Trinity House, 99 Kirkgate, is a building in

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by ''Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

, Edinburgh, Scotland, which was a

guild hall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...

customs house A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...

, and centre for maritime administration and

poor relief In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

. In the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...

and Early Modern Era it also served as an almshouse and hospital. Now in state care, it houses a

maritime museum A maritime museum (sometimes nautical museum) is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water. A subcategory of maritime museums are naval museums, which focus on navies and the milita ...

. It is a category A

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

Masters and Mariners of Leith

Convening Room Trinity House, Leith N wall

In 1380 King Robert II granted the Incorporation of Master and Mariners of Leith the right to levy a duty, called prime gilt, of 12

pennies A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...

on each

ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...

of goods landed at Leith. An additional voluntary contribution, called crown money, was also collected. Trade was largely conducted over the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

, with the Nordic and Baltic regions, the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

and France. The funds raised by the prime gilt and crown money were then used for the

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

of the sick, the poor and the widows and orphans of lost or captured mariners; and to care for aged mariners. The Masters and Mariners of the Trinity House in the Kirkgate was the oldest and became the wealthiest of the

trade guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

s of Leith. The north wall of Trinity House bears a foundation stone dated 1555. This somewhat contradicts older histories which state that Trinity House was built in 1560 in replacement of "St Anthony's blockhouse" (also known also known as St Anthony's Kirk) a seemingly strongly fortified structure controlling access to the Kirkgate. St Anthony's blockhouse clearly related to St. Anthony's Perceptory, a small monastic site. Records state that the blockhouse was rased to the ground in 1560. This apparently left the vaulted structures which still exist below Trinity House. Following a series of disputes over payments, in 1566

Mary Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Sco ...

confirmed the right of the Incorporation to collect payments: ratifying "the gift, foundation, erection and institution of the hospital and of the prime gilt". Refusal to pay would result in the

confiscation Confiscation (from the Latin ''confiscatio'' "to consign to the ''fiscus'', i.e. transfer to the treasury") is a legal form of seizure by a government or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, ...

of sails and anchor. The medieval Incorporation served as a blueprint for the establishment of Trinity Houses in other maritime centres, including Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the 16th century. In 1680, funded by fees and by a levy on Leith shipmasters, the Masters and Mariners appointed a professor to teach the mathematics of navigation to the sons and apprentices of shipmasters. Concerned to improve safety at sea, Trinity House established the first formal nautical training in the country and licensed

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

s for the Forth and around the

Scottish coast Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

. By collecting Licht Money (light money), by the 17th century they were maintaining primitive coal-fired lights in the Forth. In the 19th century, Trinity House was involved in the planning and funding of new and more reliable lighthouses that took advantage of improvements in technology. These included the

Bell Rock lighthouse The Bell Rock Lighthouse, off the coast of Angus, Scotland, is the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse. It was built between 1807 and 1810 by Robert Stevenson on the Bell Rock (also known as Inchcape) in the North Sea, east of the ...

, Fidra lighthouse and the Isle of May lighthouse. On 29 June 1797 the Corporation of the Trinity House of Leith was granted a

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but s ...

. This transformed the body from merely a corporation in name, of charitable status, to a true corporation. At this stage they obtained extra functions, such as choosing and licensing harbour pilots. They also had their tax powers ratified, charging one penny for every ton of goods unloaded, with this money being used to relieve the poor. Additionally, each shipmaster had to pay 6d per year, this money specifically being redistributed to poor seamen. In the 18th century, The Masters and Mariners invested in land, which became known as Trinity Mains, near the village of Newhaven. This land later developed into a suburb of Leith and into the district of

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

. As a result of the requirement for formal qualifications stipulated in the Merchant Seamen Act 1844, in 1855 Trinity House and other Leith organisations founded the Leith Navigational School (also called the Government Navigation School), based at a room at St Ninian's Church (also called the Mariners' Church), on Commercial Street. In 1903 Leith Navigation School came under the control of the

Scottish Education Department The Scottish Government Education Directorates were a group of the civil service directorates in the Scottish Government. The Directorates were titled Children, Young People and Social Care; Schools; and Lifelong Learning. They were responsible ...

, and the name was changed to

Leith Nautical College Leith Nautical College was a maritime college in Leith, Scotland. The college provided instruction for the training of Merchant Navy officers and other seafarers. Courses offered included naval architecture, marine engineering, telegraphy, radar a ...

(since merged to become part of Jewel & Esk College, which in 2012 merged to become Edinburgh College). After prime gilt was abolished in 1862, Trinity House had to depend on property income to meet its pension payments and other commitments. Pupils from the nearby Leith Primary School are taught about the history of Trinity House and offer scripted tours of the building to other schools and a variety of selected guests.

History of the building

In 1555 the Incorporation had sufficient funds to build a hospital at the Kirkgate. The basement and vaults of the 16th century building were incorporated into the current building, which was designed by Thomas Brown in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing sty ...

and completed in 1818. The new building had three bays on the front elevation and featured a

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

with paired

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...

columns on the ground floor; there was a large window with Ionic order columns and semi-circular fanlight window above on the first floor.

References

External links

Official website
* Historic Environment Scotland
Visitor guide
{{authority control 1380 establishments in Scotland 1555 establishments in Scotland 1816 establishments in Scotland Admiralty law in the United Kingdom Commercial buildings completed in 1818 Category A listed buildings in Edinburgh Custom houses in the United Kingdom Economic history of Scotland Georgian architecture in Scotland Guildhalls in the United Kingdom Guilds in Scotland Historic Environment Scotland properties Buildings and structures in Leith Listed houses in Scotland Maritime education Maritime museums in Scotland Maritime organizations Maritime safety organizations Lighthouse organizations Navigation Neoclassical architecture in Scotland Scottish medieval hospitals and almshouses Training organizations Water transport in Scotland Maritime colleges in the United Kingdom Almshouses in Scotland Shipping in Scotland

History

Masters and Mariners of Leith

History of the building

See also

References

External links