History and genealogy of the family of Wauchope of Niddrie-Merschell

HISTORICAL.
(J^ffj^HE Mansion-House of Niddrie-Merschell stands in the vicinity of the ruins
§|mI| of Craigmillar Castle, in the parish of Libberton, and is distant about
three and a quarter miles south-east of Edinburgh. The barony is not very
extensive, but it is compactly situated, and the soil is fertile. In charters and
other documents it is described as consisting of the "twa pairt and third pairt "
lands of Niddrie-Merschell — these divisions having formed different possessions
in remoter times. A small stream, having its source in the Pentland Hills,
winds past the house, and contributes much to the beauty of the undulating
grounds which form the park. It drives the mill of Niddrie, as well as those of
Brunstain, and empties itself into the Forth, at the Magdalene Bridge, bounding
the Regality of Musselburgh on the west.
Around the old Mansion-House, which stood on the rising ground east of the
rivulet from the present, a hamlet had grown up, called the village of Niddrie.
It occupied both sides of the stream, and the public road passed through it.
It contained at one time three hundred families, three breweries, and fourteen
houses which sold liquor.* This village has altogether disappeared, though some
of the houses existed until a few years ago. The only hamlets now in the barony
are the Mill-town and Whitehill, which latter is chiefly inhabited by colliers.
A chapel, called "Capella de Nudry-Merschale," stood on the north side of the
rivulet, at the west end of the present Mansion. It was one of the two chapels
which, besides the parish kirk, existed in the parish of Libberton in former
times. It was dedicated to God and the Virgin Mary, "in honorem sancte crucis,"
and held of the Abbey of Holyrood. The clergyman who officiated on its foun-
dation, in 1502, when Archibald Wauchop de Nudry-Merschale, with consent of
* Key. Thomas Whyte's Account of the Parish of Libberton.