The Kirk, the Saints, and a Place to Live

This week has been mostly about saints and religion.  Living in early 16^th Scotland, Ilene would most definitely have been Catholic.  The reformation didn’t really take hold until the 1560’s, and I have placed myself as currently living in 1540.  Being Catholic, saints would have been important to me.  When I was asked in my persona interview who my patron saint was, I managed to rattle something off, but afterwards I was a little appalled that I never thought to research who it would be.  So that’s what I’ve been doing.  The best part is, it’s a wee bit complex. 

Patron saint of Edinburgh  Living in Edinburgh, I would have known that the patron saint of the city was St Giles.  I also would have known that there was a church on the Royal Mile dedicated to him.  

Patron saint of Cordiners  As my husband was a cordiner (shoemaker), I would have known who the patron saint of the guild was.  In this case it was St Crispan.  He was also the patron saint for lace makers and weavers, which I think is very cool.

Patron saint of our church (kirk)  I would also have known which saint our church was dedicated to.  I have determined that if I was living nears Kings Stables Rd, West Port, etc, then I would have most likely attended St Cuthbert’s Church.  As the name implies, the patron saint is St Cuthbert.  Unfortunately the church took very severe damage several times over the years, so the current structure only dates back to the 1800’s.  St Cuthbert himself seems pretty cool, so I’m pretty happy with this discovery. 

My personal patron saint  So apparently in addition to all the saints I listed above, I also would have had a personal patron saint.  After talking to a friend who is Catholic both in real life and in her persona, my patron saint would have been a woman.  This makes sense, since there was quite a bit of superstition about the female sex, and there were things that could not be said to/in front of a man because of it.  For the time being I have chosen St Hilda.  From what I’ve read she was firm in her faith, but adaptable to the times as well.  She was both compassionate and business-like.  My friend is going to loan me some books on the Catholic saints when I’m ready, so that I can learn more than just the tidbits that are online.  Once I do, I might change this, but it will work for now.

In the midst of all this religious research, I’ve been trying to learn a little more about where in the city I would have lived.  So far I have not had much luck in determining when Kings Stables Rd and Johnston Terrace came into being, so I’m still searching about those.  I have confirmed that Cowgate Road and the Grassmarket were both most definitely in existence, as well as West Port.  I did find just this morning a great site with some period maps of the city.  It’s pretty exciting to look at them, and see how the city grew over the ages. 

I’m also finding quite a few books that are now in the public domain, and available for download via Google Books.  Here’s the ones that seem especially interesting.

• Burgh laws of Dundee: with the history, statutes, & proceedings of the Guild of merchants and fraternities of craftsmen by Alex Johnston Warden
• The incorporated trades of Edinburgh with an introductory chapter on the rise and progress of municipal government in Scotland by James Colston
• History of the incorporation of cordiners in Glasgow by William Campbell
• Old Glasgow weavers: being records of the Incorporation of Weavers by Robert M’Ewan
• The Baxter books of St. Andrews: a record of three centuries by JH Macadam
• Cassell's old and new Edinburgh by James Grant

 Needless to say I’ve got some reading to do.  I’m not sure what direction I’m going to take next in my research.  I know I want to find out what the restrictions were on purchasing wool and spinning.  Maybe I’ll head there next!  Anybody have any suggestions on topics?

Edinburgh - Finding Home

Shortly before Village Faire and the persona interview competition, I had made the decision to change where my persona lives.  I had originally placed myself in the Western March, as a Johnston married to an Armstrong.  After doing some research, however, I've determined that life on the borders was a little rougher than I would prefer.  Since I get to choose my alternate life, I'm picking one that's not full of hardship.  :)

Once I made the decision to change, it was natural to choose Edinburgh as my new home.  It was the capital city, and would be much easier to find information on.  There was all kinds of cool stuff happening there, such as the addition of a printing press very early in the 16th century, the creation of a school for surgeons, and so on.

Today I've been researching Edinburgh, seeing what I could find out about it's history, and where I might have lived.  I know that I would have been in what is now considered Old Town, as New Town was not built until after 1600.  I have found that the Grassmarket was the largest market in the city, and it was where cows and sheep were taken to be sold and then slaughtered.  The cordiners (shoemakers) guild was located at the west end of the market, in West Port.  Since my husband is a leatherworker, and specifically wants to be a shoemaker, it seems natural to pick a location near to where the guild was located.

Right now it looks like I will be settling either on King's Stables Road, or Johnston Terrace.  I'm going to need to try and find out a little more about the history of each before I make a final decision.  I am excited by the fact that where King's Stables and the Grassmarket meet is where the jousting grounds were.  This was also the main area for all things equestrian. HMMMM, I see this being figured into my newly revised persona story.

In the course of all my digging today, I found a few very cool sites.
National Library of Scotland - Online Resources  This site has a few Scottish bibliographies, that I will need to dig into further.  There are some other very cool resources on here also.
British History Online - Extracts from Edinburgh Records  This site looks exceptionally cool.  There are extracts from documents and records from Edinburgh dating to before and after the time period I'm looking at.  The only downside is that you can only view them on the website, there is no option to download the info that I could find.  I will definitely be spending some time on this site in the future.
National Archives of Scotland - Crafts & Trades  This site potentially looks like it will be a valued resource, but I need to dig a little deeper to confirm that.  The information is definitely there, but I'm not sure yet how much of it is available online.  I'll have to look into this further, and determine how much help it will be.