John MacMorran

Looking into the courtyard of Riddle's Court where MacMorran lived

Baillie John MacMorran (d. 1595), merchant and Baillie of Edinburgh, killed during a riot at Edinburgh High School. His house at Riddle's Court is a valued monument on Edinburgh's Lawnmarket.

Career

John MacMorran was a merchant involved in shipping, with shares in nine ships worth over £4,000 at his death, and had exported one cargo of wax and salmon worth £3,928, large amounts at the time, indicating he was one of wealthiest merchants in Edinburgh.[1] MacMorran had been a servant of Regent Morton in the 1570s, and it was said that he helped conceal the former Regent's treasure. The townspeople also complained that he had exported grain to Spain (a Catholic country) in times of dearth.[2] He built a large house in Edinburgh's Lawnmarket, which still survives, now known as Riddle's Court.[3] A carved window frame with shutters from the MacMorran house is displayed at Edinburgh's Huntly House museum.[4]

Death at the Edinburgh High School

Edinburgh High School at Blackfriars

The scholars at Edinburgh High School were disputing the length of their holidays. They managed to shut themselves up in the building, at that time on the site of the old Blackfriars Monastery, near the present-day Drummond Street. After two days, on 15 September 1595, the town council sent John MacMorran, as a Baillie of Edinburgh, to end the sit-in. MacMorran and his men were about to break in, using a beam as a battering-ram, when he was shot in the head and died instantly. The shot was fired from a window by the 13-year-old son of William Sinclair of Mey, uncle and Chancellor of the Earl of Caithness.[5]

The boys either fled or were captured. Justice was delayed for several months, as both the children' families and MacMorran's family were wealthy and able to ask the King, James VI of Scotland, to intervene. Lord Home made representations for one English culprit, the son of one Richard Foster, who was the first prisoner to be released. The English diplomat George Nicholson heard the town would benefit by raising contributions for building churches from the boys' supporters.[6] Seven were released soon after James Pringle of Whytbank (who lived at Moubray House), made a plea on their behalf to the Privy Council late in November.[7] Eventually young William Sinclair and all the others were released without penalty.[8]

House at Riddle's Court

16th-century painted ceiling with Imperial eagle and thistle motif at Riddle's court

John's house and contents, and his business, passed to his brother Ninian, to administer for John's children and his widow Katherine Hutcheson. An inventory of the furnishings of the house at John's death survives in the National Archives of Scotland.[9]

In 1598 two banquets were held in the house for Ulrik, Duke of Holstein, the younger brother of Anne of Denmark.[10] Robert Birrell noted the "great solemnity and merryness" at the banquet on 2 May 1598, attended by James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark.[11]


Used in the 19th century by the educationalist and polymath Patrick Geddes, the house is now cared for by the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust (SHBT), and was previously in part used by the Worker's Educational Association and the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland.

In the mid-18th century Riddle's Court was home to David Hume and he began writing "The History of England" here.[12]

The building is now home to the Patrick Geddes Centre for Learning.[13]

References

  1. ^ Margaret Sanderson, 'Edinburgh Merchants', in E. Cowan, ed., Renaissance & Reformation in Scotland, (Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh, 1983), pp. 190-1.
  2. ^ Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. (1858), pp. 144, 263: James Melville, Memoirs of his own life, (Edinburgh 1827), p. 267.
  3. ^ RCAHMS Canmore, images of Riddle's Court.
  4. ^ pictured in Robert Chambers. The Ancient Domestic Architecture of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 9
  5. ^ 'The Diarey (sic) of Robert Birrell', in John Graham Dalyell, Fragments of Scottish History (Edinburgh, 1798), pp. 34-35.
  6. ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), pp. 19, 33.
  7. ^ D. Masson, ed., Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1882), pp. 236-8.
  8. ^ Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. (1858), pp. 261-264.
  9. ^ J. MacPhail, Fraser Papers (SHS, Edinburgh, 1924), p. 227.
  10. ^ Marguerite Wood, Extracts form the Burgh Records of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1927), pp. 218, 362-365: Michael Pearce, 'Riddle’s Court, Banquet and Diplomacy in 1598' in History Scotland Magazine, vol. 12 no. 4 (July August 2012), pp. 20-27: Edward Hollis, A Drama in Time: A Guide to 400 Year's of Riddle's Court (Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2018), pp. 52-54.
  11. ^ 'The Diarey (sic) of Robert Birrell', in John Graham Dalyell, Fragments of Scottish History (Edinburgh, 1798), p. 46.
  12. ^ Edinburgh and District (Ward Lock Travel Guide, 1930).
  13. ^ Edward Hollis, A Drama in Time: A Guide to 400 Year's of Riddle's Court (Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2018).

External links for Riddle's Court


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