John Mylne (died 1621) was a

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master mason, the first of three successive generations of the name to serve as Master Mason to the Crown of Scotland. He was born in

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into a family of master builders. His great-grandfather, also John (died 1513), had been Master Mason to both James III and

James IV James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchi ...

. He was the son of Thomas Mylne (d. 1605), Master Mason to the Crown and

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of Dundee. His grandfather may have been Robert Mylne (d. 1549) former provost of Dundee. Mylne was well established as a mason by the 1580s. He was made a burgess of Dundee in 1587 for various works in the city, and in particular his renewing of the

royal burgh A royal burgh () was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished by law in 1975, the term is still used by many former royal burghs. Most royal burghs were either created by ...

's harbour.Colvin, pp.567-8 He also built the mercat cross which formerly stood in the High Street. In 1584-5 he was engaged on alterations to The Drum, a tower house in

Lothian Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Sco ...

, for the 7th

Lord Somerville Lord Somerville is a title in the Peerage of Scotland which is subject to a number of ambiguities. The date of creation is not known with certainty but it was probably created about 1435 for Thomas Somerville, Justiciar of Scotland. The title ...

. In 1589 he built or extended Bannatyne House in Newtyle,

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, for justice Thomas Bannatyne.Colvin (pp.567-8) states Mylne carried out extensions, but the Historic Environment Record for Bannatyne House names Mylne as the building's architect. Mylne was Master of the Mason's Lodge at Scone at a time when the mason's lodges were moving away from being simply craft guilds, and he admitted

King James VI 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 ...

to the lodge as a Freeman Mason. From 1604 to 1617 Mylne was engaged planning and executing an eleven-arched bridge across the

River Tay The River Tay ( gd, Tatha, ; probably from the conjectured Brythonic ''Tausa'', possibly meaning 'silent one' or 'strong one' or, simply, 'flowing') is the longest river in Scotland and the seventh-longest in Great Britain. The Tay originates ...

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. Mylne was made a burgess of Perth in 1607, although his bridge was destroyed by a flood in October 1621, just four years after completion, and shortly after Mylne's death. In 1620 he was engaged by the Laird of Scone to build a new church at Falkland, which he worked on with the assistance of his son until his death. Mylne married Helen Kinnereis, or Kenneries, and had one recorded child, his son John. He died in early 1621, and was buried in

Greyfriars Burial Ground Greyfriars Burial Ground is an historic cemetery in Perth, Scotland, dating to 1580. It is now Category A listed. It occupies the former location of the Greyfriars Monastery, founded by Laurence Oliphant, 1st Lord Oliphant, in 1496 and destroy ...

in Perth, where his monument, including a 1774 tablet added by his descendant Robert Mylne, still stands.

References

Bibliography

*''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'',

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, 1921–22. * Colvin, Howard (1978) ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840''. 4th edition,

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

, . *Howard, Deborah (1995) ''Architecture of Scotland: Reformation to Restoration, 1560-1660'',

Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh University Press is a scholarly publisher of academic books and journals, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Edinburgh University Press was founded in the 1940s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh ...

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mylne, John (d. 1621) Scottish architects 1621 deaths Burgesses in Scotland People from Dundee Master Masons to the Crown of Scotland Year of birth unknown