Monday morning we set off for Edinburgh castle, which sits on top of a hill (probably the only big hill in Edinburgh) in the center of the city. Monday also happened to be Queen Elizabeth's birthday so as we were purchasing our tickets at the castle, we were told that at noon there would be a 21 gun salute in her honor along with the usual pomp of a kilted marching band and pipers. So we made our way to the parapets and found a good place to watch the event unfold. At noon, the marching band stopped playing and the guns were fired. After the 21st shot, the band played "God Save the Queen" and then the piper began playing his bagpipes as the kilted soldiers marched from the guns to another part of the castle. For those of you who don't know, I love bagpipes! I don't know what it is about them, maybe it's in my genes...whatever it is, they are fantastic! I also love kilts, especially men in kilts!
There has been a castle on this site since the reign of King David in the 12th century. St. Margaret's Chapel is the oldest building, dating back to the 12th century. The castle was used as a royal residence until 1603 and then became a military barracks and garrison. It was involved in the wars for Scottish independence in the 14th century and the Jacobite Rising of 1745. It was here in the castle that Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to her son James, the future King of England, Scotland and Ireland. She was later forced to abdicate in favor of her son. The Scottish Crown Jewels also call this place "home." The history of the jewels is interesting. They are the oldest set of Crown Jewels in the British isles and have been used by all the monarchs from the 1543 coronation of Mary, Queen of Scots to the 1651 coronation of Charles II. Now they are used as a symbol of Royal Assent to legislation in the Scottish parliament as well as state occasions. The crown was created in 1540 by James V who ordered that the original crown be refashioned. The sceptre was given to Alexander II by the pope and has Christian symbols: dolphins, the Virgin Mary and Christ and St. Andrew. The sword was also a papal gift. It was presented to James IV in 1507 and includes images of Sts. Peter and Paul. When Oliver Cromwell came to power, he ordered the Crown Jewels be melted down and destroyed. But they were hidden, first in Dunnotar Castle and later under the floor of a church. They were brought back out in 1660 but were no longer used to crown monarchs. When the English and Scottish parliaments united to form the parliament of Great Britain, the Crown Jewels had no use and were locked away in a chest in Edinburgh castle. They lay there forgotten for years and years until 1818 when a group recovered the jewels and set them on public display, where they have been ever since. Interestingly when the group opened the chest, they also discovered a necklace which did not belong to the collection. It is now also displayed with the Crown Jewels along with the stone of scone which was returned to Edinburgh in 1996. The stone of scone has been used in the coronation of Scottish and later English monarchs for centuries. The last time it was used was for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The castle is also home to the war museum. I am not really into that kind of thing but it was fantastic! It went into the history of Scotland and war/military and the importance Scottish soldiers have played over the centuries, including the long lasting romantic vision of the kilted highland troops. Ironically, highland troops were first used in the Jacobite uprisings to squash the highlanders...rid them of the Gaelic language, the kilt, all highland culture. Yet now, the kilt is their most prominent feature! I also thought it was quite neat that in the museum there is a Scottish flag that was flown by a New Zealand infantry unit on Crete in 1941 during the German invasion. They flew the flag to express their Scottish roots. It was later picked up by a Greek soldier when the infantry unit underwent heavy fire. It was kept by the Greek partisans and handed over to the British when they liberated the island in 1945.
After touring the castle, we walked down the Royal Mile and my, does it have character! From the spiked haired lady wearing yellow plaid and singing "Nancy Whiskey" while playing a bodhràn to the bagpipers and the most pierced lady in the world, the Royal Mile is an interesting place! Along the Royal Mile is St. Giles Cathedral. A church has been on that site since the 800s and has seen many changes throughout history. It was formerly made a cathedral in the 1600s. It is also home to the chapel of the Order of the Thistle.
On Tuesday it rained. Typical British weather. So we decided to head to the Scottish archives here in Edinburgh to do some ancestry research. We spent the whole day there and uncovered some pretty amazing stuff! Turns out, I am descended from weavers, coal miners, merchants and shipmasters (sea captains for merchant vessels)! We were able to extend the ancestry lines a few more generations back and added more names (and more clans). One line, we extended back into the 1600s! I am afraid that as far as the MacGregor line is concerned, we may just have to deal with not knowing. The proscription did a number on the MacGregors and records are not that great. I spent most of my time researching the Meickleham line, mainly because the name intrigues me. When we have told Scottish people the name, they look at us confused and ask if it is even Scottish because it doesn't sound like it. It is pronounced "Muckle-wum." What I found is that the name has numerous spellings and it seems no one knew how exactly to spell it. Some variations include McIlquhom, McIlquham, Meiklehem, Maiklem, Meiklem, and my favorite, Mcelwham. The records are interesting and reveal a lot about the family, like occupation, residence, and, if a baptism record, whether the child is "lawful" or "natural"..."natural" meaning illegitimate or born out of wedlock. The only "natural" born child we found was John MacGregor, who I have already discussed. Here are some of the records I found relating to the Meicklehams and Mitchells:
Alexdr Mitchell son to Alexdr Mitchell weaver in Drumen [Drymen] and Janet McIlquham daughter to James McIlquham of Glenfoot both of present residing in this parish of Drumen listed for proclamation of Banns on the 12th of July 1817.
Alexander Mitchell weaver in ?ounfoot of Drumen and Helen Buchan his wife had a son born the 13th and baptized Alexander upon the 14th day of April 1794.
Alexander Mitchel weaver in Drumen and Helen Buchanan daughter of the deceased Edward Buchanan late of Gartaeharran both of this parish listed for proclamation of Banns 26th June 1789.
Edward Buchanan in Hinnich? in this parish and Agnes Cameron daughter to Cameron in Kilearn parish listed for proclamation in order to marriage and were married at [Drymen] by . [February 2, 1759]
June 29, 1787 James McIlquham in this parish and Jean McCowat in the parish of Drumen gave up their names for proclamation of Bannes in order to marriage gave up to the ? were married.
January 11th 1757 James McIlquham and Mary Cunningham in Woodend of Mains had a lawful son baptized and named James.
March 2, 1717 James Mcelwham and Janet Mitchell had a lawful son baptized and called James.
So here's what this tells me....my fourth great grandparents were Alexander Mitchell and Janet Meickleham. The first record is their banns of marriage record. It says that Alexander was a weaver and that Janet's father is James. Using that, I found that Alexander's father was also named Alexander and he was also a weaver. The younger Alexander's mother was Helen Buchan. It also seems that Buchan may, at least in Helen's case, been short for Buchanan as her marriage record indicates. The marriage record also reveals Helen's father's name, and using that I found his marriage record to his wife Agnes Cameron. Now, going back to the Meicklehams....I found the marriage record of Janet's parents, which was great, and then was able to trace back her father's line several generations which reveals that his family were established in Kilmaronock parish in Woodend for generations. Another interesting line to trace was the Russell line. I know I didn't really talk about them very much. My grandmother's maternal grandfather was William Russell. He married Elizabeth MacGregor's daughter, Jean. William's parents were William Russell and Margaret Buchan. Here are some records pertaining to the Russell's:
November 2, 1845
Contracted [marriage] William Russell in the parish of Fossoway and Margaret Buchan in this parish.
William son of William Russel merchant in Kinross by Jean Spittal his wife was born 14th and baptized on sabbath 8 April 1819 by Mr. Leishman in the ?antiburgher? congregation Kinross.
William Russel in this parish and Jean Spittal in Edin. were proclaimed in order to marriage on Sab: the 22nd May 1814 for first time.
20th May 1814
William Russell plasterier in Kinross and Jean Spittal daughter of James Spittal, shipmaster, Alloa, residing in Broughton, ?, 5, gave up their names for proclamation of Banns matrimonial
+ George More minister Edin. [St. Cuthbert's parish]
These records are interesting. If you notice, the last two marriage banns records are for the same people but different places and different dates. Why? Well, I discovered that if a couple is from different parishes, like Wiliam from Kinross and Jean from Edinburgh, the marriage banns have to be done in both parishes. If the couple is from the same parish, then only one marriage banns is necessary. The marriage bans for William and Jean from St. Cuthbert's parish reveals that Jean's father is James and that he is a shipmaster. It also reveals that they were originally from Alloa but currently reside in neighborhood of Broughton in Edinburgh. It seems that somehow, although William started as a plasterier, by the time his son William was born, he was a merchant. The script on many of the records was difficult to read and in some cases the print had faded to where you could barely make out what was written. Regardless, our time at the archives was quite fruitful and well spent!
Wednesday started cloudy but turned out to be a lovely day. This was our last day in Edinburgh and since we didn't get to the Palace of the Holyrood on Monday, we decided to finish our Edinburgh tour at Her Majesty's official Scottish residence (Balmoral is her vacation home). However, first we went by St. Cuthbert's church. Since the William Russell and Jane Spittal marriage banns record indicated St. Cuthbert's, we decided to check it out. The current church was built in the 1800s but the steeple dates to the 1700s. There has been a church/Christian worship on this site for thirteen centuries. According to tradition, St. Cuthbert founded a church below Castle Rock. Fun fact, John Napier, inventor of logarithms is buried here.
The Palace of the Holyrood is a fascinating place. If you look at it straight on, you'll notice that the stones on the left side look rougher than the stones that make up the rest of the palace. See?
That is because that section of the palace is the oldest. It was built in the 16th century as a guest house for the Abbey of Holyrood, which sits next to it. The guest house was later turned into a palace for the Scottish monarchs. Much of the preset building was built for Charles II. Since the palace is a working palace, no pictures were allowed inside but we were allowed to take a tour. It is interesting because you start in the entrance hall and as you go from room to room, you notice a shift in the decor. It starts as rather rustic and "plain" as far as palaces go. But as you go further in the rooms become grander and more opulent so by the time you get to the king's bedchamber, you reach the grandest room of all! This was its purpose of course, as people traveled in procession from room to room they would have noticed the increased grandeur that was leading to something incredibly regal, the king's rooms. When Queen Victoria visited the palace for the first time, she disliked the lack of color so she brought in colorful furniture and tapestries to add warmth and life to the otherwise drafty building. One of the most fascinating rooms is the gallery. One of the Jameses decided he needed to prove that the Stuarts had the right to the throne and in order to do that, he commissioned a Dutch artist to paint his "ancestors". What is so funny is that if you take a good look at the portraits, you will see that they all look alike. The artist had no idea what these people looked like (it's not like there were photographs in the 800s AD) so he used two or three models to create the portraits! In the old section of the palace you will find the rooms of Mary, Queen of Scots. It is in these rooms that the start of her troubles began, although I suppose one could say that perhaps she was just cursed. She was crowned Queen of Scotland as an infant and then hurriedly taken to France for safety. She married the French dauphin, who died two years into their marriage. She returned as a widow to Scotland. She married the ambitious Lord Darnley and gave birth to their son, James in Edinburgh Castle. Lord Darnley was a jealous man and Mary had an Italian secretary named David Rizzio with whom she was quite close. One evening as Mary supped with Rizzio and one of her ladies in her rooms at Holyrood, Darnley came charging in with several other men and demanded Rizzio. The poor man clung to Mary's skirts but it was useless, Darnley and his men dragged Rizzio off and, according to Mary's account, murdered him by stabbing him 56 times. Why? Darnley feared Rizzio was a suitor. Mary was also heavily pregnant at the time. Darnley was suspicially killed when his estate blew up. Some say Mary had something to do with it. After Darnley's death she married the unpopular Earl of Bothewell. It was this action that forced her to abdicate and flee to England seeking refuge from her cousin Elizabeth I. Elizabeth saw her as a threat and imprisoned her. Mary was executed some years later. So, moving on from that tragic tale...there is an exhibition displaying the gifts the Queen has received from various countries in the Commonwealth and it was interesting to see so many cultures packed into one room. We ended the Holyrood tour with the Abbey ruins and a walk around the garden.
Thus ends our Edinburgh (and our Scottish) tour! From here we started heading back down south towards England. I must confess, I was loath to leave! Scotland is an incredibly beautiful place with its dramatic scenery. It is also a country with a deep rooted history tied into the landscape; a history in which my ancestors were very much involved!
Cheers!
Elizabeth
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