Canongate Kirkyard
The most celebrated burials at the kirkyard are the economist Adam Smith and the poet Robert Fergusson, but many other notable people were interred in the cemetery.
It has been claimed that David Rizzio, the murdered private secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots, lies here, although it is highly unlikely that an Italian Catholic would be reinterred in a Protestant graveyard 120 years after his death.
This separate parish was formerly served by Holyrood Abbey at the foot of the Royal Mile, and Lady Yester's Church on High School Wynd.
In 1687 King James VII adopted the abbey church as a Royal Chapel,[1] and the general population worshipped in Lady Yester's Kirk (built in 1647) until 1691.
This area was reformed as a sunken garden and the Burgh Cross, dating from 1128, was relocated here as a centre-piece, having formerly stood in the roadway in front of the church.
It is inscribed "This stone is for the society of Coachdrivers In the Canongate It was chiefly erected by Thomas Jamieson and Robert Maving, treasurer, 1734–65".
The drivers operated the Edinburgh to London route from White Horse Close, around 200 metres (660 ft) to the east.
At the base of the stone is a skull and two crossed bones, and at the top two figures hold a small book with some of his composition inscribed.
The stone formerly read: "Here lye the mortal remains of John Frederick Lampe whose harmonious composing shal out live Monumental register"Bishop Robert Keith (1681–1757) authored A History of the Church and State in Scotland from the Reformation to 1568.
Poet Robert Fergusson (1750–1774) was trained as a minister, but abandoned this to take up poetry at the age of 22, supplementing his income by working as a clerk.
His career was short-lived, and he died in the Edinburgh lunatic asylum, then called Darien House, on Bristo Street.
After a visit to Edinburgh in 1787, Burns wrote a letter explaining his disappointment that Fergusson’s grave in Canongate Kirkyard was still unmarked, thirteen years after his death.
Rev William Lothian (1740–1783) minister of Canongate Kirk and joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Their bronze plaque on the outer west wall of the church bears their heads, and was erected in 1866 by the Royal Scottish Academy near the then unmarked grave of Alexander.
It is understood that Dr Joseph Black, the chemist and physicist, and James Hutton, the founder of geology, were both at his funeral, being his executors, as would have been David Douglas (see below).
He was related to Wiliam Paterson, the Scots founder of the Bank of England and was the great-grandfather of Joseph Bell, tutor to Arthur Conan Doyle, J. M. Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson, and the inspiration for the character Sherlock Holmes.
The son of Matthew Stewart, Professor of Mathematics, Dugald is principally remembered as author of Philosophy of the Human Mind (1792).
Sir William Fettes (1750–1836), a former merchant on the High Street, served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh in the early 19th century.
The monument is a large sandstone mausoleum with gilded, grey marble tablets, inscribed: "Sacred to the memory of Sir William Fettes of Comely Bank, Baronet, Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1801 and 1802 and a second time in 1805 and 1806 Born 25 June 1750.
Died 27 May 1836... over the grave of its founder, the trustees of the Fettes Endowment have erected this monument, in grateful recognition of the enlightened benevolence which devoted the acquisitions of an honourable life to the useful purpose of providing for the children of his less fortunate fellow countrymen the elegance of a sound and liberal education"George Chalmers (1773–1836) was a master plumber and founder of Chalmers Hospital, Edinburgh.
His brother and sister, who founded the Watson-Gordon Fine Art chair at Edinburgh University in his memory in 1879, are also buried here.
The dead lie in the wide open green area all around the cross, which is inscribed: "To the memory of the soldiers who died in Edinburgh Castle, situated in the parish of Canongate, interred herewith military honours from the year 1692 to 1880.
"Death called them away from the martial ranks and sad was each comrade's tread as they bore them along to the march in Saul Midst crowds to their lonely bed But their country's sons will around this stone Oft speak of the deeds of the brave And gratefully look on the grassy sod That grows o’er the soldiers grave"Verses from the Biblical Epistles to Timothy are inscribed on the reverse.
Architect Robert Hurd (1905–1963) was responsible for the partial redevelopment of the Canongate in the 1950s, and much other work throughout Edinburgh, including the Art Deco Ravelston Garden (1936).
[2] A small bronze plaque on the east wall of the church, above a worn 17th-century flat tombstone, reads: "Tradition says that this is the grave of David Riccio 1533–1566 Transported from Holyrood.
