refussit." 
 
 A search has been made in the protocol 
 books of the Town-clerks of Edinburgh for 
 88 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 the purpose of finding the title of John 
 Adamson and Bessie Otterburne his spouse, 
 in the hope of identifying the house in which 
 Knox lived during at least 1568 and 1569. 
 The result leaves no doubt as to the neigh- 
 bourhood in which Knox resided, but the 
 identification has not proved so exact as that 
 in connection with the properties of Forrester, 
 Ireland, and Mowbray. 
 
 It has been found that John Adamson and 
 Bessie Otterburne his spouse were infeft in 
 three diiFerent properties, one or other of 
 which must have contained the house referred 
 to in the foregoing minute. 
 
 The sasine in favour of John Adamson and 
 Bessie Otterburne in these properties was re- 
 corded in the protocol books of Alexander 
 King, Town-clerk, on 31st July 1551. It 
 narrates that Patrick Ireland, Bailie,^ gave 
 "corporal possession in heritable sasine and 
 conjunct infeftment " to John Adamson, son 
 and heir of Alexander Adamson, burgess of 
 
 • This is the Patrick Ireland in whose widow's (Margaret 
 Hepburn's) house Knox was residing during part of 1560. 
 
 89 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 Edinburgh, and to an attorney in name of 
 Elizabeth Otterburne his spouse and the 
 longest liver of them two in (i) All and 
 Whole his, the said John Adamson's lands, 
 built, and waste, under and above, with yard, 
 tail, waste thereof, and their pertinents lying 
 within the wester tenement of Francis Ten- 
 nand, son and heir of the late Mungo 
 Tennand, Burgess, lying in the burgh of 
 Edinburgh on the north side of the High 
 Street between the easter tenement of the 
 said late Mungo on the east, and the tene- 
 ment of land of John Symson on the west, 
 and also between the land of Patrick Crighton 
 of Lugton on the south and the North Loch 
 of said burgh on the north; (2) His, the 
 said John Adamson's other land, with halls, 
 chambers, kitchen, pend, and other pertinents 
 lying within the said tenement between the 
 foreland thereof on the south and the said 
 land of the said Patrick Crighton on the 
 north ; and (3) His, the said John Adamson's 
 land or mansion under and above with its 
 pertinents lying within the tenement of land 
 90 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 of the heirs of the late John Maxton on the 
 north side of the High Street between a 
 tenement of land of the laird of Haltoun on 
 the east, and a tenement of the late Alexander 
 Bonkill on the west, a land of John Cunyng- 
 ham on the south, and a land of the Abbot 
 and Convent of Newbottill on the north. 
 These are the only properties which belonged 
 to Adamson and Otterbume, or at least to 
 which they had a duly recorded title. 
 
 Further search has been made in the 
 protocol books, and in the inventories of 
 writs and old plans in the possession of the 
 Bank of Scotland, for the purpose of locating 
 these properties, with the following result. 
 The property first described stood partly on 
 what is now a portion of the solum of St 
 Giles Street, and partly on the site of the 
 shop in St Giles Street occupied by Messrs 
 William Green & Sons, law publishers. The 
 property second described lay to the south of 
 the first property, the tenement of Patrick 
 Crighton of Lugton intervening, and was 
 situated immediately behind the front tene- 
 91 
 
John Knox 9S' Edinburgh 
 
 ment facing the High Street. The third 
 property was situated nearly opposite the 
 corner of High Street and Hunter Square, 
 and lay at some distance north from the 
 High Street. It stood about the south side 
 of the present poultry market. ^ 
 
 The progress of titles of each of the three 
 properties subsequent to the sasine above men- 
 tioned may be briefly noticed to show how this 
 identification of sites has been reached. 
 
 The first infeftment in the first subjects con- 
 tained in John Adamson's and Bessie Otter- 
 burne's sasine after that of John Adamson and 
 Bessie Otterburne themselves was that of Alex- 
 ander Adamson, their son, who created in 1585 
 a burden of 100 merks over the property in 
 favour of Hector Rae, merchant. 
 
 In 1602 (June 2), a sasine was expede in 
 this portion of the subjects in favour of George 
 Heriot, elder, goldsmith, father of the George 
 Heriot who founded Heriot's Hospital. The 
 description in this sasine varies somewhat from 
 
 > This market has been removed as these pages are passing 
 through the press (August 1898). 
 
 92 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 the description given in the sasine of John 
 Adamson and Bessie Otterburne. It is as 
 follows : — " That land or tenement of Alex- 
 ander Adamson, son and heir of the late John 
 Adamson, lying on the north side of the High 
 Street, opposite the Old Tolbooth, between 
 the lands of the late Gilbert Lauder, on the 
 east, the land of the late Mr Thomas Makcal- 
 zeane of Clifton Hall, on the west, the lands 
 of the late Patrick Crighton of Lugton on the 
 south, and the North Loch on the north." 
 The words introduced in this description, 
 "opposite the Old Tolbooth," are of import- 
 ance, as helping to localise the subjects. 
 
 The next sasine found in the Protocol Books 
 is one in 1625 (Jan. 31) in favour of Francis- 
 cetta Heriot, spouse of John Ceraris, and 
 lawful daughter of Patrick Heriot, brother- 
 german of the late George Heriot, jeweller to 
 His Majesty, as lawful and nearest heir of the 
 late George Heriot, elder, goldsmith, burgess 
 of Edinburgh, her grandfather. This sasine 
 is in the subjects in which George Heriot, 
 senior, was infeft in 1602, and also in an 
 
 93 
 
John Knox 'zs^ Edinburgh 
 
 annual rent of loo merks payable out of the 
 subjects. Immediately thereafter the said 
 Franciscetta Heriot, with consent of her 
 spouse, resigned the said subjects and annual 
 rent of loo marks in favour of the Provost, 
 Bailies, and Council of Edinburgh, who were 
 infeft therein in the person of their Treasurer. 
 The property thus conveyed to the Provost, 
 Bailies, and Council was held by them for a 
 short time as Governors of Heriot's Hospital, 
 and was sold by them in 1635 (Aug. 18) 
 to Patrick Forbes, merchant, and Elizabeth 
 Newton, his spouse. ^ No information of any 
 importance can be obtained from the various 
 infeftments which followed,^ until we come to 
 
 1 The Sasine on Vendition and Alienation to Patrick Forbes 
 and Elizabeth Newton bears to have been executed by the 
 Provost, Bailies, and Treasurer of Edinburgh, Mr James Hannay, 
 Dean of St Giles', Mr Alexr. Thomson, and others, ministers of 
 Edinburgh, as Governors of Heriot's Hospital. This Dean 
 Hannay was the only Dean of Edinburgh on the attempted 
 restoration of Episcopacy by Charles I. It was whilst lie was 
 reading for the first and last time the prayer-book which had 
 been imposed upon Scotland by Royal command that the tumult 
 occurred in St Giles (1S37), in which a stool was hurled at the 
 Dean's head. This was the signal for the disorders that brought 
 about the Civil War and the subsequent beheading of the King. 
 
 2 The following are the remaining links: — 1645, -April 22d, 
 Sasine to Robert Fynlaw [or Finlay] and Margaret Maissou, his 
 
 94 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 a sasine of 1691 in favour of Thomas Brown, 
 bookseller, burgess of Edinburgh, which gives 
 the description of the subjects in the terms 
 already mentioned, and adds that a great new 
 stone tenement had lately been built on the 
 subjects by the said Thomas Brown. This 
 stone tenement came into the hands of the 
 Bank of Scotland, who were infeft therein in 
 1 80 1 (Nov. 12). It was removed when St 
 Giles Street was formed. 
 
 The second subjects contained in John 
 Adamson's and Bessie Otterbume's sasine 
 passed in 1585 (Feb. 24) to Alexander 
 Adamson, son and heir of John Adamson and 
 Bessie Otterbume, and from him in 1600 
 (May 10) to John Aitken, merchant, and then 
 in 1 610 (Sep. 22) to Robert Aitken, his son 
 and heir. In Robert Aitken's sasine the de- 
 scription is a little fuller than that given in 
 
 spouse; 1654, May nth, to Sir James Stewart of Kirkfield, 
 Knight, late Provost of Edinburgh; 1666, October 24th, to 
 Alexr. Lessels, merchant, and Margaret Thomson, his spouse ; 
 1686, March nth, to John Lessels, merchant, burgess of 
 Haddington, brother and heir to the afore-mentioned Alexr. 
 Lessels; 1691, August 15th, to Thomas Brown, bookseller, 
 burgess of Edinburgh, and Calderwood, his spouse. 
 
 95 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 the previous sasines and throws some further 
 light on the locality of the subjects. The de- 
 scription bears that the subjects lay in the 
 close called Adamson's Close, on the east side 
 of the transe thereof, and on the north side of 
 the High Street opposite the Old Tolbooth. 
 Sasines in favour of various parties followed, 
 but as these give no additional information 
 they need not be noticed ^ until we come to a 
 sasine in 1698 (August 24) in favour of 
 Alexander Gavinlock, mason, Burgess of 
 Edinburgh. This Alexander Gavinlock de- 
 molished the buildings and erected, partly on 
 the site thereof and partly on the site which 
 intervened between Adamson's property and 
 
 I The links are as follows: — 1631, May 19, John Aitken, son 
 and heir to Robert, who resigned them immediately to James 
 Riddell, merchant, and Margaret Lowrie, his spouse. 1672, 
 March 25, Sasine on resignation by the said John Aitken in 
 favour of the aforesaid late James Riddell, Bailie. 1685, March 
 1 8, Decreet of Adjudication at the instance of Andrew Kerr, of 
 the subjects foresaid. 1690, May 7, Letters of Horning thereon, 
 charging the Magistrates of Edinburgh to infeft the said Andrew 
 Kerr, 1697, May 7, "Ane appretiatione by fifteen sworn men 
 by warrand from the Toun Council of Edinburgh, whereby they 
 found that the said Backland acquired by the said Alexander 
 Gavinlock from the said Andrew Kerr on the West side of Bailie 
 Broun's close. . . , they value and estimate at 9 years' purchase, 
 &c." 
 
 96 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 the High Street, a new stone building which 
 was afterwards known as Gavinlock's Land. 
 The only other sasine remaining to be noticed 
 is that of the Bank of Scotland, which ac- 
 quired Gavinlock's Land in 1848. The sub- 
 jects in that sasine are described as the 
 great stone building now called Gavinlock's 
 Land, lying on the north side of the High 
 Street and opposite the head of Forrester's 
 Wynd. 
 
 The situation of these two properties of 
 John Adamson and Bessie Otterbume is thus 
 placed beyond doubt. They both lay " oppo- 
 site the Old Tolbooth." They were on the 
 north side of the High Street, "opposite the 
 head of Forrester's Wynd." A tenement 
 intervened between the second of them and 
 the High Street, and this second property was 
 in its turn separated from the one first named 
 by the lands of Patrick Crichton of Lugton. 
 The second property was reached by a close 
 which is called Adamson's Close in the sasines 
 of 1 610 and 1 63 1. The buildings on the 
 east side of the present St Giles Street cover 
 G 97 
 
John Knox 5^ Edinburgh 
 
 the site of the old "Adamson's Close," i 
 and the pavement on the east side of 
 the street is formed over part of the 
 properties that belonged in the sixteenth 
 century to John Adamson and Elizabeth 
 Otterburne, the landlords of KnOx, the 
 Reformer. 
 
 The third subjects contained in John 
 Adamson's and Bessie Otterbume's sasine 
 passed in 1585, on the death of John Adam- 
 son, to Alexander Adamson, his son, and after 
 various infeftments,^ which all give the same 
 description as that given in Adamson's sasine, 
 they came in 1684 into the hands of Robert 
 Newlands, glover. Burgess of Edinburgh. 
 Robert Newlands, son of this Robert New- 
 
 1 The Close giving access to properties here was known from 
 the owners at different times as Adamson's Close, Heriot's Close, 
 and Broun's Close. See Sasine of 1600, May 10, 1610, September 
 12, and 1631, May 19, for "Adamson's Close"; the "Appretia- 
 tione" of May 7, 1697, for "Bailie Broun's Close"; the Sasine 
 of August 24, 1698, referred to above for "Hartis" (sic) or 
 "Heriot's Close." 
 
 2 1602, January 15, George Kirkwood, Albany Herald. 1613, 
 October 23, George Kirkwood, younger son of preceding. 1647, 
 April 9, Elizabeth Kirkwood, daughter of preceding. 167J, 
 September 13, Sir James Stands£eld of Newmilns, Knight. 1684, 
 August 18, Robert Newlands, glover, 
 
 98 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 lands of 1684, appears to have erected a new 
 tenement on the subjects. A sasine is found, 
 of date June 2 2d, 171 1, proceeding on an 
 obligation by him in which the subjects are 
 described as "the said Robert Newlands' 
 tenement on the north side of the High Street, 
 in the close called the Mid Fleshmarket Close, 
 on the east side of the transe thereof, between 
 the land sometime of Alexander Borthwick, 
 vintner, on the east, the tenement of the late 
 Robert Hepbume of Whitburgh on the north, 
 a tenement of Robert Brown, bookseller, on 
 the south, and the said close on the west." 
 It will be seen that this new description does 
 not contain anything to identify it with the 
 old description contained in John Adamson's 
 sasine. There is no doubt, however, that 
 the two descriptions relate to the same pro- 
 perty. Both point to the same spot. A sasine 
 of January 21st, 1691, mentions that John 
 Maxton's tenement, referred to in the de- 
 scription in Adamson's sasine, lay "on the 
 north side of the High Street opposite the 
 Salt Tron," thus establishing the fact that 
 
 99 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 the locality of the old description was the 
 same as that of the new.^ 
 
 The subjects known as Newlands' Land 
 passed through various hands after Newlands 
 ceased to be connected with it, and ultimately, 
 on 15th January 1790, a sasine is found in 
 favour of the city of Edinburgh of the ground 
 storey of the tenement.^ That sasine gives 
 some further information in regard to the 
 locality of the subjects. It mentions that 
 they lay on the west side of Bull's Close, 
 
 ' Other evidence from the Stent Rolls, the Register of Deeds, 
 the Bean of Guild Court Records, and the titles of the adjoining 
 properties, which it is not necessary to go into minutely, can be 
 adduced to confirm this. 
 
 " Extract from "Titles to the Edinburgh Markets": — " 1771, 
 September 6, Disposition by William Wilson of Soonhope, writer 
 in Edinburgh, trustee for Robert Bailie, merchant in Edinburgh, 
 conform to the said Robert Bailie's trust disposition, dated 12th 
 March 1756, and registered in the Books of Council and Session, 
 J* August 1789, in favour of the said Wm. Wilson and other 
 creditors, of the ground storey of Newlands' Land, lying on the 
 north side of the High Street, on the west side of Bull's Close, as 
 bounded in the ancient rights and infeftments thereof, in favour of 
 John Stewart, writer in Edinburgh, who has right to the same 
 by assignation from William Reid, merchant, of date 6 Sept. 1771, 
 who bought the same at a roup on 9 Augt. 1771 ; and which 
 ground storey of Newlands' Land was disponed by Thomas Scott, 
 Clerk to the Signet, Commissioner of Thomas Balleny, tenant in 
 South Parks of Lesly, to the City of Edinburgh, on 15 January 
 1790." 
 
 100 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 that being the close immediately to the east 
 of the Mid Fleshmarket Close. The sasine 
 of 171 1, taken along with this, suggests that 
 the tenement extended between the two 
 closes. It would appear that the property 
 thus acquired by the city now forms part 
 of the Flesh and Poultry Markets.^ It may 
 be added that Bull's Close and Mid Flesh- 
 market Close are not now in existence. They 
 were swept away when Cockbum Street was 
 formed. 
 
 Bull's Close was called at an earlier period 
 Adamson's Close, or the Caichepeele Close. 
 It is thus designated in the Stent Book of 
 the City of Edinburgh, 1634-36, "Adamson's, 
 or the Caichepeele Close, right north of the 
 Salt Tronne." It was referred to also as 
 " Ketch Peil or Fleshmarket Close " in a dis- 
 position of so recent a date as 1856. A 
 catchpool or caichepeele was a tennis court,* 
 
 ■ See note, page 92. 
 
 ^ The followiDg extract from the Town Treasurer's Accounts 
 refers to this popular game of the time: — "The expenses maid 
 upone the marriage of the Quenis Grace, with the Convoy the 
 [blank] day of Julij Anno 1558. [Here follows five pages of de- 
 tailed accounts. One item is,] Item for twa dosoun of cachepull 
 
 101 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 and the word suggests another item of 
 identification between John Adamson's and 
 Newlands' properties. John Adamson's pro- 
 perty is described as bounded by a land of 
 the Abbot and Convent of Newbottill (or 
 Newbattle) on the north, and this description 
 is a permanent one until 171 1, when it and 
 the other boundaries are replaced by what 
 seem to be the descriptions of the owners 
 of the adjoining properties at that date. The 
 former description occurs in the sasine of 
 August 1 8th, 1684, conveying John Adam- 
 son's property from Sir James Standsfield of 
 Newmilns to Robert Newlands, although the 
 abbots and monastery of Newbattle had long 
 been things of the past. This Newbattle 
 property passed in 1549 (February 12) by 
 sasine on a charter of feuferme to a James 
 Adamson, and it is stated that the charter 
 was granted because the said James Adamson 
 gave large sums of money to the abbot to 
 rebuild the tenement, which had been cast 
 
 balls cled with gold fuilze [leaf gold] till being Iiing upone the 
 tree upone the Trone, price viij'''" 
 
 102 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 down "when our old enemies of England 
 burnt the town of Edinburgh." It had 
 naturally the same boundaries in part as 
 the property owned by John Adamson and 
 transferred to himself and Elizabeth Otter- 
 bourne in 1 55 1, which it touched on the 
 south, these being the strip of ground owned 
 by the Laird of Haltoun on the east and that 
 owned by Marion Bonkill on the west. In 
 a sasine of resignation of loo marks yearly 
 out of the property in 1566, it is described 
 as "a tenement of the said James Adamson, 
 with yard, catchepool, and waste land adjacent 
 thereto, on the north side of the High Street, 
 between the lands of the heirs of the Laird 
 of Haltoun on the east, the lands of Marion 
 Bonkle on the west, and the lands of John 
 Adamson, son and heir of the late Alexander 
 Adamson, on the south, and the North Loch 
 on the North." Newlands' property was in 
 Bull's Close, which was opposite the Salt 
 Tron.i The Tron itself has been removed 
 
 'A "Tron" was a weighing macliine. The "Salt Tron" 
 was the machine used for weighing salt. It stood in the High 
 Street, almost opposite the west end of the present Tron Church. 
 
 103 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 long since, but its name is still perpetuated 
 in the "Tron Church." 
 
 Adamson's or the Caichepeele Close was 
 opposite the Salt Tron, and is identified doubly 
 through the Catchpool referred to in James 
 Adamson's sasine of 1566. All were on the 
 north side of the High Street, and all the 
 items converge, as has been shown, on the 
 second property from the High Street on the 
 opposite side to the corner of the High 
 Street and the present Hunter Square. This 
 property of John Adamson and Bessie Otter- 
 burne and James Adamson's property — that 
 which was formerly possessed by the Abbot 
 of Newbattle — with the exception of a part 
 of John Adamson's property that was thrown 
 into the roadway of Cockburn Street, have 
 been acquired recently by the proprietors of 
 The Scotsman. New buildings are to be 
 erected on their sites. 
 
 Knox must have lived during 1568 and 1569, 
 
 if not longer, in one of these three houses 
 
 thus accurately identified — the second property 
 
 from the High Street on the east side of the 
 
 104 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 present St Giles Street, or the fourth property 
 from the High Street in the same quarter, or 
 the second from the High Street opposite the 
 comer of the present Hunter Square, but no 
 indication has been discovered so far which 
 identifies a particular one of the three as his. 
 That must still be left uncertain. There are 
 nothing but probabilities to work upon. But 
 the probabilities of the case would seem to 
 point to the house referred to as second in 
 the sasine of 1551. The third house — that 
 opposite the Salt Tron — was scarcely con- 
 veniently enough situated, from all that is 
 known concerning the residences of Knox, to 
 serve as a manse for the minister of St Giles'. 
 The old manses had been in the churchyard, 
 and the Magistrates seem to have endeavoured 
 always to provide a " lodging " for Knox from 
 which the church should be equally easy of 
 access. This third house stood about forty 
 yards from the High Street, and the Salt Tron 
 was about a hundred and ninety yards from 
 the present north entrance of the church. 
 Either of the other two houses would have 
 
 105 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 been more readily chosen for the purpose. 
 They were both within a stone's throw of the 
 church, right opposite the site of the present 
 Buccleuch statue. Either was equally con- 
 venient. The second was possibly a little 
 more so. It was, besides, from all the 
 descriptions, the better house of the two. 
 It had "halls, chambers, kitchen, pend, and 
 other pertinents," every convenience, as would 
 be advertised now, for a gentleman's family. 
 There is no mention of a hall in the first 
 house. The Town Council treated Knox not 
 merely as a gentleman, but as a nobleman, 
 and his house would be one of the best.^ 
 They had built a study for him above the hall 
 of Mowbray's house and they were almost 
 certain to choose as good a house for him when 
 he returned to Edinburgh after his temporary 
 exile. 
 
 No trace has been found of any reference 
 which could imply that Knox had changed his 
 
 ' " His stipend was considerably higher than the salary of the 
 judges of the Court of Session, and not much lower than that of 
 the English judges of the same period." " St Giles', Edinburgh," 
 by J. Cameron Lees, D.D., LL.D., &c., p. 141. 
 
 106 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 residence between November 23, 1569, when 
 rent was paid to John Adamson, and May 
 1571, when Knox was forced to leave Edin- 
 burgh for a time. He returned from St 
 Andrews in August 1572, and the assumption 
 that he re-occupied the house he had left in 
 1 57 1 is as reasonable as any other in the 
 absence of any definite proof By a curious 
 coincidence, which may not be without bearing 
 on the question, a John Adamson's name — 
 " Jhone Adamesoun " — appears as the first of 
 three witnesses to his will, which was executed 
 at St Andrews in May 1572. John Adamson, 
 his Edinburgh landlord, was also one of his 
 elders, and it is more than probable that he 
 was amongst the number of those opposed to 
 the Queen's party who were forced to leave 
 Edinburgh along with Knox in obedience to 
 the proclamation of Kirkcaldy of Grange. If 
 that was so, both Adamson and Knox, as well 
 as the others who had been compelled to 
 leave, would naturally take up their abode 
 on their return in the houses which they 
 had left. 
 
 107 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 It is not without interest to notice the class 
 of house and the character of the neighbour- 
 hood in which Knox was always lodged. The 
 houses selected for his residence were amongst 
 the best in the burgh. Forrester's house had 
 been already chosen for the residence of an 
 English Ambassador, and had been occupied 
 by Lord Seton immediately before its occupa- 
 tion by Knox. This Lord Seton was one of 
 the most prominent of the Scottish nobles, and 
 was at the time Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 
 though his duties were discharged by deputy. 
 Patrick Ireland's house was itself a building of 
 some consequence, and between it and John 
 Adamson's "first house" lay the house of 
 Mr Thomas Makcalzeane, or M'Calzean, a 
 notable citizen of Edinburgh, who was Pre- 
 sident of the Town Council under Seton, 
 and became afterwards Lord Provost.^ The 
 house of Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, 
 who performed the marriage ceremony be- 
 tween Queen Mary and Bothwell in 1567, 
 
 ' Makcalzeane (M'Calzean, M'Callione) was also one of the 
 " elders " of Edinburgh. Bannatyne's " Transactions," p. 333. 
 
 108 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 was in the immediate vicinity, with Byer's 
 Close intervening. 
 
 Warriston's Close — which was the name 
 afterwards given to that lane on the north side 
 of the High Street in which Mowbray's house 
 was situated — has a long and interesting 
 history through its occupants at various times. 
 It was known successively as Bruce's Close, 
 Craig's Close, and Warriston's Close, and each 
 name pointed to a well-known family as resid- 
 ing in one of the houses to which the close 
 afforded an entrance from the High Street. 
 The Bruce referred to in the earliest name by 
 which the Close is designated is Bruce of 
 Binning, in Stirlingshire. These Bruces were 
 cadets of the family of Bruce of Stonehouse 
 and Airth, which was abready a distinguished 
 family in the reign of James III. Their 
 property was on the west side of the Close, 
 on the opposite side from Mowbray's property 
 on the east, but a little further south. The 
 mansion to the north of Bruce's "lodging" 
 was owned in Knox's time by a family named 
 Craig, and was occupied by its most notable 
 109 
 
John Knox S^ Edinburgh 
 
 representative, "Sir Thomas Craig," as he 
 was styled by order of James VI., after he had 
 repeatedly declined the honour of knighthood. 
 " He was succeeded in the old mansion by his 
 son, Sir Lewis Craig, and had the satisfaction 
 of pleading as advocate while Sir Lewis pre- 
 sided on the Bench under the title of Lord 
 Wrightslands. The house was subsequently 
 occupied by Sir George Urquhart of Cromarty, 
 and still later by Sir Robert Baird of Saughton 
 Hall, before it passed to the more celebrated 
 residenter from whom the latest designation 
 of this ancient alley is derived. The eminent 
 statesman. Sir Archibald Johnston of Warriston, 
 nephew of its older inhabitant Sir Thomas 
 Craig, appears from the titles to have pur- 
 chased from his cousin. Sir Lewis Craig, the 
 house adjoining his own, on the west side of 
 the Close, immediately below the one last 
 described." ^ This Johnston of Warriston was 
 prominent in the opposition given to the 
 schemes of Charles L He assumed the title 
 of Lord Warriston on his promotion to the 
 
 > Sir Daniel Wilson's " Memorials of Edinburgli," Vol 11., 15-16. 
 IIO 
 
Houses occupied by John Knox 
 
 Bench. After the Restoration he fled to 
 France, but was given up by the French King, 
 and brought back to Edinburgh, where he was 
 executed with peculiar marks of indignity at 
 the Market Cross. 
 
 It was to Mowbray's house on the east side 
 of this close, which overlooked the gardens of 
 these mansions, that Knox brought his second 
 wife, and it was here that he entertained 
 the English Ambassador and the Duke of 
 Chatelherault. After Knox left it for John 
 Adamson's house, Mowbray's house was let 
 to the Archbishop of Glasgow, and two years 
 afterwards it was occupied by John Belsches, 
 a prominent advocate of the period. In a 
 later generation, James Murray, Lord Philip- 
 haugh, one of the Judges appointed after the 
 Revolution, occupied part of the front land, 
 above the entrance to Warriston's Close. 
 Later still, in the borderland of fact and 
 fancy, and on the very site of Knox's house, 
 Writers' Court was the home of Clerihugh's, 
 or the "Star and Garter" tavern, associated 
 inseparably with the "high jinks" of Coun- 
 III 
 
John Knox 'zs' Edinburgh 
 
 seller Pleydell and his associates, as described 
 in " Guy Mannering " by Sir Walter Scott. ^ 
 
 ' "Clerihugh's tavern was of old the favourite resort of our 
 civic dignitaries for those ■ douce festivities ' that were then 
 deemed indispensable to the satis&ctory settlement of all city 
 affairs. The wags of last century used to tell of a certain city 
 treasurer who, on being applied to for a new rope for the Tron 
 Kirlc bell, summoned the Council to deliberate on the demand ; 
 an adjournment to Clerihugh's Tavern, it was hoped, might 
 facilitate the settlement of so weighty a matter, but one dinner 
 proved insufficient, and it was not till their third banquet that 
 the application was referred to a committee, who spliced the old 
 bell rope and settled the bill 1 " Sir Daniel Wilson's " Memorials 
 of Edinburgh," Vol II., 17. 
 
 112 
 
The Legend of "John Knox's 
 House" 
 
The Legend of " John Knox's 
 House " 
 
 A HOUSE at the Netherbow in Edinburgh 
 is popularly called " John Knox's House," 
 and is said to have got the name from having 
 been the residence of Knox, the Reformer. 
 There has not been discovered a shadow of 
 historical proof for this statement, and the 
 tradition that Knox lived in it can be traced 
 back only for ninety-two years from this 
 present date of eighteen hundred and ninety- 
 eight. This leaves a gap of 234 years 
 between the death of the Knox of Queen 
 Mary's time and the first trace that any such 
 belief existed. 
 
 Once the legend was started that John 
 Knox had resided in a house at the Nether- 
 bow it grew apace. In its first two appear- 
 ances in public it was singularly plain and 
 
 "5 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 unadorned, but these are faults that were 
 amply atoned for before long. Stark, in his 
 "Picture of Edinburgh," i which was pub- 
 lished in 1806, describes the supposed house 
 as follows : — "Among the antiquities of Edin- 
 burgh may be mentioned the house of the 
 great Scottish Reformer, John Knox. It 
 stands on the north side, at the foot of the 
 High Street, and, projecting into the street, 
 reduces it nearly one-half of its width." It 
 has been stated that " the value of tradition 
 is a question of circumstances," ^ but the 
 "circumstances" here is a bald assertion with 
 no possible suggestion of proof 
 
 It would seem indeed as if at the very 
 outset there had been some little doubt as 
 to which particular house in that neighbour- 
 hood should be associated with Knox. A 
 Dean of Guild process of the year 1839 
 assigns the name to the house immediately 
 east of that now known as John Knox's house. 
 
 1 See page 167. 
 
 2 C. J. Guthrie, in " Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries, 
 Scotland," 1891, p. 334, "Is John Knox's House entitled to the 
 name ? " 
 
 116 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 This house is spoken of elsewhere as Lord 
 Balmerino's house,i and the process states 
 that "on the morning of Sabbath, the 17th 
 February 1839, that old wooden tenement 
 (commonly called John Knox's Land) on the 
 north side of the Netherbow, Edinburgh, be- 
 longing to Matthew Frier, baker, St Patrick's 
 Square, fell down into the street, and that 
 parts of it still remain in a tottering con- 
 dition." Warrant was granted on the 21st 
 ordering that the remaining parts of this 
 tenement should be taken down or made 
 secure. But the name " John Knox's Land " 
 was not attached to Frier's tenement alone. 
 The Dean of Guild officer reported on Feb- 
 ruary 1 8th that another house, referred 
 to also as "commonly called John Knox's 
 Land," and apparently the present "John 
 Knox's House," was "in an insufficient and 
 dangerous state to the inhabitants thereof 
 and the public." The fall of Frier's tenement 
 had left those on each side of it insecure. 
 This second "John Knox's Land" was the 
 
 1 See Sir Daniel Wilson's " Memorials of Edinburgh," II., 53. 
 117 
 
John ICnox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 tenement on the west. If it was not so 
 situated, the expression "John Knox's Land" 
 of these documents of 1839 cannot be con- 
 nected with the " John Knox's House " of 
 to-day. 
 
 It will be noticed that the description given 
 by Stark, bald as it is, is much more definite 
 than that given in the Dean of Guild Court 
 proceedings of 1839. It connects Knox with 
 one particular house, and apparently with that 
 known now as John Knox's House. Taking 
 that for granted, a search which has been 
 made in the Dean of Guild Court Records 
 has pushed the modem history of the house 
 fifteen years farther back than the date of 
 the publication of Stark's volume. These 
 documents show that the upper storeys or 
 flats of this tenement had become ruinous 
 by 179 1, and the building was before the 
 Dean of Guild Court regularly between that 
 date and 1852, when it was reported at last 
 to be "now perfectly safe both in respect 
 to the inhabitants and public." Warrant was 
 granted on August 28th, 1791, by the Court 
 118 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 at the suit of one of the proprietors that 
 the roof should be repaired as the rain was 
 finding its way through the third and fourth 
 storeys into the second; and a process was 
 issued on July 19th, 1798, against the pro- 
 prietor of the upper storey for his share of 
 the expense ; but in neither of these official 
 papers is there any suggestion of any associa- 
 tion with the name of Knox. 
 
 We arrive on surer ground a few years 
 later. A petition to the Magistrates by the 
 Procurator-Fiscal, of date December 30th, 
 1847, complained that the fourth storey of a 
 tenement of land, commonly called "John 
 Knox's Land," or "Knox's Land," had "for a 
 period of more than three years lain waste 
 and uninhabited," and craved authority to 
 deal with it in accordance with the Act of 
 Charles II., — " Anent Ruinous Houses in 
 Royal Burghs." Comparison of the pro- 
 prietors' names in 1791, 1798, and 1847 
 shows that this building which was "com- 
 monly called John Knox's Land " in 1 847, and 
 reported to be "waste and uninhabited" in 
 119 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 the fourth storey, is the same building which 
 was reported to have a defective roof in the 
 former of these years, but which had been 
 repaired by 1798. After 1847 there is no 
 doubt that the expression "John Knox's 
 Land," or "John Knox's House," means the 
 house at the Netherbow, which, after many 
 vicissitudes, came into possession of tlie Free 
 Church in 1868, and is still shown as the 
 house in which the Reformer lived. Two of 
 the surnames of the owners given in the 
 Process of July 19th, 1798, appear again in 
 the documents relative to the second-named 
 "John Knox's Land" of 1839, and authorise 
 the supposition that they also refer to this 
 same house. 
 
 The next writer after Stark who mentions 
 Knox as having resided in the neighbourhood 
 of the Netherbow is M'Crie, whose "Life 
 of Knox" appeared originally in 181 1. His 
 statement is not much more explicit than that 
 of Stark. It is given in a footnote, as if it 
 probably were considered of not sufficient im- 
 portance or authenticity for the text : — " The 
 1 20 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 house which the Reformer possessed is situated 
 near the bottom of the High Street, a little 
 below the Fountain Well. These three words 
 are inscribed on the wall: "©EOS, Deus, 
 God." ^ This occurs in a reference to Smeton 
 as the authority for the last public appearance 
 of Knox, after having presided and preached 
 in St Giles at the installation of Lawson as 
 his colleague and successor. The exact words 
 that Smeton used are as follows : — " After he 
 had blessed the people, with his wonted cheer- 
 ful spirit, but with feeble body, and leaning on 
 his staff, he departed to his house accompanied 
 by almost the whole meeting, from which he 
 did not afterwards come forth alive " ^ It will 
 be noticed that Smeton gives no indication 
 whatever in these words of where John Knox 
 was residing ; and the natural inference would 
 be, that, in the feeble state of health in which 
 Knox was at this time, it could not be so far 
 from St Giles as the Netherbow, if he was to 
 
 ' " Life of John Knox,'' Edition 1855, p. 270. 
 
 2 " Eximii viri Joannis Knoxii . . , Vera , , . Historia,'* by 
 Thomas Smeton, Principal of the University of Glasgow, 
 1579- 
 
 121 
 
John Knox '^ Edinburgh 
 
 walk there even with assistance. But of this 
 more later. 
 
 After 1 8 1 1 the legend becomes embellished 
 and it assumes a variety of forms. It was dis- 
 tinctly ornate by 1823. Sir Daniel Wilson 
 quoted in the "Proceedings of the Society 
 of Antiquaries for 1890-91," pp. 157-8, the 
 following description of the house as given by 
 Robert Chambers in his "Traditions of Edin- 
 burgh," the first edition of which appeared in 
 the year given above : — " Close beneath the 
 window there has long existed a curious effigy 
 of the Reformer stuck upon the comer, and 
 apparently holding forth to the passers-by. 
 Of this no features were for a long time dis- 
 cernible till Mr Dryden (then tenant of the 
 house) took shame to himself for the neglect 
 it was experiencing and got it daubed over in 
 glaring oil colours, at his own expense. Thus 
 a red nose and two intensely black eyes were 
 brought strongly out on the mass of face, 
 and a pair of white iron Geneva bands, with 
 a new black gown, completed the resuscita- 
 tion." These sentences do not appear in the 
 122 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 revised reprint of 1868, but many other items 
 confirmatory of the tradition are given. John 
 Knox's study was there, that the magistrates 
 ordered for him in October 1561 ; the window 
 was there, from which he harangued the crowd 
 below; there was a small room still to be 
 seen, which served as a baptistery ; and there 
 was a well, as the house in which Knox lived 
 was known to have a well. And the window 
 where his effigy appeared was the window 
 through which a musket-ball was fired at the 
 Reformer's head before he left Edinburgh in 
 
 A new edition, the seventh, of M'Crie's 
 "Life" appeared in 1855, edited with notes 
 by his son. The legend appears in one of 
 these notes much in the same form as in 
 Chambers, but with important differences. 
 Knox took up his abode in the house at the 
 Netherbow in ij6o, and it remained his 
 principal residence until his death in 1572. 
 It was whilst living here that he lost his first 
 wife, and it was to this house that he brought 
 his second. It was through one of its windows 
 123 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 that a musket-shot was discharged which 
 must infallibly have killed him if he had been 
 occupying his usual seat. It was here that he 
 penned his "History." It was to this house 
 that he " crept down the street " never to leave 
 it alive, and his study, " undoubtedly " the one 
 ordered in 1561, remained very much in its 
 original form. 
 
 Every one of the statements made by 
 Chambers and the editor of M'Crie's " Life " 
 has been proved, where proof of any kind is 
 possible, to be incorrect. It was shown before 
 the publication of the 1855 edition of M'Crie 
 that the figure on the outside of the house 
 was not Knox at all but Moses, though the 
 statement that it was the Reformer preaching 
 in a pulpit was repeated by Chambers in 1868. 
 The editor of M'Crie's "Life" mentions the 
 correction of the legend, and it is not unim- 
 portant to observe that M'Crie himself seems 
 not to have known, in 181 1, that the figure 
 was intended for either Moses or Knox.^ He 
 
 1 It is also important to notice that Stark, in 1806, could say 
 nothing to associate this figure with either the house or Knox. 
 "Whether the figure is meant to represent the reformer himself, 
 
 124 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 quotes the inscription correctly to which Moses 
 is pointing, but says nothing fiurther about it. 
 The pulpit was an altogether modem affair, 
 copied from the pulpit of St George's Church, 
 which was erected in 1814. The red nose 
 and the Geneva bands and black gown dis- 
 appear with Knox himself. The "Study" 
 was not the study ordered in 1561. Knox 
 did not live here from 1560 to 1572. He is 
 not known to have preached from any window. 
 It is not known why he should have kept a 
 private baptistery. There was no well in this 
 house when it was examined in 1896. So 
 much for the embellishments. The legend is 
 left now in the form in which it was known 
 to Stark and M'Crie — the simple assertion 
 that Knox lived in Edinburgh at a house then 
 and still existent in the Netherbow. 
 
 The legend also differs considerably and 
 vitally in the mouth of its different narrators 
 respecting the period of Knox's occupation of 
 
 or not, is not known ; but whoever it is, he seems to have been 
 hardly used, part of the stone on which it is executed being 
 brolcen off either by accident or design." — " Picture of Edin- 
 burgh,'' p. 103. 
 
John Knox 5^ Edinburgh 
 
 " John Knox's House." Stark and M'Crie say 
 nothing definite. M'Crie's editor says he 
 resided here generally from 1560 to 1572, the 
 whole period of his settled career in Edin- 
 burgh. Chambers says the tradition was 
 that this was the residence or manse of John 
 Knox during his incumbency as minister of 
 Edinburgh, from 1560 until (with few inter- 
 ruptions) his death in 1572. This is an 
 integral part of the full-blown legend, and 
 the statement passed unchallenged until 1891, 
 when it was shown for the first time from the 
 original Council records, in a paper contributed 
 to the Society of Antiquaries, that Knox lived 
 elsewhere between 1560 and 1569.^ 
 
 Sir Daniel Wilson, who, as secretary to the 
 Society of Antiquaries, had done good service 
 in securing the preservation of the old house 
 in 1849, though in the mistaken idea that it 
 was John Knox's manse, attempted in 1891 a 
 mild justification of the tradition is so far 
 as that there was nothing inconsistent with 
 
 1 1' Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1891," 
 page J38 : " John Knox and his manse," by Peter Miller, F.S.A. 
 Scot." 
 
 126 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 probability in the belief that the house was 
 Knox's latest home,i but he acknowledged 
 immediately afterwards that there was "no 
 evading the fact that Knox never did live 
 in 'John Knox's House.' "^ A reply was 
 attempted in another paper read before the 
 Society of Antiquaries,* in which Sir Daniel 
 Wilson was quoted as one of the " most 
 competent antiquaries " who " have admitted 
 the justice of the claim." The writer of this 
 paper maintained boldly that "every circum- 
 stance accords with the truth of the tradition."* 
 " After doing their very worst, they leave 
 three years and ten months up to 24th 
 November 1572, when Knox died, during 
 which they are unable to address any proof 
 whatever against the tradition that he resided 
 in the house in question. I challenge their 
 conclusions as to the preceding period." ^ 
 
 1 "Proceedings of the S.A.Scot., 1891," p. 156. 
 
 s "Private Letters of Sir Daniel Wilson, Edinburgh," printed 
 for private circulation, 1897, letter dated " nth January 1891." 
 
 3 " Proceedings of the S.A.Scot., 1891," p. 335: "Is 'John 
 Knox's House ' Entitled to the Name I " by Charles J. Guthrie, 
 advocate, F.S.A.Scot. 
 
 * "Proceedings of the .S.A.Scot., 1891," p. 336. 
 
 * " Proceedings of the S.A.Scot., 1891," p. 337. 
 
 127 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 Definite proof was furnished by the original 
 writer in another communication to the Society 
 of Antiquaries, of date May 8th, 1893,1 that 
 Knox lived in other houses from 1560-1569, 
 though the sites of the houses were incorrectly 
 given ; but the champion of the legend was 
 not dismayed. He returned to the charge 
 in an article in the " Free Church Monthly " 
 for September 1896. The admission is made 
 there that Knox "certainly occupied other 
 houses in Edinburgh," though it is quaUfied 
 by the introductory words, "whether his 
 residence in this house was limited to his later 
 years or not " ; but all the old irrelevant state- 
 ments are repeated concerning the "public 
 interest centring in Knox's last days round that 
 house," and the article closes with the emphatic 
 assertion, "It is enough for us that Knox died 
 there." 
 
 When Sir Daniel Wilson published the 
 second edition of his "Memorials of Edin- 
 burgh "in 1891, though he had the strongest 
 desire to adhere as far as possible to the 
 
 i " Proceedings of the S.A.Scot., 1893," p. 406. 
 128 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 popular belief, he could only make the colour- 
 less assertion that " in the absence of other evi- 
 dence we may welcome such guidance as tra- 
 dition supplies, and still think of the house that 
 has so long borne his name as the lodging 
 where his last days were spent." ^ Against 
 this must be set his private opinion quoted 
 above. The latest biographer of Knox, P. 
 Hume Brown, in his "Life of John Knox," 
 pubhshed in 1895, could not go further than 
 Sir Daniel Wilson in the " Memorials " of 1891. 
 "To Mosman's house ['John Knox's House ']," 
 Hume Brown says, "at all events, tradition 
 points as the residence ; and if we attach any 
 weight to the tradition, that house would in all 
 probability be the one in which his last days 
 were spent. . . . Against the tradition that 
 points to Mosman's house as a residence of 
 Knox no satisfactory evidence has been 
 adducd." 2 
 
 The legend has thus dwindled away to the 
 original tradition that Knox lived some time 
 or other in "John Knox's House," and that 
 
 1 Vol. II., p. 50. 2 Vol. II., pp. 318, 319. 
 
 I 129 
 
John Knox S^ Edinburgh 
 
 the tradition ought to be received because 
 there is no satisfactory proof that he did not 
 live in it. By the same method of argument, 
 One might be called upon to prove that Knox 
 did not live in any particular old house in 
 Edinburgh in which a few persons might be 
 pleased to state he lived. The onus is rather 
 the other way. A story was started about 
 the beginning of the century — it would seem 
 on no evidence whatever — that Knox lived 
 in this house at the Netherbow; the world 
 has been looking for some proof since that 
 he did live in it ; but no proof is vouchsafed 
 except that people generally have come to 
 call it "John Knox's House." 
 
 It has been proved already by the extracts 
 given in the chapter of this book dealing with 
 the residences of John Knox in Edinburgh 
 that he lived in other houses between 1560 
 and November 23, 1569. Documentary proof 
 fails us between this date and his death in 
 November 1572, for the simple reason that 
 no documentary proof of the kind already 
 quoted is known to exist. It was a very 
 130 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 troublous period in Edinburgh — a time of 
 practically civil war. The Treasurer's accounts 
 show a blank from 1567 down to 158 1, and 
 there are no records of the meetings of the 
 Town Council from 1571 to 1573. The only- 
 period as to which almost nothing can be 
 said is that between November 1569 and 
 May 1 57 1, when Knox was constrained by 
 his friends to leave Edinburgh. This interval 
 of eighteen months is of no special import- 
 ance in dealing with the picturesque aspects 
 of the legend, as it was not during it that 
 the affecting scene occurred when Knox was 
 conveyed to his home after his last sermon, 
 nor could anything that occurred during those 
 months have consecrated his residence as the 
 Mecca of Scottish religionism and the spot 
 hallowed by his death. As it is, we know 
 that in November 1569 he was living in a 
 very different quarter of Edinburgh, and there 
 is not a hint anywhere that he changed his 
 residence at that time. Moreover, as will 
 be shown hereafter, the history of the house 
 at the Netherbow is well known for the 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 years covered by Knox's ministry in Edin- 
 burgh; and it was about the most unlikely 
 house in the burgh that would have been 
 chosen by him or for his use. 
 
 There is left still for examination the 
 period of less than three months which elapsed 
 between the return of Knox to Edinburgh 
 in August 1572 and his death on November 
 24th. Routed out of the earlier years, the 
 legend takes refuge here. The same remarks 
 apply to these months which have already been 
 made concerning the eighteen months that 
 followed November 1569, with this additional 
 note, that since it has been shown that there 
 is not the faintest shadow of reason for 
 believing in the original form of the state- 
 ment so far as that Knox is said to have 
 lived at a particular house in the Netherbow 
 for the eleven years from 1560 to 1571, 
 there is no reason whatever for assuming that 
 the statement is true concerning this particular 
 twelve weeks. There is, firstly, no possible 
 proof. There are, in the second place, no 
 Council documents. In the third place, the 
 132 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 history and ownership of the Netherbow 
 house are well known, and everything points 
 to its occupation by the owner himself. In 
 the fourth place, the authorities for the 
 period make not the slightest allusion to the 
 Netherbow. And fifthly, the condition of 
 Knox's health made his residence at the 
 Netherbow, under the circumstances narrated 
 by these authorities, practically impossible. 
 
 Dealing with these items seriatim, there is, 
 firstly, no possible proof. There is nothing 
 but the assertion; feeble and unpretending, 
 as given by Stark and M'Crie, that a house 
 at the Netherbow was the Reformer's ; ampli- 
 fied by their successors; and' paraded more 
 recently in a Free Church mantle to hallow 
 the walls at the Netherbow as, if not sancti- 
 fied by Knox through life, his at least by 
 his death. There are, secondly, no Council 
 documents. None affecting this period are 
 known to exist. It was suggested, in what 
 seemed a serious communication to the 
 Society of Antiquaries in 1891,^ that the 
 
 1 "Proceedings of S.A. Scot., 1891,'' p. 338. 
 
 ^33 
 
John Knox 'zs' Edinburgh 
 
 absence of any entries of payments of rent 
 after 1569 was due to the fact that Knox 
 " evidently paid his own house rent " during 
 these years.^ This is hardly worth referring 
 to, except as a sample of the arguments used 
 to bolster up the legend. The pithy remark 
 was once made that " it is evident " means 
 "we cannot prove," and no proof of the 
 assertion concerning payment of rent by 
 Knox has even been suggested. The truth 
 is, as has been stated before, that the records 
 for this period are very defective. In the 
 
 I " Second, it is alleged that the house belonged in Knox's time 
 to James Mosman, the goldsmith, and that the Town Council 
 Records contain no entries of payment of rent to James Mosman. 
 Neither they do ; they do not contain payment of rent after 1569 
 to James Mosman or to anybody else, for the very good reason 
 that, as the Council Records show, Knox was getting in these 
 later years a regular stipend, out of which he evidently paid his 
 own house rent." It is difficult to criticise this statement. The 
 Council Records do not show that Knox was getting a regular 
 stipend "in these later years," which must mean, if words mean 
 anything, those after 1569. The last reference to payment of 
 stipend "to John Knox" is that under date June 19, 1562. 
 Several references are made to the subject of the support of 
 the "ministrie" in 1570 (August 11, August 24, October 25, 
 November i, November 15), and they all imply that difficulty 
 was being experienced in obtaining the sums required, but John 
 Knox's name is not mentioned. (See also page 41.) John Knox 
 seems to have been in the receipt of a regular stipend (M'Crie's 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 third place, a good deal is known about the 
 Netherbow house — it is fairly prominent in 
 legal documents of its time, and its owner is 
 well known — but there is no reference any- 
 where to any possible connection with Knox. 
 When we say "the Netherbow house," we 
 should say rather "the house that formerly 
 stood at the Netherbow," of which the present 
 house is to a large extent a reproduction, for 
 very little of the present structure can claim 
 an antiquity of fifty years. 
 
 Nothing of the history of the Netherbow 
 house was known when the legend was origi- 
 
 "Life," 1855, p. 408), but the Council Records do not say so, 
 further than that he received a regular quarterly allowance 
 during 1560, which was continued for 1561. The entries 
 referring to stipend afterwards imply, that a change had 
 been made in the method of obtaining the sums required, and 
 that the amount to be depended on by the ministers was by 
 no means certain. (See page 35.) The stipend referred to by 
 M'Crie was not paid by the burgh of Edinburgh. The last 
 entries of house rent paid for Knox are those of March 4, 1568-g, 
 and November 23, 1569. The real reason why these entries stop 
 is noted in the text. The whole paper, however, is well worth 
 reading as a specimen of legal ingenuity bolstering up a bad cause. 
 It contains the substance of the later article in the " Free Church 
 Monthly" for September 1896, and of the statements made con- 
 cerning Knox in the excellent handbook to the so-called "John 
 Knox's House "("John Knox and John Knox's House") by the 
 same author. 
 
 ^35 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 nated, and when this history was accidentally 
 discovered written upon the walls of the 
 house itself, the legend had got a forty 
 years' start. Light was thrown upon the 
 past for the first time when during the 
 repairs made after its demolition had been 
 ordered by the Dean of Guild in 1849 some 
 dilapidated wooden excrescences were removed 
 which had been added by its later owners or 
 occupants. The so-called "preaching window" 
 disappeared, and a fine renaissance window 
 and sculptured tablet were disclosed. The 
 tablet bore a shield charged with three crowns 
 on a chevron between three oak trees, with 
 the initials I. M. and M. A. on either side. 
 These letters and arms afforded the clue. 
 Reference was made to Stodart's "Scottish 
 Arms," the register of the Great Seal, and 
 the protocol books of the city of Edinburgh, 
 and the story of the house revealed itself 
 beyond doubt. 
 
 A building which existed on this site in 
 1525 had belonged to John Arres and Christina 
 Reidpeth, his wife. This had, no doubt, dis- 
 136 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 appeared with the others when Edinburgh 
 was burnt by Hertford in 1544. But in 1556 
 another house on the same site belongs to 
 James Mosman and Mariot Arres, and the 
 property remains in the possession of this 
 James Mosman, with one significant short 
 interval, until the forfeiture of his property 
 after Mosman's execution in 1573 as an ad- 
 herent of Queen Mary. The arms are the 
 arms of Mosman as given by Nisbet and 
 Stodart, with the addition of three crowns on 
 the chevron, to indicate that the bearer was a 
 goldsmith like his father, who made the closed 
 arches that still adorn the Scottish Crown. 
 The initials are those of James Mosman and 
 his wife, through whom he came into posses- 
 sion of the property. In 1568, James Mosman 
 and Mariot Arres conveyed this house to 
 John Mosman, goldsmith, their son and his 
 heirs in fee, but reserved to themselves the 
 liferent for their whole lives. We learn from 
 a sasine of February 23d, 1571, that Mariot 
 Arres was dead, and that James Mosman was 
 about to marry for the second time. So what 
 
 ^37 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 was more natural than that he should secure a 
 residence for his wife in what was probably 
 then one of the best houses in Edinburgh- 
 He bought back the fee from his son, and 
 immediately infeft himself and his future 
 spouse Janet King in the family residence in 
 the Netherbow. Where does Knox come in? 
 Nowhere. It was quite a common practice 
 to insert the name of the occupying tenant in 
 the conveyance of any property disposed of, 
 and in at least two cases John Knox's name is 
 so mentioned in connection with one of the 
 houses in which he undoubtedly lived, but there 
 is no mention of him here.^ The names of 
 
 ' The following are samples of recent statements made on 
 behalf of the legend: — "First, it is said that the titles of the 
 house made no mention of Knox. This is the suggestion of a 
 layman, which, to any one skilled in title-deeds, will only provoke 
 a smile. You look in titles for the names of proprietors, not 
 tenants : and I know neither evidence nor probability that Knox 
 owned any part of the house in question." — C. J. Guthrie in 
 "Proceedings of S.A.Scot., 1891," p. 338. "Neither in any 
 writing of Knox nor in any contemporary writing about Knox is 
 there a description of his Edinburgh residence to enable us to 
 localise it. He never owned a house in Edinburgh, therefore 
 title-deeds give no clue." — C. J. Guthrie in "Free Church 
 Monthly," September 1896, p. zo8. The recklessness of these 
 assertions will become manifest when contrasted with facts. A 
 glance over some extracts taken from the titles of the houses 
 
 138 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 owners remain unchanged in the successive 
 title-deeds often for centuries, and where the 
 property has had a well-known tenant, his 
 name is introduced by way of identification 
 long after he had ceased to reside in it, and 
 
 dealt with in this investigation reveals the following names of 
 occupying tenants, which had been introduced to identify the 
 properties when these were not occupied by the owners : — 
 I. Mosman's House, which is the one referred to in the above- 
 quoted extracts : — Edinburgh Protocols, Alexander Guthrie, Vol. 
 Xn., fol. 149, 22 May 1600, Occupying tenants' names, Murdoch 
 Brown, James Maistertoun. Do. Do., fol. 150, Murdoch Brown, 
 Andrew Smyth. Alex. Strachan's Protocol, Vol. I., fol. 26, 
 22 Dec. 1699, "Lately possessed by the said David Murray," 
 " sometime possessed by the late Murdoch Brown," " the late 
 James Masterton," " thereafter by the relict of John Mein and 
 Mrs Robert Smith, then her spouse ; " " sometime possessed by 
 Andrew Smith, shoemaker ; " the late Jolin Baxter. a. Mow- 
 bray's House — ^Alex. Guthrie's Protocol Books, Vol. in., fol. 41, 
 8 April 1563, John Knox, minister. Register of Deeds, Vol. 8, 
 fol. I, 24 March 1564, " Johnne Knox, minister of Edinburgh." 
 Do. Vol. m., fol. 40, 29 April 1630, John Belches, advocate. 
 Sir William Thomson's Protocol Books, 11., 239, 13 Oct. 1652, 
 "sometime occupied by John Belsches, advocate." J. Rocheid's 
 Protocol Books, II., 411, 22 March 1673, "Possessed [occupied] 
 by Andrew Caddell, vintner." Alexander Gray's Protocol Books, 
 I., 53, 29 Sep. 1686, "Sometime occupied by John Belches, 
 advocate." 3. Adamson's House, No i. Sir William Thomson's 
 Books, II., 259, 9 July 1656, John Litill, macer. 4. Adamson's 
 House, No. 2. Alexander Guthrie's Books, X., 137, 10 May 
 1600, Margaret Gray and Mr Robert Williamson. Do. do., 22 
 Sep. i6io, John Aitkin, Alexander Sandilands. Do. do., Vl., 
 196, 19 May 1631, the late Robert Williamson. 5. Adamson's 
 House, No. 3. Mr Jas. Rocheid's Books, VII., 260, 18 Aug. 
 1684, " lately possessed [occupied] by James Clark, cook." 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 sometimes long after he had died. The date 
 of the sasine of 1571 is only three months 
 before Knox's enforced departure from Edin- 
 burgh, and no identification of the property 
 could have been stronger than such as 
 " presently occupied by John Knox, minister." 
 Mosman had property elsewhere in Edin- 
 burgh and Scotland, and the names of other 
 tenants have been transmitted in the docu- 
 ments of transfer. Is there any reason for 
 the name of the most prominent of them being 
 omitted, except that he never was a tenant of 
 Mosman's at all, and that if it had been known 
 in time that the house was Mosman's, no one 
 in the nineteenth century would ever have said 
 he was, as no one ever said he was in the 233 
 years between Mosman's forfeiture and 1806? 
 There is thus not a particle of evidence to 
 show that Knox lived in Mosman's house 
 before 1571, but everything points most 
 strongly the other way. Mosman needed 
 the house for himself, and the sasine of 
 February 1571 shows that he took it back 
 from his son. Mosman, besides, was a strong 
 140 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 supporter of the Queen, and it was not at all 
 natural that he should let his house to Knox, 
 even if family necessities had not stood in the 
 way. 
 
 But, say the supporters of the legend, 
 whether Knox lived in Mosman's house before 
 May 1 57 1 or not, he lived there from August 
 1572 until his death in November. "It is 
 enough for us that Knox died there " ^ There 
 is, however, no ground for this statement. On 
 the contrary, if Knox lived there from 1569 
 to 1571, his residence there again in 1572 
 involves the further assumption that Mosman, 
 a notorious Romanist and zealous supporter of 
 the Queen, hazarding and afterwards losing 
 his life in defence of all that Knox held most 
 abhorrent, was willing to keep his house empty 
 for fifteen months to oblige one of his most 
 irreconcilable foes, or turn out of his house at 
 practically a moment's notice that the Reformer 
 might be reinstated. 
 
 '"Free Church Monthly," September 1896, p. 210 — "John 
 Knox's House, Edinburgh : The property of the Free Church of 
 Scotland." By Charles J. Guthrie, M.A., Advocate, Legal 
 Adviser to the Free Church of Scotland. 
 
 141 
 
John Knox 5^ Edinburgh 
 
 But, again say the supporters of the legend 
 in its most attenuated form, Mosman's house 
 was empty, he had taken refuge with Kirk- 
 caldy of Grange in the Castle, and he remained 
 there until the surrender of the Castle in 
 1573.1 Alas, for the legend, there is again 
 not only no proof of this statement, but there 
 was no reason for Queen Mary's adherents to 
 take refuge in the Castle until some weeks 
 after the death of Knox. The historical fact 
 is that the truce between the parties which 
 was concluded on July 31st, 1572, for two 
 months, was extended subsequently until the 
 end of the year, more than a month beyond 
 the date of Knox's death.* "The presump- 
 tion," therefore, instead of being that Mosman 
 "entered the Castle of Edinburgh at some 
 date previous to Knox's death," ^ is rather that, 
 as a shrewd business man, he would attend 
 to his goldsmith's booth as long as he could. 
 Why Mosman, whose party had been in 
 
 1 p. Hume Brown's " Life of John Knox," II., 319. 
 
 2 P. Hume Brown's "Life of John Knox," II., i8o. Hill 
 Burton's "History of Scotland." Edit. 1897. Vol. V., p. 116. 
 
 ' P. Hume Brown's " Life of John Knox," II., 319. 
 
 142 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 possession of Edinburgh before the truce, 
 should leave his house within a few days of 
 the conclusion of the truce, in order that 
 possibly his most dangerous foe should take 
 undisturbed possession, is one of those 
 mysteries of which only the necessities of an 
 untenable position could justify the defence. 
 
 It appears thus, from the historical facts of 
 Mosman's house, that there is not the faintest 
 probability that Knox could ever have lived 
 in it. This absence of any probability that 
 Knox lived in it deepens into a certainty 
 that Knox did not die in it, when we take 
 into consideration the fourth and fifth points 
 already referred to, the statements made by 
 the authorities for what happened during 
 Knox's last days and when on his death-bed, 
 and the information that we have respecting 
 the condition of his health during his residence 
 in St Andrews in 157 1-2, and the twelve 
 weeks that was his latest period of residence 
 in Edinburgh. 
 
 The only original authorities for Knox's 
 final period in Edinburgh are his secretary, 
 143 
 
John KJiox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 Richard Bannatyne, who wrote a " Journal of 
 the Transactions in Scotland" in the years 
 1570 to 1573, and Thomas Smeton's "Eximii 
 viri Johannis Knoxii, Scoticanae Ecclesiae in- 
 stauratoris, Vera extremae vita2 et obitus 
 Historia," appended to his "Responsio ad 
 Hamiltonii Dialogum," published in Edinburgh 
 in 1579, seven years after Knox's death. 
 Smeton was one of Knox's intimate friends, 
 and was appointed Principal of the University 
 of Glasgow in 1580. Neither of these 
 makes the slightest allusion to a house at the 
 Netherbow, or indeed, to the locality of a 
 house anywhere. There is nothing whatever 
 in Bannatyne to quote relevant to the matter. 
 He seems to have known nothing of the 
 affecting scene so often depicted both in 
 words and on canvas of Knox creeping down 
 the High Street to the Netherbow, supported 
 on the arm of a favourite attendant, with 
 the street lined after the manner of a royal 
 pageant with those to whom he had just 
 been preaching in St Giles, who fell in behind 
 their beloved pastor as he tottered feebly on. 
 144 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 It will be noted in M'Crie's version that 
 he makes no mention of the Netherbow. He 
 adopts what are practically Smeton's words, 
 but with amplifications, and refers to Smeton 
 as his authority ; * "He [Knox] descended 
 from the pulpit, and leaning upon his staff 
 and the arm of an attendant, crept down the 
 street, which was lined with the audience, 
 who, as if anxious to take the last sight of 
 their beloved pastor, followed him until he 
 entered his house, from which he never again 
 came out alive." M'Crie claims the present 
 house in a footnote as the one referred to, 
 but Hume Brown puts it, without quoting 
 any authority, boldly into his text, whilst 
 omitting M'Crie's pictorial details : — " Leaning 
 on his staff, and attended by almost the entire 
 congregation, he made his way home to his 
 house at the Netherbow Port." ^ Premising 
 that Smeton himself was not an eye-witness, 
 and that he penned his account of Knox 
 seven years after Knox's death, we may again 
 quote his exact words — " These things having 
 
 > Edition 1855, p. 270. » " Life of John Knox," II., 285. 
 
 K I4J 
 
John Knox 5^ Edinburgh 
 
 at length been performed, after he had blessed 
 the people, with his wonted cheerful spirit, 
 but with feeble body, and leaning on his 
 staff, he departed to his house, accompanied 
 by almost the whole meeting, from which 
 he did not afterwards come forth alive." 
 M'Crie had thus no authority for his expres- 
 sion "down the street," and Hume Brown 
 has none for his "house at the Netherbow 
 Port." We may add that the expression 
 translated by M'Crie " audience " (" down the 
 street, which was lined by the audience") 
 and by Hume Brown "almost the entire 
 congregation," may be interpreted as applying 
 necessarily to the "elders" or "kirk-session" 
 only. 
 
 The authorities for the period lend no coun- 
 tenance to the assertion that Knox went to die 
 at the house at the Netherbow Port. The 
 testimonies as to Knox's physical condition — 
 the fifth point in this review of the evidence 
 at our command — show that it was most 
 unlikely that he would have lived at so great 
 a distance from St Giles', and a practical im- 
 146 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 possibility for him to have walked to that 
 place after a long and fatiguing service, even 
 though " leaning on his staff." The distance 
 between St Giles' Church and the Netherbow 
 is fully 410 yards. In no previous portion of 
 the residence of Knox in Edinburgh had he 
 lived farther than 80 yards from his church. 
 The old manses at the west of the churchyard 
 were still in the occupation of the former 
 Romish clergy, and the Town Council natur- 
 ally provided their minister with a manse in 
 the immediate neighbourhood of his church, 
 and not at the farthest comer of the 
 bm-gh. 
 
 It was recognised in 1571 that Knox's years 
 were numbered, and if he resided near St 
 Giles' before that period, it became imperative 
 that his house should be near it now. As 
 early as October 1570 he "was stricken with 
 a kind of apoplexia, called by the phisitionis 
 resolutione, whairby the perfect vse of his 
 tovng was stopped." ^ He wrote himself to a 
 correspondent in May 1572 that he was "lying 
 
 1 Bannatyne's "Transactions," Edinburgh, 1806, p. 54. 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 in Sanct Androis half deid " ; ^ and in his will, 
 which is dated May 13, 1572, he says — "Ane 
 deid man half I bene almaist thir two zeiris 
 last bipast." Melville gives the following 
 graphic description of his condition in these 
 months spent in Saint Andrews as an exile 
 from his work in Edinburgh. "I saw him 
 everie day of his doctrine [preaching] go hulie 
 and fear [slowly and warily], with a furring of 
 martriks [martens] about his neck, a staiF in 
 the an hand, and guid, godlie Richard Ballenden 
 his servant, haldin up the uther oxtar [armpit], 
 from the Abbey to the paroche kirk, and be 
 the said Richard and another servant lifted 
 upe to the pulpit, whar he behovit [required] 
 to lean at his first entrie."^ His condition 
 became worse after his return to Edinburgh. 
 Killigrew, the English agent, wrote to Cecil 
 about a month before Knox's death — "John 
 Knox is now so feeble as scarce can he stand 
 alone, or speak to be hard of any audience; 
 yet doth he every Sonday cause himselfe to be 
 
 1 Works, VI., 615, quoted in Hume Brown's "Life," II., 174. 
 
 2 "Diary, 1556-1601," p. 16. 
 
 148 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 carried to a place where a certayne nombre do 
 here him, and precheth with the same vehem- 
 ence and zeale that ever he did."i Bannatyne 
 adds, concerning the last sermon he preached, on 
 November 9, 1572, at the induction of Lawson 
 as his colleague — "At that tyme pie] declared 
 to the whole assemblie (as his walk voce wald 
 serue, quhilk was hard but of a fewe) the 
 dewitie of ane minister and also thair dewitie 
 to him likwayis."^ 
 
 After the return of Knox to Edinburgh in 
 August 1572, he asked the Magistrates to 
 arrange that he should preach in some smaller 
 place than St Giles', "whare his voce might 
 be hard, gif it were but vnto ane hundret 
 personis."* They granted him the use of a 
 room in the New Tolbooth, which had been 
 recently built at the south-west corner of St 
 Giles', with which it communicated through a 
 covered way. Part of the church itself was 
 also appropriated in connection with this build- 
 
 1 Killigrew to Cecil, 6th October 157*, Knox's Works, VI., 
 S33. Quoted in Hume Brown's " Life," II., 28^. 
 
 2 "Transactions," p. 413. 
 
 ' Bannatyne's "Transactions," p. 286. 
 
 149 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 ing. It was here that Knox preached his last 
 sermon, and from this that he proceeded with 
 his audience into the body of the church to 
 perform the ceremony of the admission of 
 Lawson to the joint pastorate of Edinburgh. 
 
 There is thus no reason to believe that the 
 crowd was very great which — if we are to 
 accept Smeton's account as authentic — accom- 
 panied him afterwards to his house, even if 
 we interpret the Latin word used by Smeton 
 in its widest sense. But what are we to think 
 now of the claims of a legend that makes it 
 necessary for a man who Tvas "half dead," 
 and could scarcely stand alone or speak to 
 be heard of any audience, to walk practically 
 half the length of Edinburgh between his 
 church and his house, even granting him the 
 support of a staiF, as put by Smeton, or the 
 further aid of his servant's arm, in the slightly 
 coloured reproduction of M'Crie's? It was 
 not likely, when Knox and his friends were 
 at liberty to return to Edinburgh, that there 
 would be any scarcity of houses in which to 
 shelter a dying man, and the most likely 
 150 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 supposition of any is that he returned to 
 the house he had quitted in May 1571. It 
 has been shown that this was in all likelihood 
 the house of John Adamson and Bessie Otter- 
 bum, for which rent is recorded to have been 
 paid up to November 23, 1569. This house 
 was within a few yards of the church, across 
 the street, and a little way down a close, 
 which would still answer to M'Crie's late 
 embellishment of John Knox creeping down 
 the street to his house to die. No one 
 would ever have dreamt that he would go 
 to Mosman's, or that Mosman's house would 
 have been open to receive him, had it not 
 been for the one statement made in 1806 
 in such an unpretending fashion, and on 
 no authority, by the compiler of a popular 
 guide-book to Edinburgh, that a house which 
 would " in a few years perhaps be removed " ^ 
 had been the residence of the " Great Scottish 
 Reformer, John Knox."^ (See page 161.) 
 The foregoing discussion has shown that 
 
 1 "Picture of Edinburgh," by J. Stark, 1806, p. 103. 
 ^ Starlt's "Picture," p. 103. 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 there was never any foundation for the state- 
 ment that Knox lived at the Netherbow. It 
 has shown further that the legend attached 
 to the present house is an invention altogether 
 of the present century, and that Stark, who 
 first gave it currency in print, cannot be held 
 responsible for its popular and varying forms. 
 The history of the house to which the legend 
 points has been investigated, and no room 
 has been found for any tenancy by Knox. 
 Lastly, it was a physical improbability, deepen- 
 ing into an impossibility, that Knox should 
 have spent his last three months in life in 
 Mosman's house. The cumulative negative 
 evidence is overwhelming against any as- 
 sociation of Knox the Reformer with the 
 Netherbow. 
 
 How, then, did the legend arise? If that 
 can be explained, it will settle all. Is there 
 any positive evidence that would associate 
 the name of Knox with that particular quarter 
 of the burgh ? 
 
 It so happens that there is abundant evi- 
 dence in favour of what may be designated 
 
 »52 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 a positive proof that though the house at 
 the Netherbow may have taken its modern 
 name from a John Knox, it vpas not from the 
 John Knox who died on November 24th, 
 1572, and was buried two days afterwards 
 in St Giles' Churchyard. 
 
 The name of "Knox," and even of "John 
 Knox," seems to have been a common enough 
 one in Edinburgh during the sixteenth century. 
 A family with that surname held property at 
 what is now the north-east comer of the 
 Royal Exchange for at least three genera- 
 tions, and a " Knox's Close " existed in this 
 quarter in 1568. The protocol books give 
 the names of David, Stephen, and Gilbert 
 Knox as owners here between 1502 and 
 1542. The same authorities record the suc- 
 cession to a property in the neighbourhood 
 of Bank Street, which had been in the 
 possession of a William Knox before 1517, 
 but had passed to his son and heir, John 
 Knox, who disposed of the property in 1520. 
 
 Another " John Knox " had owned property 
 in the quarter of the Netherbow before 1501, 
 
 ^53 
 
John Knox '^ Edinburgh 
 
 and his name has been traced as descriptive 
 of property in that neighbourhood from 1501 
 until 1740. This "John Knox" had been 
 well known in his time. He was a burgess 
 of Edinburgh, and when an identification is 
 needed of property in a sasine it is referred 
 to as bounded by "John Knox's" "lands" or 
 tenements or close. So deeply had he in- 
 scribed his name on this locality that a close, 
 formed probably on part of his property, is 
 referred to in 1561 as "Knoxe's Close." It 
 retains this name in 1577, 1579, 1672, 
 1675, ^^^ 1 68 1. Even if it were from a later 
 Knox that it had the name in 1561 it would 
 strengthen the case against the Netherbow 
 house having been the residence of the 
 Reformer, by showing that two Knoxes had 
 made themselves prominent in this district be- 
 fore that year. It appears from John Foular's 
 protocol book that on September 17th, 1501, 
 *'Metta Knox, daughter, and one of the heirs, 
 of the late John Knox, with the consent of 
 John Paterson, her husband, resigned her 
 Lands within the tenement of her said father, 
 154 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 between the Land of Helen Knox, her sister, 
 on the south, &c. &c." An entry in this 
 same protocol book, January 17, 150 1-2, in 
 which John Knox is described as having been 
 a burgess of Edinburgh, shows that Metta 
 Knox possessed lands which ran from her 
 sister's land on the High Street to the grounds 
 of Trinity College, and that she alienated 
 them also to the purchaser of the foregoing. 
 
 A sasine in John Stevenson's protocol book, 
 of date December 22, 1547, describes certain 
 property in this neighbourhood as "lying 
 within a tenement of the late John Knox, now 
 pertaining to Marion Crichton, Lady Rothes, 
 on the north side of the High Street." A 
 sasine in the protocol book of Alex. King, 
 of date March 30, 1554, identifies another 
 property as bounded on the east by "a tene- 
 ment and Lands of the late John Knox," and 
 another in Alex. Guthrie's protocol book, of 
 date November 29, 1570, refers to a sale of 
 presumably the tenement referred to on January 
 17, 1 50 1-2 — "a tenement of the late John 
 Knox on the north side of the High Street." 
 
 ^55 
 
John Knox 5^ Edinburgh 
 
 This sasine of 1570 shows that the John Knox 
 of the latter part of the fifteenth century 
 was still well remembered, or that his name 
 was considered sufficient to identify property in 
 the neighbourhood of the Netherbow only two 
 years before the Reformer's death. This last 
 property is further identified in a sasine of 
 September 3, 1577, as lying to the east of 
 Gray's Close. Gray's Close is within 110 
 yards of the so-called "John Knox's House," 
 and John Knox's property lay between the two, 
 abutting on the north side of the High Street 
 The identification of properties by reference 
 to their relation to " the tenement of the late 
 John Knox" continued to at least as recently 
 as 1 740.^ A renunciation is recorded under date 
 February 1 9th of that year in George Home's 
 protocol book of an annual rent "out of a 
 tenement of land on the north side of the 
 High Street, on the west part of Gray's 
 Close, between the tenement of the late John 
 Knox, thereafter of John Rig, on the east, and 
 the tenement of John Henderson on the west." 
 
 1 See note page go. 
 V56 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 May one not surmise that here we have 
 tracked the legend home to its lair, and that 
 either Stark or Stark's unknown informant had 
 seen the name "John Knox" in some title- 
 deeds of property in this locality, and was 
 led immediately to the conclusion that no John 
 Knox could be of importance but one?^ It 
 was a natural enough mistake and a pardonable 
 one at the time. But a more popular use of 
 the name Knox in the locality had, as has been 
 already mentioned, sprung up before 1561, 
 through its adoption as the name of a close. 
 It appears from a comparison of the sasine 
 of date March 30, 1554, which contains a 
 reference to "the lands of the late John 
 Knox," with sasines of date November 23, 
 1579, December 18, 1672, April 16, 1675, 
 and March g, 1 68 1 , that this close stood either 
 on or immediately to the east of the lands 
 possessed by the John Knox of 1501. The 
 name of the close points either backward to 
 the Knox who possessed its site sixty years 
 
 ' This is very different from a " charge that Stark deliberately 
 invented the tradition." See "Proceedings of S.A.Scot., 1891," 
 pp. 346-7. 
 
 ^57 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 before, or to a family of that name who resided 
 in it when the Reformer settled in Edinburgh, 
 and who were of sufficient importance to serve 
 as a landmark in the locality. It shows how 
 tenacious a hold the name of Knox had taken 
 of the neighbourhood of the Netherbow even 
 in the days of the Reformer. Its site is 
 marked now by Morrison's Close or by some 
 of the buildings that extend between Morri- 
 son's Close and North Gray's Close. 
 
 The bearing of these discoveries upon the 
 question of the residence of Knox at the 
 Netherbow can now be stated in a few words. 
 The study of the documents preserved in 
 the Council Chambers shows that the name 
 "Knox "was associated with the neighbour- 
 hood of the Netherbow for at least 240 years 
 in the form of "the lands of the late John 
 Knox" and "Knox's Close." But the name 
 was never connected with Knox the Reformer 
 until nearly 240 years after his death. We 
 find it, then, Uttle more than sixty years after 
 the date of the renunciation of 1740 already 
 quoted, again prominent in the expression 
 158 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 "Knox's Land," but applied in quite another 
 sense. The reason of the modern use of the 
 name becomes now sufficiently explicable. A 
 new cult of John Knox had sprung up with 
 the advent of that evangelical spirit which gave 
 rise afterwards to the secession known as the 
 Free Church. The Reformer became again a 
 popular hero, and his name and work were dis- 
 entombed from the oblivion of more than two 
 hundred years. ^ The name of Knox had dur- 
 ing all that time hung about the Netherbow ; 
 the religious enthusiasm of the time knew of 
 no "Knox," and especially of no "John Knox " 
 but one; what more natural than that the 
 designation should be seized upon as a proof 
 
 'See in confirmation of this, the admission made in M'Crie's 
 "Life of John Knox," edition 1855, page 4.74, — "After slumber- 
 ing for upwards of a century under a darlc shade of oblivion and 
 reproach, his character has become [since 1811] nearly as widely 
 Icnown and as highly admired in Scotland as it was during his 
 lifetime, and for a century after his death." The statement 
 that Knox's character was "widely known and . . . highly 
 admired . . . for a century after his death" may pass in the 
 mouth of an editor of his " Life," but requires considerable 
 qualification so far as applies to Scotland generally and else- 
 where. It acknowledges in any case that for the century and a 
 half previous to the publication of M'Crie's "Life," that state- 
 ment could not have been made. 
 
 159 
 
John Knox 5^ Edinburgh 
 
 that the old, ruined house that projected iuself 
 upon the street was the re-discovered hero's 
 veritable home ? For a time, indeed, it seemed 
 uncertain which of the houses at the comer 
 should gain this uncertain renown, but the 
 opportune fall of one of them permitted the 
 dubious " John Knox's Land " to be exchanged 
 for the exclusive title of "John Knox's House." 
 
 160 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 Addition to page 151. 
 
 Possibly the latest modification of the 
 legend made in its defence is a suggestion 
 introduced into the paper referred to on 
 pages 127-138, which was read before the 
 Society of Antiquaries on March 9th, 1 891.1 
 It is insinuated rather than stated that some 
 of the difficulties in the way of accepting 
 the house at the Netherbow will disappear 
 if it is remembered that that house contains 
 really two houses, and that "it is not at all 
 impossible that Knox may during part of 
 the period have only inhabited one of these 
 houses, both of which are now included in 
 the present John Knox's house." The whole 
 force of the argument in the two pages from 
 which this quotation is taken is to show that 
 Knox may have been living in Mosman's house 
 •■^ ^5^2j ^°d by implication that he may have 
 lived there from 1563 to 1572. It was ren- 
 
 1 "Proceedings of S.A.Scot., 1891," p. 345: " Is John Knox's 
 House entitled to the name ? " by Charles J. Guthrie, advocate, 
 F.S.A.Scot. 
 
 L 161 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 dered necessary by the discovery that Knox 
 was living then in a "back-land," that is, in a 
 house which did not front the High Street.^ 
 
 This suggestion that Knox only inhabited 
 part of the house is one that is likely taj 
 commend itself to any subsequent defenders 
 of the authenticity of the Netherbow house, 
 and deserves on that account at least a 
 passing notice. Apart from the fact that 
 it has been proved from official documents' 
 that Knox lived in Mowbray's house in the 
 present Warriston's Close in 1563. there is 
 no reason for the suggestion that Mosman's 
 house was at that period anything but "in 
 all probability one large house in occupation 
 of the builder and owner" (MacGibbon and 
 Ross's "Castellated and Domestic Architecture 
 of Scotland," IV., 424). It is, therefore, satis- 
 factory to find that the author of the sugges- 
 tion has withdrawn it, also by implication, in 
 his recent handbook to the present Netherbow 
 house, "written ... at the request of the 
 
 1 See Mowbray's Sasine to Scot. 1565, March 28, " The Back- 
 lands of the said Robert Mowbray ; " also the sasines of September 
 Z3, 1568, and May ist, 1629. 
 
 162 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 General Trustees of the Free Church of Scot- 
 land, to whom John Knox's house belongs." 
 " When the whole house was occupied by 
 one household, access to the upper storeys 
 from the street was got through the rooms 
 in the first floor ; but when the upper storeys 
 were tenanted by a separate family, it became 
 necessary to provide direct access to them 
 from the street. This forestair, to use the 
 old expression, although not belonging to the 
 original structure, is now one of the few 
 survivals of those outside stairs which were 
 a characteristic feature of old Edinburgh 
 houses."! As a matter of fact, Mosman's 
 house was divided into two houses or more 
 by the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
 but it is safe to abide by the evidence fur- 
 nished by the construction of the house itself, 
 that it was originally built for a single dwell- 
 ing. This same writer, indeed, adopts that 
 view in another part of the same paper, when 
 it was necessary to show that the house was 
 
 * "John Knox and John Knox's House," by Charles John 
 Guthrie, Q.C., F. S.A.Scot., 1898, p. 27. 
 
 163 
 
John Knox 'z^ Edinburgh 
 
 worthy of Knox, — " the amount and character 
 of the rest of the house accord with the 
 amount and character of the accommodation 
 which a man in Knox's position might be 
 expected to possess." ^ 
 
 The sentence preceding this, which is indi- 
 cated by the word "rest," reads as follows: 
 — "Inside the house (Mosman's house) a 
 room is now shown as John Knox's study, 
 which has not only a traditional right to 
 that name, but exactly accords with that 
 ' warm study of daills ' (that is, as I take 
 it, lined with deals) which the Town Council 
 ordered to be made for John Knox in ij6i." 
 It has been shown that Knox could not 
 have lived in Mosman's house in 1561, and 
 that this " study of daills " was built in 
 Mowbray's house in the close now called 
 " Warriston's Close;" but the insistence on 
 the size of Mosman's house affording a pre- 
 sumption that it is "Knox's house" permits 
 the adduction of another proof, if additional 
 proof were required, that it could not have 
 
 1 « Proceedings of S.A.Scot., 1891," p. 336. 
 164 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 been his residence in 1561, and that the 
 new study was not erected there. The house 
 in which the study was built must have been 
 a comparatively small one and not above two 
 storeys in height. The Dean of Guild's 
 accounts for the year 1561 contain an item 
 of eight shillings for stripping the slates off 
 the roof of the house to permit a window 
 being put in the " said studie." ^ The so- 
 called " study " in the present house is on the 
 second floor,^ and not near the roof, which is, 
 and always was, two storeys higher up, so 
 that there could have been no reason for 
 breaking the roof so as to allow a window 
 to be inserted. It is agreed on all hands 
 that Mosman's house was built originally to 
 about its present height, but a copy of the 
 contract still exists which shows that con- 
 siderable alterations were made on Mowbray's 
 
 1 "At the tirwinge (stripping) of ane pairt of the sklattis of 
 the said ludgeinge for brokin of ane wyndo to the said studie, to 
 ane pure man for taking furth of the reid (rubbish) . . . viijs" 
 
 2 "Above, on the second floor, are the three rooms specially 
 associated by tradition with Knox's residence, . . . the little 
 room in the wooden casing of the house, his study." " John 
 Knox and John Knox's house," by C. J. Guthrie, p. i8. 
 
 i6c 
 
John Knox ^ Edinburgh 
 
 house in 1614, when permission was obtained 
 from the opposite proprietor to raise the wall 
 which faced his property, and construct an 
 outside stair to the height of two feet above 
 the original level of this wall, with a view, 
 no doubt, of affording an access to the apart- 
 ments which would be formed above the 
 original roof.^ 
 
 ' Burgh Register of Deeds, vol. ij, i8th July 1614. There 
 was, of course, no obligation to obtain' the permission of the 
 proprietor opposite for the construction of the new rooms. Per- 
 mission was necessary only in so far as there was danger of 
 encroachment on his rights. 
 
 166 
 
"John Knox's House" 
 
 Stark's Account of John Knox's House. 
 
 The following is the full text of Stark's 
 reference to "John Knox's House," on which 
 so circumstantial a legend was founded : — 
 
 "Among the antiquities of Edinburgh may 
 be mentioned the house of the great Scottish 
 Reformer, John Knox. It stands on the north 
 side of the foot of the High Street, and, 
 projecting into the street, reduces it nearly 
 one half of its width. On the front to the 
 west is a figure in alto relievo, pointing up with 
 its finger to a radiated stone, on which is 
 sculptured the name of the Divinity in three 
 different languages : 
 
 BEOS 
 DEUS 
 GOD 
 
 Whether the figure is meant to represent 
 
 the reformer himself, or not, is not known ; 
 
 but whoever it is, he seems to have been 
 
 hardly used, part of the stone on which It is 
 
 167 
 
John Knox S^ Edinburgh 
 
 executed being broken off either by accident 
 or design. The edifice itself is one of the 
 oldest stone houses in Edinburgh. As in the 
 course of the improvements of the city, this 
 building will, in a few years perhaps be 
 removed, it is to be wished that the sculp- 
 tured stones could be preserved, in memory 
 of a man who, whatever were his faults, by 
 his bold eloquence, and undaunted conduct, 
 pulled down the fabric of a superstition which 
 had shackled the mind for ages. — "Picture 
 of Edinburgh," 1806, pages 102, 103. 
 
 M'Crie's only reference to the house is 
 given in the text, page 121. The differences 
 between these original statements, if even 
 they can be called original, and the subse- 
 quent embellished and circumstantial forms 
 of the legend, are obvious. 
 
 168 
 
Index 
 
 Abercrombie, Alexander, vint- 
 ner, 83. 
 
 Accounts of the Treasurer of 
 Edinburgh, 15. 
 
 Adamson, Alexander, gi, 93, 
 98, 103. ■ 
 
 James, payment to him on 
 
 account of John Knox, 33 ; 
 appointed to procure contri- 
 butions from the faithful, 36, 
 104. 
 
 John, his house occupied 
 
 by John Knox, 48, 49 ; tene- 
 ments belonging to him, 
 8X-11Z; was with Knox at 
 St Andrews, 107 ; his house, 
 139 n. 
 
 Robert, 70, 71. 
 
 Adamson's Close, 97, 98. 
 
 Aitken, John, merchant, 95, 
 96; 139 A.. 
 
 Robert, 95, 96. 
 
 Ancrum Moor, battle of, 4. 
 
 Arbukill, John, 70, 71. 
 
 Argyll, Earl of, 19. 
 
 Arran, the Earl of, 14. 
 
 Arres, John, 136. 
 
 Mariot, 137. 
 
 Bad, John, armourer, 17. 
 
 Bailie Brown's Close, 98 a. 
 
 Bailie, Robert, merchant, Edin- 
 burgh, 100 n. 
 
 Baird, Sir Robert, of Saughton 
 Hall, no. 
 
 Balfour, Gilbert, master of the 
 town's artillery, 12. 
 
 Balleny, Thomas, 100 n. 
 Balmerino, Lord, his house, 
 
 117. 
 Bank of Scotland, 69, 91, 97, 
 Bank Street, 153, 
 Bannatyne, Richard, secretary 
 
 to John Knox, 144, 148, 149. 
 Barron, James, treasurer, 31, 
 
 Baxter, James, wright, zz. 
 
 Belsches, John, advocate, in, 
 139 ». 
 
 Beaton, Cardinal, assassinated, 
 6,76. 
 
 Beyr, Sir John, chaplain, zy. 
 
 Bonkill, Alexander, 91. 
 
 Marion, 103. 
 
 Borthwick, Alexander, vintner, 
 99. 
 
 Bothwell, Adam, Bishop of 
 Orkney, 108. 
 
 Earl of, 8, 39, 108. 
 
 Bowes, Marjorie, wife of John 
 Knox, 75. 
 
 Bradie, Mungo, goldsmith, 47. 
 
 Brown, John, his property iden- 
 tified with the site of Mow- 
 bray's house, 76-81, 85, 86. 
 
 younger, executed for 
 
 heresy, 76, 85. 
 
 Murdoch, tenant, 1 39 n. 
 
 P. Hume, his "Life of 
 
 John Knox," 129, 14Z n, 145, 
 146, 149 n, 
 
 Robert, bookseller, 99. 
 
 Thomas, bookseller, 95 n. 
 
 Bruce of Binning, 8z n, 109. 
 
 169 
 
Index 
 
 Bruce of Stonehouse and Airth, 
 
 109. 
 Bruce's Close, 82, 83, 84, 109. 
 Bruntisland, artillery of, visited, 
 
 16. 
 Buccleuch statue, the, 106. 
 Buchanan, Thomas, Master of 
 
 the High School, 60. 
 Bull's Close, 100, 10 1. 
 Byer's Close, 109. 
 
 Caddell, Andrew, vintner 139 n, 
 Caichepeele Close, loi, 104. 
 Cairns, John, reader in St Giles' 
 
 Church, 32-35, 40, 44, 45, 53, 
 
 56, 65-67. 
 Calderwood , wife of Thomas 
 
 Brown, 95 n. 
 Caldour, Robert, gunner, 12. 
 Canongate, the, 56. 
 Cant, Jonet, 78. 
 Carberry Hill, 39. 
 Carkettill, Elizabeth, 76, 77, 80. 
 Ceraris, John, 93. 
 Chalmers, John, servant to 
 
 Knox, 59. 
 Chambers, Robert, author of 
 
 "Traditions of Edinburgh," 
 
 122, 123, 124. 
 Charles I., King, 94 n, no. 
 Charters, Henry, 82. 
 
 Thomas, merchant, 82. 
 
 Charterhouse, the, 28. 
 Chatelherault, Duke of, 75, in. 
 Chester, in England, 59 n. 
 Cheviots, the, 4. 
 Chisholm, Thomas, 77, 80. 
 Clark, James, cook, 139 n. 
 Clerihugh's tavern, in, 112. 
 Clerk, Alexander, collector for 
 
 the ministers' stipends, 37. 
 Cockburn Street, 85, 104. 
 
 Hotel, 87. 
 
 Coke, Thomas, artilleryman, 16. 
 " Congregation," the Lords of 
 
 the, 8, 14, 15, 19, 30. 
 
 Corporation of Edinburgh, 
 owners of the site of John 
 Knox's House, 79, 87. 
 
 Corstorphine, collegiate church 
 of, 68. 
 
 Council Chamber and Burgh 
 Court (the new) cover the 
 site of Knox's House, 87, 88. 
 
 Cowgate, the, 22, 68. 
 
 Craig, Mr John, minister, z8, 39, 
 40 ; furnishing of his house, 
 56 ; his travelling expenses 
 paid, 58 ; takes the ministry 
 in St Giles', in Knox's absence, 
 61. 
 
 Craig, Sir Lewis, no. 
 
 Sir Thomas, no. 
 
 Craig's Close, 109. 
 
 Craigcrook, the prebendary of, 
 
 *7- 
 Crawfiird, James, priest, 27. 
 Crichton, Marion, Lady Rothes, 
 
 IS5- 
 Crighton, Patrick, of Lugton, 
 
 90. 9'. 93. 97- 
 
 Cromwell's residence in Edin- 
 burgh, 69. 
 
 Cunyngham, John, 91. 
 
 Darnley murdered, lo, 39 ; 
 offended at Knox's preaching, 
 60. 
 
 Dean of Guild's Accounts, refer- 
 ences to payments on account 
 of John Knox, therein, 49-53 ; 
 to the ministers, 59 ; accounts, 
 65, 164. 
 
 Dean of Guild Court, proceed- 
 ings anent Knox's Land, 117, 
 118. 
 
 Dieppe, 10. 
 
 Dryburgh Abbey, 5. 
 
 Dryden, Mr, tenant at Nether- 
 bow, 122. 
 
 Duf, David, armourer, 17. 
 
 Dunbar, ammunition sent to, 17. 
 
 170 
 
Index 
 
 Dunbar, battle of, 69. 
 Dunbar's Close, 69, 71. 
 Dundee, visit of Knox to, 10. 
 Dunfermline, the Abbot of, 
 
 45. 7»- 
 Durie, John, tailor, 45, 72, 74. 
 
 Edinburgh, burnt, 4, 6 ; age of 
 its buildings, 5; riot in, 7; 
 state of, 14, 15, etc. 
 
 Castle of, 5, 9, 141. 
 
 Cross of, 9 ; Market Cross, 
 
 III. 
 
 the Fleshmarket, 19; Mid 
 
 Fleshmarket Close, 99, loi. 
 
 the Flesh House, 20. 
 
 the High Street, 20, 68, 70, 
 
 71, 76, 92, 105, etc. 
 
 Greyfriars' Port, 20, 21. 
 
 High School, 60. 
 
 Netherbow, 16, 17, 20; 
 
 Knox's supposed House at, 
 115-121, etc. 
 
 the Overbow, 28. 
 
 Tolbooth of, 29, 68. 
 
 the Town Council of, their 
 
 preparations against invasion, 
 II, 12; accept the Reforma- 
 tion, 15, 22 ; their care for 
 the spiritual wants of the 
 citizens, 25, 29-40; their 
 liberality to the Reformed 
 Ministers, j6-6i ; choose re- 
 presentative elders to the 
 General Assembly, 59, etc. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen of England, 
 g, 68. 
 
 English, the, policy of, towards 
 Scotland, 5-7, 13, 30. 
 
 Erskine, Lord, 14, 
 
 Eymouth(Haymouth), ammuni- 
 tion sent to, 17. 
 
 Fairlie (Fernlie), David, 78, 79, 
 
 gi. 
 Finlay (Fynlaw), Robert, 94 ». 
 
 Forbes, Patrick, merchant, 94. 
 
 Forrester, Adam, Provost of 
 Edinburgh, 68. 
 
 Forresters of Corstorphine, 68. 
 
 Forrester's Wynd, 68, 69, 97. 
 
 Forrester, David (Forster), col- 
 lector for the ministers, 35, 
 44, 65 ; his house, 66-68, 108. 
 
 Forth, the Firth of, 4. 
 
 Foulis, Mr James, of Colinton, 
 76. 
 
 Mr Robert, advocate, gz. 
 
 Fountain Well, the, 121. 
 
 France, the Scots' alliance with, 
 5 ; a force from, sent against 
 St Andrews, 6. 
 
 Frier, Matthew, baker, 117. 
 
 Gavinlock, Alexander, mason, 
 
 96. 
 Gavinlock's Land, 97. 
 Geneva, 8 ; Knox retires to, 9 ; 
 
 Goodman his Colleague there, 
 
 59 «. 
 Gilbert, Michael, gunner, i6. 
 Glasgow,the Archbishop of, 1 1 1 . 
 Glencairn, Earl of, 19. 
 Goodman, Christopher, minister 
 
 of St Andrews, 58, 59. 
 Gourlay, George, officer, 40. 
 Gray, Alexander, notary, 1 39 n. 
 
 Margaret, 139 n. 
 
 Robert, gets payments for 
 
 damages to his herbs and 
 
 flowers, 15. 
 Gray's Close, 156, 158. 
 Green, William, & Sons, pub- 
 lishers, 91. 
 Guthrie, Alexander, Dean of 
 
 Guild, 57. 
 Alexander, Town Clerk of 
 
 Edinburgh, 77, 139 n, 155. 
 C. J., advocate, his papers 
 
 on John Knox's house, 116 n, 
 
 127, 128, 134, 135, 138 „, 
 
 141 n, 160, 164. 
 
 171 
 
Index 
 
 Haltoun, the Laird of, 91, 103. 
 
 Hannay, Mr James, Dean of St 
 Giles', 94 n. 
 
 Henderson, John, 156. 
 
 Henrison, Thomas, treasurer, 
 49. 
 
 Hepburn, Margaret, di, 70, 89. 
 
 Hepburne, Robert, of Whit- 
 burgh, 99. 
 
 Heriot, Franciscetta, 93, 94. 
 
 Heriot, George, elder, gold- 
 smith, 92, 93. 
 
 George, younger, 92. 
 
 Patricli, 93. 
 
 Heriot's Close, 98 n. 
 
 Heriot's Hospital, Governors of, 
 94. 
 
 Hertford, the Earl of, 4, 137. 
 
 Holy rood Abbey, 5, 
 
 Home, George, notary, ij6. 
 
 Hope, Charles, of Hopetoun, 83. 
 
 Edward, appointed to pro- 
 cure support for the ministers, 
 36. 
 
 Sir James of Hopetoun, 82. 
 
 Hopper, Janet, 76. 
 
 Katherine, 76, 77. 
 
 Mr Richard, 81. 
 
 Robert, 78, 79. 
 
 Huguenots in France massacred, 
 
 9- 
 Hunter, Mungo, smith, 22. 
 Hunter's Square, 92, 104, 105. 
 Huntly, the Earl of, 14. 
 
 Inglis, John, mason, 21. 
 
 Ireland, David, 70. 
 
 — John, 69, 70. 
 
 Patrick, 66 ; his house, 
 
 70-73. 89. io8- 
 Ireland's Close, 69, 72. 
 
 Jackson, John, 82. 
 James III., King, 109. 
 James VI., King, no. 
 Jedburgh Abbey, 5. 
 
 Johnston, Sir Archibald of War- 
 
 riston, no, in. 
 John, writer, 46. 
 
 Kar, Robert, appointed to col- 
 lect for the ministers' stipend, 
 
 37- 
 
 Kelle, William, gunner, 12. 
 
 Kelso Abbey, 5. 
 
 Kerr, Andrew, 96 n. 
 
 Killigrew, the English Ambas- 
 sador, 68, 149 n. 
 
 King, Alexander, town clerk, 
 89. 
 
 Janet, wife of James Mos- 
 
 man, 138. 
 
 Kirkcaldy, Sir William, of 
 Grange, holds the Castle of 
 Edinburgh, 10, 11, 107, 142. 
 
 Kirk of Field Port, 21. 
 
 Knox, David, Gilbert, and 
 Stephen, owners of property 
 near the Royal Exchange, 153. 
 
 Helen, 11(5. 
 
 John, in 1520, sells pro- 
 perty near Sank Street, 153. 
 
 John, owner of property 
 
 at Nether Bow, 153-158. 
 
 Metta, 154, 155. 
 
 Knox's Close, 153, 154, 158. 
 
 Knox's House, the Legend of, 
 115, et seq, 
 
 ENOX, JOHN, minister, his place 
 of residence in Edinburgh, v, 
 vi ; a captive in France, and 
 life in England, 9 ; his efBgy 
 burnt, iUd. ; at Dieppe, 10; his 
 movements in Scotland, 'Aid. ; 
 minister of Edinburgh, 11, 
 29 ; records of his connection 
 with the city, 30-34 ; his 
 house furnished, 31, 32 ; pay- 
 ment of stipend to him, 32, 
 33; his house -rent paid, 
 42-44; proposed change of 
 residence, 45 ; lodged in 
 
 172 
 
Index 
 
 Mowbray's house, 46 ; in 
 John Adamson's house, 48, 
 49 ; at St Andrews, 49 ; in 
 Angus and Mearns, 57, 58 ; 
 goes to the Assembly at Perth, 
 60 ; prohibited from preach- 
 ing, 60 ; houses occupied by 
 him in Edinburgh, 65-112 ; 
 his first settled residence, 73 ; 
 a warm study ordered for him, 
 75, 86-88 ; at St Andrews, 
 107; his will referred to, 107, 
 the Legend of the Netherbow 
 House, 115 -168; "John 
 Knox's Land," 117-izo, 159, 
 160. 
 
 Knox, William, owner of pro- 
 perty near Bank Street, 153. 
 
 Knoxes, a family of, located near 
 the Netherbow since the 15th 
 century, 153. 
 
 Langside, battle of, 8, 39. 
 
 Lauder, Gilbert, 93. 
 
 Lawson, Mr James, colleague 
 
 to John Knox, 121, 149. 
 Leis, Andrew, blackfttar, 29. 
 Leith, the French land at, 6 ; 
 
 houses repaired at, 21. 
 Lesley, south parks of, loo ti. 
 Lessels, Alexander, merchant, 
 
 95 »• 
 John, merchant, burgess 
 
 of Haddington, 95 ». 
 Lithgow, Sir John, 27. 
 Litill, John, macer, 139 «. 
 Litstair, James, armourer, 1 7. 
 Loughborough, rectory of, 55. 
 Lowrie, Margaret, wife of James 
 
 Riddell, 96 n. 
 Lowrye, James, collector for the 
 
 stipends, 37. 
 Lundy, David, 77. 
 
 MacLeod, ^neas, 84. 
 Maisson, Margaret, wife of 
 Robert Finlay, 94 ». 
 
 Maistertoun, James, 139 «. 
 
 Mary King's Close, 84, 85, 86. 
 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, state of 
 affairs after her arrival, 35, 
 36, notes; prohibits Knox from 
 preaching, 60 ; her marriage 
 with Bothwell, 108, 137, 142. 
 
 Mary of Lorraine, the Queen 
 Dowager, 14, 15; Regent, 
 18 ; her death, 54. 
 
 Maxton, John, 91, 99, 
 
 M'Calzeane, James, 70. 
 
 M'CalyeaneMrThomas,i2, 71 ; 
 of Cliftonhall, advocate, 82 n, 
 
 93. 'o8- 
 M'Crie, Dr, his Life of Knox, 
 
 120, 123, 124, 125, 126, 133, 
 
 145, 146, 150, 151, 159, 167. 
 Mein, John, 139 n. 
 Melrose Abbey, 5. 
 Merse, the, Knox's visit to, 59. 
 Miller, Mr Peter, his papers on 
 
 Knox's house, 126, 127. 
 Milne, Robert, of Balfarg, 
 
 King's master mason, 83-87. 
 Morison, John, gunner, 17. 
 Morrison's Close, 158. 
 Morton, the Earl of, 68. 
 Mosman, James, owner of house 
 
 at the Netherbow, 129, 134 n, 
 
 136, 137, 139/,, 140-143, 151, 
 
 152, 161-165. 
 
 John, goldsmith, 137. 
 
 Mowbray, Andrew, 43, 77, 78. 
 Mowbray, Robert, his house 
 
 tenanted by John Knox, vi, 
 
 43. 45. 46. 73. 74. 77-79. lo^i 
 161 n. 
 Murray, James, of Philiphaugh, 
 Lord of Session, iii. 
 
 Napier, Helen, 77. 
 
 Netherbow, the (see Edin- 
 burgh), the house there popu- 
 larly known as " John Knox's 
 House," 115-168. 
 
 ^73 
 
Index 
 
 Newbottill, convent of, 91, 102. 
 Newlands, Robert, glover, 98- 
 
 100. 
 
 Robert, younger, 98, 99. 
 
 Newlands' Land, 100, loz. 
 Newton, Elizabeth, wife of 
 
 Patrick Forbes, 94. 
 Nichole, James, collector for 
 
 the stipends, 37. 
 Nithsdale, visit of Knox to, 59. 
 North Loch, the, 7, 16, 21, 70, 
 
 71, 76-78, 80, 93, 103. 
 
 Otterburne, Bessie, wife of John 
 Adamson, 48, 88-go, 95, 98, 
 103, iji. 
 
 Park, Alexander, treasurer, 44, 
 
 45. 59. 65. 7i- 
 Perth, visited by Knox, 10, 
 
 monasteries of, attacked, 1 8 ; 
 
 General Assembly at, 60. 
 Pinkie, battle of, 5. 
 Pleydell, Counsellor, 112. 
 Poultry Market, the, 92, loi. 
 Preston, Mr John, collector for 
 
 the ministers, 35, 36. 
 Purves, John, deacon of the 
 
 tailors, 37. 
 
 Rae, Hector, merchant, 92. 
 
 Randolph, the English Am- 
 bassador, 75. 
 
 Reformation in Scotland, J, 8, 
 9, 10, 22, 39. 
 
 in England, 8. 
 
 in France, 8. 
 
 Reid, William, merchant, loon. 
 
 Riddell, James, 96 n. 
 
 Rigg. Hugh, 77. 
 
 John, 156. 
 
 Rizzio, David, slain, 10. 
 
 Robin Hood, games suppressed, 
 
 35 «• 
 Rocheid, Mr James, notary, 
 
 139 n. 
 Roman clergy, the, provided for 
 
 at the Reformation, 2J, 26, 
 29. 
 Royal Exchange Buildings, 85, 
 
 153- 
 
 Salt Tron, the, 99, loi, 103- 
 105. 
 
 Sandilands, Alexander, 139 n. 
 
 Schange, Patrick, joiner, 50. 
 
 Scotland, condition of, before 
 the Reformation, 3-8. 
 
 Scotsman, the, proprietors of, 
 104. 
 
 Scott, Mr John, of Tarvet, 81. 
 
 Robert, writer, 43, 44 ; 
 
 his wife craves for rent due 
 for Knox's lodging, 47 ; 
 seized in Mowbray's pro- 
 perty, 79. 
 
 Thomas, clerk to the 
 
 Signet, 100 n. 
 
 Sir Walter, 112. 
 
 Seton, Lord, Provost of Edin- 
 burgh, 12, 67, 108. 
 
 Sklater, Andrew, Bailie, 78. 
 
 Smeton, Mr Thomas, author of 
 an account of Knox, 121, 144, 
 ISO. 
 
 Smith, Mrs Robert, 139 n. 
 
 Smyth, Andrew, 139 n, 
 
 Speir, Rachel, 81. 
 
 Sarah, 82. 
 
 Thomas, merchant, 81,82. 
 
 Spens, John, 58. 
 
 St Andrews, Bishop of, appeal 
 from,, by the Council of Edin- 
 burgh, 16. 
 
 Christopher Goodman, 
 
 minister of, 58. 
 
 John Knox at, 49, 107, 
 
 143- 
 
 Castle of, 6, 9. 
 
 Standsfield, Sir James, of New- 
 milns, 102. 
 
 Stark, J., author of the "Pic- 
 ture of Edinburgh," 1 16, etc., 
 133. 15*1 iS7> i*6- 
 
 174 
 
Index 
 
 St Bartholomew, massacre of 
 Protestants on his festival, 9. 
 
 Steill, Patrick, merchant, 83- 
 87. 
 
 Stevenson, John, notary, 155. 
 
 Stevinson, Andrew, treasurer, 
 48. 
 
 Stewart, Adam, 76. 
 
 Helen, 76, 77. 
 
 Sir James, of Kirkfield, 
 
 Knight, Provost of Edin- 
 burgh, 95 ». 
 
 John, writer, 100 n, 
 
 Margaret, second wife of 
 
 John Knox, 75, 11 1. 
 
 St George's Church, 125. 
 
 St Giles' Church, 5 ; image of 
 the saint burned, 7 ; law plea 
 thereon, 16 ; ornaments taken 
 to the castle, 1 3 ; jewels and 
 stalls secured, 17,18;" purged 
 of idolatry," 19; the steeple 
 fortified, zo ; chaplains ap- 
 pointed, 26 ; St James's altar, 
 28 ; the churchyard of, 29 ; 
 thanksgiving in the church, 
 30 ; Willock's ministry there- 
 in, 54 ; John Craig's ministry, 
 61 ; the churchyard, 105 ; 
 Knox's last sermon in, 121, 
 144, 146, 147, 149 ; Knox 
 buried in the churchyard, 1J3. 
 
 St Giles Street, 69, 91, 97, 105. 
 
 Strachan, Alexander, notary, 
 139/.. 
 
 Surrey, Earl of, invades Scot- 
 land, 6. 
 
 Sym, Mr Alexander, advocate, 
 16. 
 
 Symson, John, 90. 
 
 Tennand, Francis, his tenement, 
 90. 
 
 Tennand, Mungo, 90. 
 
 Teviotdale, Knox to visit, 59. 
 
 Thomson, Mr Alexander, 
 minister, 94. 
 
 Margaret, wife of Alex- 
 ander Lessels, 95. 
 
 Sir William, notary, 139 n. 
 
 Tod, George, gunner, 20. 
 
 Tolliooth, the old, 93, 96, 
 
 97- , 
 the new, Knox preaches 
 
 therein, 149. 
 Trinity College, Hospital of, 
 
 29 ; grounds of, 155. 
 Tron, the Salt, 99, loi, 103- 
 
 loj. 
 Tron Church, the, 104, 112 n, 
 
 Urquhart, Sir George, of Crom- 
 arty, no. 
 
 Warriston's Close, 82 «, 84-87, 
 
 109, III, 161, i6j. 
 Watson, Robert, 55, 83. 
 Williamson, Robert, 139 n. 
 Willok, John, preacher, 53-55, 
 
 S9^ 67- 
 
 Wilson, Sir Daniel, his "Me- 
 morials of Edinburgh," 117, 
 122, 126-129. 
 
 William, of Soonhope, 
 
 100 n. 
 
 Wishart, George, burning of, 
 6. 
 
 Wrightslands, Lord, no. 
 
 Writers to the Signet, Society 
 of, 85. 
 
 Writers' Court, 85, in. 
 
 Young, Thomas, of Rosebank, 
 
 84. 
 Walter, 70, 71. 
 
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