John MacMorran

John MacMorran was a merchant involved in shipping, with shares in nine ships worth over £4,000 at his death, and had exported one cargo of wax and salmon worth £3,928, large amounts at the time, indicating he was one of the wealthiest merchants in Edinburgh.Margaret Sanderson, 'Edinburgh Merchants', in E. Cowan, ed, Renaissance & Reformation in Scotland (Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh, 1983), pp. 190-1. He built a large house in Edinburgh's Lawnmarket, which still survives, and is now known as Riddle's Court.[http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/52291/digital_images/edinburgh+lawnmarket+5+6+riddle+s+court+bailie+john+mcmorran+s+house/ RCAHMS Canmore, images of Riddle's Court]. A carved window frame with shutters from the MacMorran house was displayed at Edinburgh's Huntly House museum.pictured in Robert Chambers. [https://books.google.com/books?id=umQVAAAAQAAJ The Ancient Domestic Architecture of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 9]

MacMorran had been a servant of Regent Morton in the 1570s, obtaining a reward as Morton's "domestic and familiar servitor" in August 1576.Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1966), p. 100 no. 684. It was said that he helped conceal the former Regent's treasure. The townspeople complained that MacMorran exported grain to Spain (a Catholic country) in times of dearth.Robert Chambers, [https://archive.org/details/domesticannalsof01chamiala/page/144/mode/2up Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1858), pp. 144, 263]: James Melville, Memoirs of his own life, (Edinburgh 1827), p. 267.

In March 1590 MacMorran wrote to Archibald Douglas, a Scottish diplomat in London to help resolve a shipping dispute. MacMorran was in Dover, and was investigating an old claim against Edward Betts who had robbed one of ships four years earlier. He hoped to recover the cost of two cannon and a cargo of lead.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 4 (London, 1892), p. 20.

File:High School, Blackfriars 1578.jpg

The scholars at Edinburgh High School were disputing the length of their holidays. They managed to shut themselves up in the building, at that time on the site of the old Blackfriars Monastery, near the present-day Drummond Street. After two days, on 15 September 1595, the town council sent John MacMorran, as a Baillie of Edinburgh, to end the sit-in. MacMorran and his men were about to break in, using a beam as a battering-ram, when he was shot in the forehead and died instantly.Marguerite Wood, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015068454498&view=1up&seq=100 Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh: 1589-1603 (Edinburgh, 1927), p. 138] The shot was fired from a window by the 13-year-old son of William Sinclair of Mey, uncle and Chancellor of the Earl of Caithness. [https://archive.org/details/fragmentsscotis00dalygoog/page/n140 'The Diarey (sic) of Robert Birrell', in John Graham Dalyell, Fragments of Scottish History (Edinburgh, 1798), pp. 34-35].

The boys either fled or were captured. Justice was delayed for several months, as both the children' families and MacMorran's family were wealthy and able to ask the King, James VI of Scotland, to intervene. Lord Home made representations for one English culprit, the son of one Richard Foster, who was the first prisoner to be released. The English diplomat George Nicholson heard the town would benefit by raising contributions for building churches from the boys' supporters.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), pp. 19, 33. Seven were released soon after James Pringle of Whytbank (who lived at Moubray House), made a plea on their behalf to the Privy Council late in November.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1882), pp. 236-8. Eventually young William Sinclair and all the others were released without penalty.Robert Chambers, [https://archive.org/details/domesticannalsof01chamiala/page/260/mode/2up Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1858), pp. 261-264]

The schoolmaster, and prolific poet in Latin, Hercules Rollock, was sacked.[https://www.dps.gla.ac.uk/research-articles/display/?fid=rollock1 Steven Reid, 'Murder, Mayhem and the Muse in Jacobean Edinburgh: introducing Hercules Rollock (c. 1546-1599)', Bridging the Continental Divide, University of Glasgow]

John MacMorran was buried in the kirkyard of Greyfriars, and a memorial inscription in Latin praised his services to the town.William Maitland, History of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1753), p. 201.

File:16th C Painted Beam Ceiling MacMoran's House, Riddle's Court, Edinburgh.JPG with Imperial eagle and thistle motif at Riddle's court]]

John MacMorran's house and contents, and his business, passed to his brother Ninian, to administer for John's children and his widow Katherine Hutcheson. At the time of his death, Bailie John owned part shares in several ships including the Anna (named for Anne of Denmark), the Grace of God, the Pelican, the Good Fortune, the Elspeth, the Fleur-de-lys, and the Thomas. He had a fortune in gold coins. An inventory of the furnishings of the house at John's death survives in the National Archives of Scotland.J. MacPhail, Fraser Papers (SHS, Edinburgh, 1924), p. 227: Will of Makmorane, Johnne, National Records of Scotland, CC8/8/29, pp. 480-3. A walnut dresser in his dining room was probably a French import.Michael Pearce, "A French Furniture Maker and the 'Courtly Style' in Sixteenth-Century Scotland", Regional Furniture vol. XXXII (2018), p. 134. The house was described by the antiquarian and historian Daniel Wilson.Daniel Wilson, Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1891), pp. 218-219.

Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline rented accommodation from MacMorran, probably at Riddle's Court. In July 1597 James VI held a lengthy audience with the English ambassador Robert Bowes in Seton's garden.John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 13 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 50.

In 1598, two or more banquets were held in the house for Ulrik, Duke of Holstein, the younger brother of Anne of Denmark.Marguerite Wood, Extracts form the Burgh Records of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1927), pp. 218, 362-365: Michael Pearce, 'Riddle’s Court, Banquet and Diplomacy in 1598', History Scotland Magazine, 12:4 (2012), pp. 20-27: Edward Hollis, A Drama in Time: A Guide to 400 Year's of Riddle's Court (Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2018), pp. 52-54. Robert Birrell noted the "great solemnity and merryness" at the banquet on 2 May 1598, attended by James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark. [https://archive.org/details/fragmentsscotis00dalygoog/page/n152 'The Diarey (sic) of Robert Birrell', in John Graham Dalyell, Fragments of Scottish History (Edinburgh, 1798), p. 46].

Anne of Denmark's Danish cook, Hans Poppilman, was paid £10 Scots. The banquet involved sugar confections and sweetmeats made by a Flemish confectioner, Jacques de Bousie, who was a favourite of the queen. He was paid £184 Scots for sugar works, one of the most costly items on the bill. Wine was sweetened and spiced to make Hippocras by two apothecaries, John Lawtie and John Clavie, and a third apothecary, Alexander Barclay made two pints of "vergeis" and a mutchkin of perfumed rose water.Marguerite Wood, Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh, 1589-1603 (Edinburgh, 1927), pp. 218, 362-4.

Tapestries were borrowed from Holyrood Palace. Two French experts, Estienne Pierre and Robert Barbier, arranged the table linen. Ninian MacMorran was compensated for the loss of his best damask napkins during the banquet.Marguerite Wood, Extracts from the Burgh Records of Edinburgh: 1589-1603, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1927), pp. 64, 362. Another banquet was held for the Duke of Holstein on 25 May, hosted by the Duke of Lennox, and another hosted by the king on 27 May.Joseph Bain, Border Papers, 2 (Edinburgh, 1896), p. 538 no. 944. Surviving painted decoration may be a remainder of an "ephemeral festive architecture" for the visit of the queen's brother.Karen Dundas, 'Painted ceilings: their significance on the Royal Mile and wider context', Michael Cressey, 'Riddle's Court, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh: a merchant's house fit for a king, Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports, 102 (2023), p. 44. {{doi|10.9750/issn.2056-7421.2023.102}}

In the mid-18th century Riddle's Court was home to David Hume and he began writing "The History of England" here.Edinburgh and District (Ward Lock Travel Guide, 1930).

In 1890, the building was restored for use as a university hall of residence by the educationalist and polymath Patrick Geddes, the house is now cared for by the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust (SHBT), and was previously in part used by the Workers' Educational Association and the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland. The building is now home to the Patrick Geddes Centre for Learning, an educational arm of the SHBT.Edward Hollis, A Drama in Time: A Guide to 400 Year's of Riddle's Court (Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2018).

Professor Emerita Maureen Meikle gave a public lecture,'Anna of Denmark as Queen of Scots, 1590-1603', at the Patrick Geddes Centre on 30 October 2019.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://doi.org/10.9750/issn.2056-7421.2023.102 Michael Cressey, 'Riddle’s Court, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh: a merchant’s house fit for a king, Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports, 102 (2023)]
• [https://www.socantscot.org/resource/riddles-court-a-merchants-house-fit-for-a-king-by-dr-mike-cressey/ Riddle’s Court: a merchant's house fit for a king, by Dr Mike Cressey SAS]
• [http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/52291/details/edinburgh+lawnmarket+5+6+riddle+s+court+bailie+john+mcmorran+s+house/ RCAHMS Canmore on Riddle's Court]
• [http://www.riddlescourt.org.uk/ SHBT on Riddle's Court]
• [http://www.ewht.org.uk/riddles-court EWHT on Riddle's Court]
• [http://www.patrickgeddescentre.org.uk/ The Patrick Geddes Centre at Riddle's Court] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605040100/https://www.patrickgeddescentre.org.uk/ |date=5 June 2023 }}

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Category:1595 deaths

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