Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 3

HADDINGTON
were females. Houses (1881) inhabited 928, vacant 42,
building 3.
Haddington is mentioned as a burgh in David I.'s
confirmation charter to Dunfermline Abbey (1130); and
Ada, daughter of the Earl of Surrey and Warren, received
it in 1139 as dower on her marriage with Prince Henry,
David's son. On her death, in 1178, William the
Lyon inherited it as a royal demesne ; and here, in
1198, was born his son Alexander II. Under the reign
of this last the town seems first to have felt the miseries
of war, for in 1216 it was burned by King John of
England during his incursion into the Lothians. In
1242 the Earl of Athole was assassinated within its
■walls, in revenge for his having overthrown Walter de
Bisset in tournament. Two years later Haddington
was again destroyed by the flames, on the same night,
we are significantly told, as several other Scottish towns.
Though formally demanded in 1293 from John Baliol by
Edward I., it does not seem to have suffered much in the
wars of the succession. In 1355-56 Edward III. invaded
Scotland to avenge the seizure of Berwick by the Scots,
and Haddington was a third time reduced to ashes. In
1400 Henry IV. of England entered Haddington, but did
no damage ; and in 1503 the Princess Margaret, daughter
of Henry VII. , spent one night there on her way to Edin-
burgh. But the most famous event in the history of
the town is its siege. In April 1548, the year after the
Battle of Pinkie, the English seized Haddington, forti-
fied it, and left a strong garrison to defend it under Sir
James Wilford. The Scots, largely reinforced by
foreign troops, and commanded by the French general,
Andre de Montalembert, Sieur D'Ess^, immediately
laid siege to the town. The garrison made a long and
gallant resistance, repulsed assaults, and led sallies,
during one of which Wilford was captured. At last,
however, plague appeared among the garrison, and the
English determined to evacuate the place. To prevent
the soldiers and military stores from falling into the
hands of the besieging army, the Earl of Rutland
marched into Scotland with 6000 men, entered Had-
dington by night, and on 1 Oct. 1559 safely conducted
all the soldiers and artillery to Berwick. No vestiges
of the fortifications now remain. There is a full con-
temporary account of the siege of Haddington in Jean
de Beaugue's Histoire de la Guerre d'Escosse.
In 1598 Haddington was again burned. The calamity
having been occasioned through the carelessness of a
maidservant in placing a screen covered with clothes
too near a fire-place during the night, the magistrates
enacted that a crier should perambulate the town during
the winter evenings, warning the people to guard against
fire. The ceremony got the name of 'Coal an' Can'le,'
from the following rude verses which the crier recited : —
* A' guid men's seirants where'er ye be.
Keep coal an' can'le for charitie !
Eaith in your kitchen an' your ha',
Keep weel your fires whate'er befa' !
In bakehouse, brewhouse, barn, and byre,
I warn ye a' keep weel your fire !
For oftentimes a little spark
Brin^ mony hands to mickle wark !
Ye nourrices that hae bairns to keep.
See that ye fa' nae o'er sound asleep.
For losing o' your guid renoun.
An' banishing (f this barrous toun
'Tis for your sakes that I do cry :
Tak' warning by your neighbours bye ! *
A privy council order of 10 Nov. 1636, anent some
Egyptians or Gipsies, prisoners in Haddington tolbooth,
ordained ' the men to be hanged, and the women to be
drowned, and such of the women as have children to be
scourged through the burgh and burned in the cheek. '
Beyond the visit from Oliver Cromwell on 30 Aug. 1650,
already narrated under Dunbar, the later history of
Haddington contains little more of interest. The great
Reformer, John Knox (1505-72), was born at Hadding-
ton ; and the site of his birthplace in Giffordgate is
marked by a tree which was planted in 1881 in accord-
ance with one of the last wishes of Thomas Carlyle.
(SeeGiFFOED.) John Brown (1722-87), author of the
Self-Interpreting Bible, was minister of the Secession
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HADDINGTON
congregation from 1751 to his death ; and at Hadding-
ton were born his son, the Rev. John Brown (1754-
1832), the author of various works, and his grandson,
Samuel Brown, M.D. (1817-57), an able chemist. Other
illustrious natives were John Heriot (1760-1833), mis-
cellaneous writer and editor of the S^m and True Briton,
David Scott (1675-1742), author of a History of Scotland,
Samuel Smiles (b. 1816), author of Self Help, etc., and
Jane AVelsh (1801-66), whose tombstone in the abbey
churchyard records how ' for forty years she was the
true and ever-loving helpmate of Thomas Carlyle, and,
by act and word, unweariedly forwarded him, as none
else could, in all of worth that he did or attempted.'
Haddington gives the title of Earl, in the peerage of
Scotland, to the descendants of the Hamiltons of Inner-
wick, the remote kinsmen of the ducal family of Hamil-
ton. In 1606, Sir John Ramsay, brother of George Lord
Ramsay of Dalhousie, and the chief protector of James
VI. from the conspiracy of the Earl of Gowrie, was
created Viscount Haddington and Lord Ramsay ot
Barns ; in 1615 he was raised to a place among the
peers of England, by the titles of Earl of Holderness and
Baron Kingston-upon-Thames ; but dying, in 1625,
mthout issue, he left all his honours to be disposed of
at the royal will. In 1627 Thomas Hamilton of Priest-
field — who was eminent as a lawyer, and had become
Lord-President of the Court of Session, and Secretary of
State, and had been created Baron of Binning and Byres
in 1613, and Earl of Melrose in 1619— obtained the
king's permission to change his last and chief title into
that of Earl of Haddington. In 1827, Thomas, ninth
Earl, while only heir-apparent, was created Baron Mel-
rose of Tyninghame in the peerage of the United King-
dom ; and this nobleman, during the brief administration
of Sir Robert Peel in 1834-35, was Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland. The family seats are Tyninghame House, 2f
miles NE of East Linton, and MeUerstain and Lennel
House in Berwickshire.
The parish of Haddington occupies the centre of Had-
dingtonshire, and is bounded on the N by the parish of
Athelstaneford, on the E by Prestonkirk and Morham,
on the S by Yester, Bolton, Salton, and Gladsmuir, and
on the W by Gladsmuir and Aberlady. Its form is ex-
ceedingly irregular, consisting of a main body 4J miles
long by 3 broad, with five projections radiating there-
from. Its greatest length, from NN W to SSE, is 8 J miles ;
its greatest breadth, at right angles to its longer axis,
is 7 miles ; and its area is 12,113 acres, of which nearly
50 are water. Except in the N which is occupied by
the rounded summits of the Garleton Hills, the surface
of the parish presents a beautifully undulating land-
scape, covered with prosperous farms or dignified private
grounds. The southern slopes of the Garleton Hills are
clothed with fine plantations ; and on the top of Byres
or Byrie Hill, one of the summits, stands a monu-
ment, erected in 1824 to John, fourth Earl of Hope-
toun, one of the heroes of the Peninsular War. It has
an ascent of 132 steps, and is visible from Edinburgh,
17 miles distant. The river Tyne traverses the parish
from SW to NE in a sinuous course that maintains an
average breadth of from 50 to 56 feet. Trap rock forms
the mass of the Garleton HiUs, though on the southern
slopes that is overlaid by calciferous sandstone ; and
sandstone of various kinds and qualities prevails in the
rest of the parish. The soil towards the SW border is
shallow and inferior, but elsewhere it is good and in
high cultivation. About 1250 acres are under wood,
and more than 500 in pasture ; while the rest is culti-
vated. Coal has been sought for but not found. There
is a weak chalybeate spring, called Dobson's Well, about
i mile W of the burgh. The industries of the parish,
besides agriculture, are restricted to the town of
Haddington.
Besides the burgh of Haddington the parish contains
the hamlets of Abbey and St Lawrence. A mile and a
quarter S of Haddington stands Lennoxlove House,
anciently called Lethington, the seat of Lord Blantyre.
Part of it dates from very antique times, and was a very
strong fortalice. Lethington was the home of Sir
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