Day 70
Chronicle of Leith
Chronicle of the Ancient Incorporations, Trades, Merchants and Societies of North Leith with Newhaven and of South Leith, displayed at the South Leith Parish Church.
This Chronicle was born from the research of Gordon S. Milne OBE, who has graciously written today’s post providing details of their creation and insights into their meaning.
Although I am not a resident of Leith my family connection with it goes back almost 200 years. As a result I have a keen interest in its colourful, yet greatly disrupted, history.
For centuries the folk of Leith were and are a close knit community. Over generations the nature of this community has gone through many changes. In the years since the end of WW2 that change has been very dramatic with large swathes of North and South Leith falling to redevelopment. This brought about huge alterations to the physical and social fabric of the entire community.
In medieval days and later, community life in Leith was focussed by and on the Churches and the Incorporations and Trades. In a most graphic way the Chronicle shows how these Bodies shaped the commerce, industry and development of Leith and its people.
Originally, some years ago I started to research the ancient Trades of North and South Leith with the intention of writing a short history of them. However, I soon discovered that the damages inflicted by the Plague, then 1st. Earl of Hertford and one hundred years later by Oliver Cromwell caused almost all records to be lost. In the City of Edinburgh Archives there are numerous assorted Books of Sederunt of some of the Trades of Leith during the 18th. and 19th. Centuries. However, only four of those were Incorporations within the Convenery of South Leith. Four others are of Trades outwith the Convenery.
Consequently there are no composite writings or detailed recordings of the many organisations which flourished during the 700 years from the 13th. to 19th. Centuries. Only the records of the Corporation of The Trinity House of Leith are fulsome. Minutes of the various Kirk Sessions are not too enlightening.
Rather than my research efforts being abandoned I drafted an historical panel. This is a Chronicle of the Ancient Incorporations, Trades, Merchants and Societies of North Leith with Newhaven and of South Leith. Charles Burnett, formerly Ross Herald of Arms and a friend of long-standing, accepted this rough draft as a start to me commissioning him to create this magnificently calligraphed and illustrated work.
As can be seen there are 40 vignettes contained within the Chronicle. These are the result of such of my research as proved productive. Some are instantly recognisable, others require just a little explanation. This is given in what follows but with apologies to others more erudite and who may have a different view of interpretation.
North Leith
Canongate Burgh Arms. These are featured as North Leith was part of the lands and ownership of the Abbotts of Holyrood and part of the Burgh of Canongate before it was absorbed into the City of Edinburgh. The pre-Reformation Church of St. Ninian’s later became North Leith Church.
Devices of six Trades. These are self-explanatory. That of the Carpenters and Shipwrights clearly indicate the major function of North Leith was ship building.
Newhaven. This is a fundamental part of the story but is entirely separate from its neighbour North Leith.
Water of Leith. ( Aqua de Leyth or Llaith) flows 24 miles from its source at Colzium in the Pentlands to its mouth on the Firth of Forth, so giving rise to the two ancient hamlets, later to become the most important seaport in Scotland.
Seal/Arms of Leith. From before and then after the Reformation these depicted the Virgin Mary under a Gothic canopy. In the late 1800’s the then Town Clerk of the Burgh of Leith Petitioned the Lord Lyon for new Arms. Somewhat curiously the Town Clerk had re-interpreted the Gothic Canopy as a Cloud which Lyon accepted without apparent challenge. What we have today is, arguably, incorrect but lawful.
Leith Town Hall. The pediment advises this was erected in 1827 by the Magistrates and Masters. These Masters were, in fact, those of the four Incorporations.
Devices of the Nine Trades. These are self-explanatory. The Arms of The Corporation of The Trinity House of Leith are relatively recent, replacing those of the 16/17th. Century. This Corporation is the sole surviving Body of all the “Trades” of all of Leith.
South Leith Parish Church. In pre-Reformation times this was the Church of St. Mary. It was and remains central to the story of Leith. A number of the South Leith Trades had their Altars to their Saints in this Church. Some of the nine Trades devices are still on the walls of the Church.
The Chronicle is held in South Leith Parish Church and can be studied there.
Old Scots Navy and Hanseatic League of New Times. These two vignettes are essential footnotes to the story.
It is my very great pleasure to share the Chronicle with you. May it serve to inform and intrigue generations to come.
