HOME
*





Smeaton House
Smeaton House, also known as Smeaton Castle, and now as Dalkeith Home Farm, is a courtyard castle dating from the fifteenth century, about north of Dalkeith, and south of Inveresk in East Lothian, Scotland.Coventry, Martin (2001) ''The Castles of Scotland''. Goblinshead. p.379 History In 1450 the lands on which Smeaton Castle are built were the property of the Abbey of Dunfermline. Thereafter they passed to the Richardsons. The buildings now form part of a farm. Robert Richardson (d. 1578) was treasurer of Scotland, and was said to have built a new house at Smeaton in 1577. He raised money for Regent Moray by pawning the personal jewellery of Mary, Queen of Scots. These items included a gold chain belt of pearl knots and a hair garnishing with 57 diamonds which his son James Richardson returned to Holyrood Palace on 18 March 1580. The inhabitants of Smeaton, Inveresk, and Monktonhall complained about the Richardsons in 1581 to the Privy Council. By long tradition they wer ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the northeast and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. It also contains more than 790 islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. Most of the population, including the capital Edinburgh, is concentrated in the Central Belt—the plain between the Scottish Highlands and the Southern Uplands—in the Scottish Lowlands. Scotland is divided into 32 administrative subdivisions or local authorities, known as council areas. Glasgow City is the largest council area in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. Limited self-governing power, covering matters such as education, social services and roads and transportation, is devolved from the Scott ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

David Masson
David Mather Masson LLD DLitt (2 December 18226 October 1907), was a Scottish academic, supporter of women's suffrage, literary critic and historian. Biography He was born in Aberdeen, the son of William Masson, a stone-cutter, and his wife Sarah Mather. David was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School under Dr. James Melvin and at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen. Intending to enter the Church, he proceeded to Edinburgh University, where he studied theology under Dr. Thomas Chalmers, with whom he remained friendly until the latter's death in 1847. However, abandoning his aspirations to the ministry, be returned to Aberdeen to undertake the editorship of the ''Banner'', a weekly paper devoted to the advocacy of Free Kirk principles. After two years he resigned this post and went back to Edinburgh to pursue a purely literary career. There he wrote a great deal, contributing to ''Fraser's Magazine'', ''Dublin University Magazine'' (in which appeared his essays on Tho ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Castles In East Lothian
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; from a ''pleasance'' which was a walled-in residence for nobility, but not adequately fortified; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Use of the term has varied over time and has also been applied to structures such as hill forts and 19th-20th century homes built to resemble castles. Over the approximately 900 years when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls, arrowslits, and portcullises, were ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Dalkeith Palace
Dalkeith Palace is a country house in Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland. It was the seat of the Dukes of Buccleuch from 1642 until 1914, and is owned by the Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust. The present palace was built 1701–1711 on the site of the medieval Dalkeith Castle. The medieval castle and collegiate church Dalkeith Castle was located to the north east of Dalkeith and dated from the 12th century when it was in the possession of the Clan Graham Lords of Dalkeith. With the death of John de Graham in 1341–1342 the castle and the barony of Dalkeith passed to the Clan Douglas via his sister, Marjory, who was married to Sir William Douglas. James Douglas of Dalkeith became the Earl of Morton in the mid 15th century. The castle was strategically located in an easily defensible position above a bend in the River North Esk. Nearer the centre of Dalkeith, James Douglas, 1st Lord Dalkeith, endowed the collegiate church in 1406, where Douglas earls, lords, and knights were buried. Ma ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Anne Of Denmark
Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiw ... from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until her death in 1619. The second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark and Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, Anne married James at age 14. They had three children who survived infancy: Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, who predeceased his parents; Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, Princess Elizabeth, who became Queen of Bohemia; and James's future successor, Charles I of England, Charles I. Anne demonstrated an independent streak and a willingness to use fa ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

James VI Of Scotland
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death in 1625. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a great-great-grandson of Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, and thus a potential successor to all three thrones. He succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother was compelled to abdicate in his favour. Four different regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, though he did not gain full control of his government until 1583. In 1603, he succeeded Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, who died childless. He c ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Euphame MacCalzean
Euphame MacCalzean (born before 1558, died 25 June 1591 in Edinburgh) was a victim of the North Berwick witch trials of 1590–1591. Early life She was born at Clifton Hall, west of Edinburgh, the only child of Thomas McCalzean (Lord Cliftonhall), an eminent Edinburgh judge, future Provost of Edinburgh, and Senator of the College of Justice from 1570, who recognized Euphame legally as his daughter and heir in 1558. MacCalzean married Patrick Moscrop or Moscrope, who served as a Justice deputy, but the relative power of their families meant that Patrick took her father-in-law's surname of MacCalzean. This was normal practice where trying to preserve a family name where the sole heir was female. They were married by December 1579 when they made a joint contract with a Canongate burgess. In 1586 Eufame and Patrick were involved in a dispute with Edinburgh town council. During an outbreak of plague, on Christmas Day 1585, the council had moved the quarantined and infected people f ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

North Berwick Witch Trials
The North Berwick witch trials were the trials in 1590 of a number of people from East Lothian, Scotland, accused of witchcraft in the St Andrew's Auld Kirk in North Berwick on Halloween night. They ran for two years, and implicated over seventy people. These included Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, on charges of high treason. The "witches" allegedly held their covens on the Auld Kirk Green, part of the modern-day North Berwick Harbour area. The confessions were extracted by torture in the Old Tolbooth, Edinburgh. One source for these events is a 1591 pamphlet ''Newes from Scotland''. King James VI wrote a dissertation on witchcraft and necromancy titled ''Daemonologie'' in 1597. The North Berwick trials were among the more well known of the large number of witch trials in early modern Scotland between the early sixteenth century and the mid-eighteenth century. The Danish connection This was the first major witchcraft persecution in Scotland, and began with a sensational ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Archibald Douglas, 8th Earl Of Angus
Archibald Douglas, 8th Earl of Angus and 5th Earl of Morton (15554 August 1588) was the son of David, 7th Earl of Angus. He succeeded to the title and estates in 1558, being brought up by his uncle, James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, a Presbyterian. In 1573 he was made a Privy Councillor and Sheriff of Berwickshire; in 1574 Lieutenant-General in Scotland; in 1577 Warden of the West Marches and Steward of Fife; and in 1578 Lieutenant-General of the realm. As a supporter of Morton and "ultra-Protestant" policy he was twice forced in exile in England. Life Archibald Douglas was educated at the University of St Andrews and was tutored at Regent Morton's court by John Provan. In 1580 Angus gave strong support to Morton during the attack upon the latter, made a vain attempt to rescue him, and was declared guilty of high treason on 2 June 1581. He then entered into correspondence with the English government for an invasion of Scotland to rescue Morton, and on the latter's executio ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Dunfermline Abbey
Dunfermline Abbey is a Church of Scotland Parish Church in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. The church occupies the site of the ancient chancel and transepts of a large medieval Benedictine abbey, which was sacked in 1560 during the Scottish Reformation and permitted to fall into disrepair. Part of the old abbey church continued in use at that time and some parts of the abbey infrastructure still remain. Dunfermline Abbey is one of Scotland's most important cultural sites. History Early history The Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Trinity and St Margaret, was founded in 1128 by King David I of Scotland, but the monastic establishment was based on an earlier priory dating back to the reign of his father King Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, i. e. "Malcolm III" or "Malcolm Canmore" (regnat 1058–93), and his queen, St Margaret. At its head was the Abbot of Dunfermline, the first of which was Geoffrey of Canterbury, former Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, the Kent monastery that p ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Privy Council Of Scotland
The Privy Council of Scotland ( — 1 May 1708) was a body that advised the Scottish monarch. In the range of its functions the council was often more important than the Estates in the running the country. Its registers include a wide range of material on the political, administrative, economic and social affairs of the Kingdom of Scotland. The council supervised the administration of the law, regulated trade and shipping, took emergency measures against the plague, granted licences to travel, administered oaths of allegiance, banished beggars and gypsies, dealt with witches, recusants, Covenanters and Jacobites and tackled the problem of lawlessness in the Highlands and the Borders. History Like the Parliament, the council was a development of the King's Council. The King's Council, or ''curia regis'', was the court of the monarch surrounded by his royal officers and others upon whom he relied for advice. It is known to have existed in the thirteenth century, if not earlier, ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Thomas Thomson (advocate)
Thomas Thomson FRSE FSA Scot (10 November 1768 – 2 October 1852) was a Scottish advocate, antiquarian and archivist who served as Principal Clerk of Session (1828–1852) and as secretary of the literary section of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1812–20). Life Thomas Thomson was born in Dailly manse on 10 November 1768, the eldest son of Rev Thomas Thomson, minister of Dailly in Ayrshire, and his second wife, Mary, daughter of Francis Hay. John Thomson was a younger brother. After attending the parish school of Dailly, he entered the University of Glasgow at age 13, where he graduated with an MA on 27 April 1789. He attended classes in theology and law at the University of Edinburgh from 1789 to 1791. He passed the Scottish bar as an advocate on 10 December 1793. His early Edinburgh address was 19 North Castle Street. Here he was a neighbour and close friend to Walter Scott, at that time also a fellow advocate. Thomson acquired a practice at the bar, particularly in cases ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]