THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE LATE MB R. M'D. STIRLING, MUBSELBUBGH.-^ an Yesterday morning, Mr R. M'D. Stirling, eminent and much respected Musselburgh gentle- in man, died in his sleep in the house of a niece Edinburgh, where he had been on a short visit. He was in his 78th yar, and had been in failing health owing to a bronchial affection for some was years back, but the near approach of his end not apprehended, and the news of his death caused a display of sympathetic interest in Musselburgh during the day. Mr Stirling was a man of un- of flagging energy displayed in a great variety channels. In business he was a partner of the firm of Stirling Brothers, grocers and wine mer- chants, and only retired from trade a few years ago. .In public affairs he took an active part, having served on Musselburgh Town Council, Inveresk Parochial Board, and Inyeresk Parish Council. An enthusiastic Volunteer in his younger days, he commanded for a time the Musselburgh Rifle the youth of the town, Company. Among" " particularly at the halflrn stage, he did good work, not only as conductor of Bible classes and the like, but in carrying on after business hours in his own premises evening classes in commercial oi subjects. He was an elder and session clerk the important Parish Kirk of Inveresk, posts which he held for some forty years till his death. Anti- quarian and local historical research constitute* his chief hobby, however, and on these subjects^he wrote much. His essays were models of pains- taking accuracy, and their literary merit was con- siderable. In 1894 he his principa " published work namely, Inveresk Parish Lore from Pagan Times" and this, a goodly-sized volume, has attained a high degree of popularity. It was to him a labour of love in historical subjects to un ravel tangled skeins of fact and fiction, and _a often as not he had such work on hand whicl had been given him to do by friends who hac neither time nor skill to do it for themselves. He was acknowledged and popularly known as the historian of Musselburgh, and his marvellously re tentive memory was ever at the disposal of hi friends. Withal he was of a kindly and courteou disposition after the old echooL He was a bachelor. THE AUTHOR. INVERESK PARISH LORE FUOM PAGAN TIMES. BY R. M'D. STIRLING. MUSSELBURGH: PRINTED BY T. C. BLAIR. 1894. DA YE BUKE > ^ PAROCHE AND KYRK <r OF INNER ASK, OEDICAT TO YE PAROCHINARIS. 719652 INTRODUCTION. THE story of bygone times in small communities affords an admirable insight into the manners, customs, and social condition of the Scottish people. A study of these old-world ways as they existed at Inveresk has yielded much delight to the author, and in response to frequent invitations he now offers some of the fruit he has gathered as a contribution to local history, not without hope that others may find in it some of the interest and pleasure he has experienced. Access to Parish and Burgh Records has enabled him to embody many facts never before published, and an endeavour has been made to convey an idea of how valuable these Records are. In the compilation of the present work numerous and scarce publications in the Advocates' and other libraries have been consulted, and information kindly communicated by personal friends is here gratefully acknowledged. CONTENTS. CHAPTEH. PACK. I. Topographical, . .1 II. Prehistoric, . 12 III. Coming of the Romans, . 20 IV. After the Romans, . 2! V. Relics of the Romans, . 36 VI. St. Michael's of Inveresk, . 50 VII. Time of Wallace and Bruce, . 07 VIII. Dawn of the Reformation, . ?'' IX. Reformation Period, . 84 X. Ministry of Mr. Adam Colt, . 90 XI. Old Communion Cups, . .117 XII. Seventeenth Century Records, . 127 XIII. Parish Finance XVII. Century, . 140 XIV. Close of XVII. Century, . 154 XV . Opening of -XVIII. Century, . 1GO XVI. Gloom followed by Sunshine, . 168 XVII. Ministry of Dr. Carlyle, . 175 XVIII. The Present Parish Church, . , 182 XIX. Dr. Moodie's and Mr. Beveridge's Ministries, 188 XX. Memorable Events, . 190 XXI. Distinguished Parishioners, . 203 XXII. Miscellanea, . 214 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGK. 1. Portrait of Author Facing title page. 2. Communion Token, 1727 Back of title page 3. Old St. Michael's, Inveresk Facing Chap. I. From Original Wator Colour Drawing taken in 1803, the property of Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Alex. Milne, Bart., G.C.B. 4. Communion Token, 1841 Back of alternative title page. 5. Inveresk Church, 1805 S. W. View, . 10 6. Oldest Minute Book, 1651, . .32 Sir 7. Pinkie House, General Wm. Hope, Bart., C.B. , 48 8. Fac-simile half-page Account Book, 1655, . 04 0. Rev. Adam Colt, M. A., . .80 From Portrait by Jameson at Gartaherrie House. 10. Inveresk House, J. A. Park, Esq., . 90 11. Old Communion Plate, Charter Chest and Records, 112 12. Crest of Earl of Dunfermline Page 117, . 128 13. Memorial Stone, Carberry Hill, where Queen Mary surrendered to the confederate Lords, 144 14. Monument of William Smyth, Town Clerk, . 100 Stone Buried 1805, Recovered 1894. 15. Rev. Alexander Carlyle, D.D., . .170 10. West End High Street, Musselburgh, . 192 Showing old house in which Commissioner Cardonnel received Smollett the Novelist, now removed. 17. Specimens of New Communion Plate, . 208 18. Bit of Old Fisherrow, North Side, High Street, . 224 Site now occupied with modern tenement. TOPOGRAPHICAL. TNVERESK is an ancient and historic parish in the north-east of the county of Mid-Lothian. Cp The burgh of Musselburgh forms part of it. Until early in the eighteenth century it was called Innerask and Musselburgh, but this con- junct designation has since then been dropped. The parish is about three miles from north to south, and from two to two and a-half from east to west. Its northern boundary is the shore of the Firth of Forth from Ravenshaugh burn on the east to Magdalen burn on the west. The parishes of Duddingston, Newton, and Liberton in Mid-Lothian adjoin it on the west, Dalkeith and Cranstoun in the same county on the south, and Tranent and Prestonpans in Haddingtonshire on the east. The Esk divides the parish into two nearly equal parts from south to north, and empties itself here into the Firth. The name Inveresk is significant of that position, and in itself contains evidence of antiquity. With a like geographical meaning similar compound place-names are common enough, A 2 INVERESK PARISH LORE. but few indeed can tell as much as this one does. Esk comes out of a very old stock. Variations of it are found in Ax, Ex, Ox, Ux, Ouse, Uisque, Usk, Esce, all meaning water, and in many of these forms it is applied to rivers in Great Britain. Such root words, descriptive of the natural features of a country, i.e., rivers, mountains and the like, cling with firm hold in common speech, while names given to places of abode are more subject to change when people of a different language become occupants. The importance of word study is coming more and more to be re- cognised. The very form of the word Inveresk helps to discover its history. It has been found that in words in use in Celtic times the descriptive comes after the root in those of part portion ; Anglic or Saxon origin the reverse holds good. We are thus enabled to fix the period to which Inveresk belongs, and to trace it to the time of the Angles. Escernuthe, the name by which the earliest of the Saxon invaders knew it, is un- questionably Celtic. Esk, Eskmouth, Carberry (Caerbarren) have come down from the aboriginal Britons whom the Romans encountered. According to a recent writer on the subject of place-names, " Musselburgh in its original form, signified the fenced town of the Picts." When thus examined, the names of parish and burgh are, in themselves, charters of an antiquity sufficiently remote to TOPOGRAPHY. 3 gratify the most exacting, and with which parish- ioner and burgess may feel proudly content. As an example of the intuitive or traditional hold which successive generations retain of the original meaning of a very old word, it may be mentioned that nothing was more common half-a- century ago than to hear people in the parish " speak of the Esk as the watter." Nor was this a mere localism, as the writer thus discovered. When a small boy he enjoyed a jaunt to a pretty Tweedside Town. On asking for some water, the " request was met with the query, Waeter-waeter or " well-waeter ? That is to say, was river water or pump water, water to wash in or water to drink wanted ? River water was thus waeter-waeter, where the waeter was said to wax and to wane ; and the same root idea was presented to the mind within sight of the Cheviots on the banks of the Tweed as within sight of the Pentlands on the banks of the Esk. To return to descriptive details, it may be pointed out that at the confluence of the Esk with the estuary, the Firth of Forth reaches its most southerly limit and its greatest width. The distance across is more than three times what it is between Granton and Burntisland, and fully eight times greater than where the Forth Bridge joins the two shores. What secondary causes have com- bined to scoop out the large elliptical bay that extends from Hound Point to Gullane, is a 4 INVERESK PARISH LORE.