In 1633, King Charles I came to St Giles' to have his Scottish coronation service, using the full Anglican rites, accompanied by William Laud, his new Archbishop of Canterbury.

The first use of the prayer book was in St Giles' on Sunday, 23 July 1637, when James Hannay, Dean of Edinburgh, began to read the Collects, part of the prescribed service, and Geddes, a market-woman or street-seller, threw her stool straight at the minister's head.

as being addressed to a gentleman in the congregation who murmured a dutiful response to the liturgy, getting thumped with a Bible for his pains, and describes Jenny as one of a number of "waiting-women" who were paid to arrive early and sit on their folding stools to hold a place for their patrons.

Officers summoned by the Provost ejected the rioters, who, for the rest of the service, stayed to hammer at the doors and throw stones at the windows.

This led to widespread signing of the National Covenant in February 1638, with its defiance of any attempt to introduce innovations like the prayer book that had not first been subject to the scrutiny of Parliament and the general assembly of the church.

In the aftermath of the riots definitive evidence is hard to come by, and some doubt if Geddes started the fight or if she even existed, but she remains a part of Edinburgh tradition and has long had a memorial in St Giles.