Whitehouse The site of the present Gillis Centre was originally known as 'Whitehouse' and gave its name to the lane that runs alongside it, Whitehouse Loan. The house had many literary and academic occupants and must have had a connection with the
University of Edinburgh, because it was there that some of the university's leading figures wrote various pieces of literature, such as
Principal Robertson who wrote his
The History and Reign of Charles V in 1769. In 1756
John Home wrote his tragedy
Douglas there and in 1783
Hugh Blair wrote his
Lectures.
St Margaret's Convent In the 1830s, the
Roman Catholic Church in Scotland was not yet re-established.
James Gillis, before he became a bishop, was sent by Bishop Paterson to the Continent to raise funds to establish a convent. On his journey via London, he was introduced to
Ann Agnes Trail, the daughter of a minister of the established
Church of Scotland. Subsequently on his return to England, Miss Trail wrote to him offering herself as a member of his projected community. Miss Margaret Clapperton, who was to be one of the founding members of the community, came from
Fochabers and had known James Gillis for much of her life. It was agreed that Miss Trail and Miss Clapperton should go together to
Chavagnes, the
Mother House of the
Ursulines and they arrived there on 31 August 1833. In June 1834, James Gillis bought a house, Whitehouse, for his proposed convent with 2 acres of ground for £3,000 from Ann Oliphant. The initial group of eleven Sisters comprising Miss Trail (now Sister Agnes Xavier), Miss Clapperton (now Sister Margaret Teresa), The Reverend Mother St Hilaire, Mother St Paula, Sister St Damian, Sister Alexis, Sister John Chrysostom, Sister Mary Emily, Sister Angelina and two lay Sisters, Sister Stephen and Sister Eustelle then travelled to Scotland but had to live elsewhere for four months while the Convent was being made ready. On 26 December 1834, the community took possession of St Margaret's Convent, which was the first post-Reformation convent in Scotland. At St Margaret's, arrangements had been made for the reception of young lady boarders, whose education was to be the principal work of the sisters. On 16 June 1835, the Feast of St Margaret, the new St Margaret's Chapel was opened. It was built alongside the Whitehouse Mansion House. In 1863,
Bishop Gillis gave a
relic of
St Margaret of Scotland to the chapel. For over 150 years, until it was closed in 1986, it was known in Edinburgh as St Margaret's Convent and School and it was under the ministry of the
Ursulines.
Chapel The chapel dedicated to St Margaret of Scotland was designed by
James Gillespie Graham (probably under significant influence from
A. W. N. Pugin) and opened in 1835. Additions are by Archibald Macpherson, 1893-5. It is an aisled
neo-Norman chapel with a later
apsidal gothic east end. From the same period, the gatehouse and convent building were also by James Gillespie Graham, and
E. W. Pugin (son of A. W. N. Pugin) designed the school building which was completed in 1863. == Gillis College ==