18th-century burials , Canongate Kirkyard Very Rev
Thomas Wilkie (1645–1711) first minister of
Canongate Kirk and twice
Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. James Campbell of Tofts (1684–c. 1750) landowner. The Coachman's Stone, dating to around 1770, displays a skull and the motto "
memento mori". It is inscribed "This stone is for the society of Coachdrivers In the Canongate It was chiefly erected by Thomas Jamieson and Robert Maving, treasurer, 1734–65". Below this inscription is a relief sculpture of a coach and horses crossing a bridge. The drivers operated the Edinburgh to London route from White Horse Close, around to the east. Several of the Company are interred at this spot.
John Frederick Lampe (1703–1751) was a composer, conductor and writer of hymn-tunes for
Charles Wesley and others. His stone, just to the north of the Fettes tomb, is now badly eroded and for the most part illegible. At the base of the stone is a skull and two crossed bones, and at the top two figures hold a small book with some of his composition inscribed. The stone formerly read: Bishop
Robert Keith (1681–1757) authored
A History of the Church and State in Scotland from the Reformation to 1568.
Sir Thomas Calder (1682–1760), stone erected by his grandson Admiral
Robert Calder. Professor
Charles Alston (1683–1760), lecturer in Botany and Medicinal Plants at Edinburgh University, was co-founder of the
Edinburgh School of Medicine in 1726.
George Drummond (1688–1766) was six times
Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and the founder of
Edinburgh New Town. He was responsible for the redevelopment of Edinburgh, founding the
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary; co-founding the Medical School; draining the
Nor’ Loch; founding the Royal Exchange in 1753; and most importantly, initiating and founding the New Town and the first
North Bridge (1763).
John Gregory MD (1724–1773) and his son
James Gregory MD (1753–1821) were from a long line of Gregorys from Aberdeen, eminent in both medicine and science. John was Professor of Medicine in Aberdeen from 1755 to 1766, and at Edinburgh University from 1766 until his death. James was a doctor and publisher, who succeeded his father in the chair of Medicine at Edinburgh University in 1776, and also had a separate chair in the Practice of Medicine from 1790. He was the inventor of "Gregory's Powder" a mixture of magnesia, rhubarb and ginger, used in the treatment of stomach complaints for around 150 years. His son
Dr James Gregory and grandsons
Donald Gregory and
James Crawford Gregory lie nearby. Poet
Robert Fergusson (1750–1774) was trained as a minister, but abandoned this to take up poetry at the age of 22, supplementing his income by working as a clerk. His career was short-lived, and he died in the Edinburgh lunatic asylum, then called Darien House, on Bristo Street. The year of birth on the stone is incorrect, though the day and month are correct. The monument was erected in June 1828, after Burns’ own death, but at his express wish. The grave was fully restored in 2010, replacing the enclosing ironwork and chains, and cleaning the stone. The gravestone reads: The reverse is inscribed: A further plaque within the front enclosure explains how
Robert Louis Stevenson was going to re-inscribe the stone in the mid-19th century. A statue was erected to Fergusson on the pavement at the churchyard entrance in 2004.
Alexander Runciman (1736–1785) and his brother
John Runciman (1744–1766) were painters. Their bronze plaque on the outer west wall of the church bears their heads, and was erected in 1866 by the Royal Scottish Academy near the then unmarked grave of Alexander. John died in Naples during his grand tour, and is buried there.
John Mackenzie, Lord MacLeod (1727–1789), the son of
George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie and like his father a
Jacobite. He captured
Dunrobin Castle in 1746 during the
second Jacobite rising and was subsequently convicted of high treason, but pardoned in 1748. He went on to become a Swedish Count, and later a major-general in the British army.
Adam Smith LLD (1723–1790), economist and author of
The Wealth of Nations, founded the study of political economics. His house was very close by, at the head of Panmure Close, and it survived until 1889. He lived here from 1778 until his death in 1790, having moved from his native town of
Kirkcaldy. The grave is a place of pilgrimage for economists of the world. Although an imposing railed monument, it may have been altered in the 1930s, as it was then described as "too small to notice". It is understood that Dr
Joseph Black, the chemist and physicist, and
James Hutton, the founder of geology, were both at his funeral, being his executors, as would have been David Douglas (see below). Rev.
Thomas Hardy (1748–1798) was Professor of Church History and Divinity, Chaplain to the King, Advocate of Church Unity, and one of the ministers of
St Giles.
19th-century burials David Smythe, Lord Methven FRSE (1746–1806) judge.
Benjamin Bell (1749–1806) and his son Joseph Bell, (1787–1848), both surgeons, are buried in the same plot. Benjamin Bell was one of the few men to have declined a
Baronetcy. He was related to
Wiliam Paterson, the Scots founder of the
Bank of England and was the great-grandfather of
Joseph Bell, tutor to
Arthur Conan Doyle,
J. M. Barrie and
Robert Louis Stevenson, and the inspiration for the character
Sherlock Holmes. A small stone to the north of Bell's stone is of interest due to its unusual
Greek inscription, taken from
The Persians by
Aeschylus and translated as "Dear the mound for it hides a loved heart." Prof Very Rev
Alexander Brunton (1772–1854),
Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1823. Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages at
Edinburgh University. His wife, the author
Mary Brunton (1778–1818) lies with him. James Clark (1732–1808) founded of the James Clark Vet School in Edinburgh. His monument was erected by "members of the veterinary profession in Great Britain and America 1950". Luke Fraser (1736–1821) was a teacher of
Sir Walter Scott at the
Royal High School. Fraser said of Scott that he was "a good Latin scholar, and very worthy man." The grave of
John Ballantyne (1774–1821), and his brother
James Ballantyne (1772–1833), publishers and friends of Sir Walter Scott, has no headstone, reflecting their poverty at the end of their lives. A small bronze plaque on the base of the Fettes tomb marks their final resting place. It is inscribed: The brothers were from a long-standing family of publishers in the Canongate. James, having moved to Edinburgh from
Kelso in 1802, was the printer of the
Waverley novels and these were first read in his house, prior to their printing. John, though partly to blame for Scott's loss of his fortune in the midst of his career, was a very dear friend to Scott, who is said to have openly wept at his funeral and whispered the above words on the plaque to
John Gibson Lockhart. Scott had nicknames for both men: John was "Rigdumfunnidos"; James was "Aldiboronti-phoscophornio".
Dugald Stewart (1753–1828) was Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University from 1785 until 1820. The son of
Matthew Stewart, Professor of Mathematics, Dugald is principally remembered as author of
Philosophy of the Human Mind (1792). His sealed tomb stands in the north section of the churchyard, notable as the only sealed tomb in the churchyard. The
Dugald Stewart Monument erected to him on the south-west edge of Calton Hill is just out of sight from the tomb.
Hugh William Williams (1773–1829), a watercolorist and landscape artist, was known as "Grecian Williams" for his foreign studies. It was allegedly Williams who coined the term "the modern Athens" in reference to Edinburgh, therefore his resting place, with Edinburgh's "Acropolis" (
Calton Hill) standing to the right, is fittingly appropriate.
Sir William Fettes (1750–1836), a former merchant on the High Street, served as
Lord Provost of Edinburgh in the early 19th century. His bequests funded the building of
Fettes College (opened 1870). The monument is a large sandstone mausoleum with gilded, grey marble tablets, inscribed: George Chalmers (1773–1836) was a master plumber and founder of
Chalmers Hospital, Edinburgh. He had lived at 208 Canongate. Mrs
Agnes Maclehose (1759–1841) was born in Glasgow. She separated from her husband and subsequently befriended
Robert Burns, carrying on a correspondence with him under the name "Clarinda". She lived at 14
Calton Hill, and is buried in the tomb of Lord Craig. Burns wrote several poems to her (not published until 1843, after her death). The most famous of these is "
Ae Fond Kiss", which includes the lines "Had we never lo’ed sae kindly, had we never lo’ed sae blindly, never met, or never parted, we’d hae ne’er been broken-hearted". Euphemia Amelia Murray (1768–1845) was called "the Flower of Strathmore" by Robert Burns. She is interred in the ground of David Smyth of Methven. Sir
John Watson Gordon R.A. (1788–1864) was a portrait artist, and a close friend and neighbour of
Henry Raeburn. He exhibited from 1821, and was a member of the
Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) from 1829, exhibiting there from 1830. He was elected president to the RSA in 1850. His most famous work is the portrait of
Sir Walter Scott in the National Gallery. Other subjects include
Sir David Brewster and
Thomas De Quincey. His brother and sister, who founded the Watson-Gordon Fine Art chair at Edinburgh University in his memory in 1879, are also buried here.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889), a preacher and prodigious hymn-writer, was minister in
Kelso from 1837, and took part in the
Disruption of 1843. He was minister of Chalmers’ Memorial Church in Grage Road, Edinburgh from 1866.
Edinburgh Castle monument A red granite cross, commemorates the soldiers of
Edinburgh Castle. It was erected in May 1880, by Mr Ford of the Holyrood Glass Works, and inaugurated in the presence of General Hope and the
71st Highlanders. The dead lie in the wide open green area all around the cross, which is inscribed: Verses from the Biblical
Epistles to Timothy are inscribed on the reverse.
20th-century burials Architect
Robert Hurd (1905–1963) was responsible for the partial redevelopment of the Canongate in the 1950s, and much other work throughout Edinburgh, including the Art Deco
Ravelston Garden (1936). He was interred after the official closure of the churchyard to burials, and his was the most recent interment, other than ashes.
Reputed burials David Rizzio (or Riccio) (1533–1566) was an Italian courtier of
Mary, Queen of Scots. Born near
Turin, he became valet to the Queen in 1561 and was promoted to be her secretary in 1564. He was enormously unpopular and was stabbed to death, in the presence of the Queen, in her chamber in
Holyrood Palace. The murderers included Mary's husband,
Lord Darnley. The body was interred in Holyrood Abbey but was allegedly moved to Canongate churchyard in 1688. However, this theory is now known to be "a probable Dickens hoax" for which "[n]o one could find any corroborating evidence". There is no evidence of any such grave ever having existed, nor is there a record of anyone named Scroggie in the Edinburgh census returns of the period. ==References==