The first time I went to Edinburgh it felt like home. A big huggy feeling of joy and welcome despite the wind and rain. I just thought it was a “being in at Scotland” thing as this was before I started my family history and discovered my Glasgow Kerrs were mostly blow ins from Ireland two generations previously!
Later as I researched I found a ground swell of Edinburgh relatives on my grandmother's paternal side and quite a few from my great grandfather‘s maternal side. So on returning to Edinburgh in 2019 I made it my mission to seek out locations where the relatives may have lived and get a feel for their lives. So where did Robert Johnston, Matilda Strelley nee Johnston, James and Jessie Cross nee Smart, and Robert Smart live?
Firstly it is interesting to note that there is an Old Town Edinburgh and the New Town Edinburgh. Interestingly the New Town Edinburgh is as old as our earliest part of Sydney town in Australia.
The Post Office Directory had my 4 x great grandfather Robert Johnston 1739 - 1826 at both 10 and 4 Shakespeare Square. He is listed as a vintnor and in another piece of information I have found that he was the keeper of an Oyster Tavern in Shakespeare’s Square around 1800.
However another document which talks about his son Henry Johnston’s birth describes him as a venerable personage. Robert’s original occupation was a barber and wigmaker. Generally he would have trimmed or shaved beards or was employed in dressing hair and making wigs. His shop was in the High Street of Edinburgh and “was frequented due to its proximity to the Parliament House by gentlemen of the long robe” Thus he mixed with people in high places and was entrusted with caring for the adornment of these most public people.
There are marriage and death certificates showing his profession as a wig maker, barber, hairdresser or Vintner. The information in the Post Office Directory was also confirmed for me when I enquired on a Facebook site called Edinburgh Old Photos about the whereabouts of Shakespeare’s Square.
Unfortunately Shakespeare’s Square was demolished as part of the clear out of the Old Town Edinburgh. Most people on the Facebook page where ashamed they have never heard of Shakespeare’s Square but that’s because it was gone a long time ago. Its location would be bottom right of the Northbridge as your face Princess Street. Where the old GPO is at the junction of Northbridge in Waterloo Place it was the home of Edinburgh‘s first purpose-built theatre named Theatre Royale built in the Old Town in 1769 to 1859 and rebuilt in 1830 before being demolished in 1859. Robert’s son, Henry who later starred in theatre was probably performing in the venue metres from his father’s business.
An old map and painting pinpoints his whereabouts. It’s near the National Register Office in the middle of Edinburgh’s bustling railway station and terminal. While contemplating in the gardens behind the NRO we determined the oyster bar or any remnants would be really close. We walked out of the gardens and into a street called West Register Street where the oldest oyster bar in Edinburgh still operates today. Upon entering the current Cafe Royale we asked staff about its history they claimed it’s the oldest oyster bar in Edinburgh but the notes inside their menu says that there was another oyster bar on the site previously from about 1826 the cafe was run by a man called Ambrose. This may or may not be Robert Johnson's but it was in the vicinity and Robert Johnston did pass away in 1826 leaving his business open for takeover or purchase.
We had a drink for Robert Johnston while we soaked in the significance of the cafe and the attached oyster bar.
Later we found reference to a painting of Shakespeare’s Square in a web post https://talesofonecity.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/shakespeare-square-a-vanished-corner-of-edinburgh/and better still we found the actual painting hanging by John Leconte in the Museum of Edinburgh. It shows a larger rebuilt theatre and see more of the area around Shakespeare’s Square. There is also an engraving by Thomas Shepherd 1830s.
As we looked out from the Apex Hotel which backed onto the remnants of Old Town, we could see the slope of the prominent Calton Hill and the shape of several of its iconic monuments and buildings. We climbed to the top and it has magnificent views of the Old and the New Town, the Castle and Holyrood House. It feels a little like Athens because there are many monuments on top designed in honour of the soldiers who lost their lives in the Napoleonic wars. My relatives lived in those times. It also gives great perspective of where our relatives spent their daily lives.
The remnants of Old Town built in dark granite, show winding passages and cobbled lanes. Today it’s full of pubs, restaurants, upmarket shops and arts venues. In the 18th century it suffered fires, diseases, crimes, ghosts and drunkenness. It was a place of squalor and toppling tenements where the 50,000 residents lived with cattle roaming the narrow lanes. There were marshlands to the south, while to its immediate north was the North Loch – a lake flooded in the 15th century to bolster the city’s defences. The sewage and household waste had accumulated to make the water a foul wasteland. The city ‘s population grew but it had clearly run out of space to expand.The grid pattern New Town is built of neo-classical and Georgian buildings of lighter white sandstone is now in central Edinburgh. It was built in stages between 1767 and 1850 In 1995 the Old Town and the New Town were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The residents would surely have loved the more generous space and order the city offered.
We furthered our searches for other known addresses for the Johnstons courtesy of some preplanning from the various census documents. We found my 3x great grandmother Matilda Strelley, Robert’s daughter and her family living at Pitt Street Edinburgh in 1840. It’s no longer there and 1851 address at 41 Cumberland Street seems to be built in the New Town as the front style of the street is built with a railing and garden design.
Coincidentally on another side of the family James and Jessie Cross had lived an address at 10 Calton Hill in 1861 with son David Williamson Cross. The search for another address- 5 Amphion Place that appears in a couple of that families Censuses seems to have been swallowed up or renamed.
I was interested only in following up on some of the Edinburgh addresses and had come prepared for just that. I wasn’t expecting to see a lot as I’d had a brief look around Glasgow addresses a few years back and most had gone.
It’s amazing how you get your bearings and how place names jump out at you. During our train trip through the highlands and the Scottish islands a few locations popped up and a check of the tree revealed Matilda Strelley nee Johnston had actually moved to quite a distance away to Blackford, Perthshire with her daughter Georgina and her husband. They later lived in the teacher’s house in Auchterarder and then Muckart.
And then while spreading out my newly purchased Scottish Map I found the McHardys had ended up on one of the Scottish Isles in Rothesay, Bute. Who’d have known it was a Scottish Isle?
