Place:Corstorphine, Midlothian, Scotland

source: Family History Library Catalog

From Scottish Places:

"A suburban district of Edinburgh, lying 4 miles (6 km) west of the city centre, Corstorphine was until the 20th Century an agricultural village separated from Edinburgh by open countryside....

In 1920, Corstorphine was incorporated within the city boundaries and major private housing developments in the inter-war period and between the 1950s and 1980s have made it one of the city's largest suburbs. To the north of the district is Corstorphine Hill, which is the site of Edinburgh Zoo while opposite the Zoo sits the headquarters of the Forestry Commission. Ladywell House, just to the west of the old village, is home to various government agencies including the General Register Office for Scotland."

The parish church has records for birth dating from 1690, for marriages from 1747 and for deaths from 1747.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Old Corstorphine stood on a piece of dry land, between two lochs, the Gogar Loch and Corstorphine Loch, though both have now been drained.

The first noticed proprietors of Corstorphine were David le Mareschall, in the reign of Alexander II, and Thomas le Mareschall and William de la Roche, whose names occur in Ragman Rolls of 1296. The estate remained in the possession of the families of Thomas le Mareschall and William de la Roche until the reign of David II, when it was forfeited by David le Mareschall and given by the King to Malcolm Ramsay. It was next held by William More of Abercorne, who left it to his brother, Gilchrist More, who sold it to Adam Forester.

An important family in the area were the Lords Forrester, whose name has been given to several streets and whose large house can still be seen on Corstorphine High Street. Their main home, Corstorphine Castle, a 14th-century stronghold, was in ruins by the end of the 18th century and does not exist today. The only remnant of the castle is the 16th century doocot which stands alongside Dovecot Road and a commemoration in a street name, Castle Avenue.

The lands and Barony of Corstorphine have long been associated with the Forrester family. The first firm link with Corstorphine comes with Adam Forrester a wealthy burgess of Edinburgh in the 1360s when he began to acquire land in the vicinity.

Between 1374 and 1377 King Robert II confirmed Adam Forrester in the lands of the Lordship of Corstorphine, which had previously been owned by William More of Abercorn. Forrester founded a chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist, connected to the parish church of Corstorphine.

Sir John Forrester, who succeeded his father upon his death, was granted various lands, mostly in West Lothian, in 1426 which were united into the barony of Liberton. In Perth on 4 February 1431 James I confirmed him in the house and lands of Corstorphine, which would be thereafter known as the Barony of Corstorphine. He likely founded the Corstorphine Collegiate Church in 1429, which forms part of today's parish kirk. Sir John is thought to have died in 1448 and was buried in Corstorphine Kirk, where recumbent effigies of him and one of his wives survive. He had four children: John, Henry, Elizabeth, and Janet.

The title then fell to his eldest son John, who is believed to have been more of a soldier than a civil servant. In 1443 he was with the Earl of Douglas when he destroyed Barnton Castle, a stronghold of the Crichtons. As a direct consequence Forrester's house at Corstorphine was razed. He died in 1454 and was buried in Corstorphine Kirk, where his tomb can still be seen.

16th century

William Dunbar mentions a poet, Roull of Corstorphin, in his Lament for the Makaris c.1505.^[1] Little else is known of the poet Roull, though one poem by him may be extant.^[1] Stewart Conn, Edinburgh's first appointed Makar, has celebrated Roull's memory in his volume Ghosts at Cockcrow.

On 5 February 1556 James Forrester of Corstorphine (son of the previously mentioned James Forrester), husband of Janet Lauder, was confirmed by Mary, Queen of Scots, in the Barony of Corstorphine. In 1577 Sir James presented the parish kirk with a bell for its steeple. This bell still survives, although it was renewed in 1728.

On 22 October 1599 Henry Forrester of Corstorphine sold various lands within the parishes of Corstorphine and St Cuthbert's. Henry died sometime around 1615 and his eldest son George became laird. James VI had already confirmed George Forrester, son and heir apparent of Henry Forrester of Corstorphine, and his wife Christine Livingstone in various properties in the barony of Corstorphine, on 15 November 1607.

At Holyrood House on 30 July 1618 King James confirmed Sir George Forrester of Corstorphine in the lands and barony of Corstorphine. On 22 July 1633 he was created Lord Forrester of Corstorphine by Charles I. Lord Forrester had no sons, so resigned most of his properties, including Corstorphine, in favour of James Baillie.

During the mid-17th century the family seems to have experienced some financial problems which resulted in lands being temporarily out of their control. On 3 August 1663 the lands and Barony of Corstorphine, except for the castle of Corstorphine and the town of Corstorphine, were granted to Sir John Gilmour. Oliver Cromwell had granted Laurence Scott of Bavelaw and his wife Katherine Binning, the lands, Lordship and Barony of Corstorphine, tower, manor-place, mills, mill-lands, parsonage etc., in lieu of the money due by James, Lord Forrester, to Beatrix Ramsay in Corstorphine who had assigned the debt to the said Laurence Scott, 1654. On 5 August 1664 the lands, Lordship and Barony of Corstorphine formerly belonging to James, Lord Forrester, and his brother German William Baillie which had been taken in lieu of debt, were granted to Florentius Gardner, baillie of Grangepans.

On 10 May 1666, land was similarly granted to John Boyd, merchant burgess of Edinburgh. The Forresters soon reacquired much of their lands around Corstorphine.

James Baillie's first wife Johanna died early. He then married Janet Ruthven, daughter of the Earl of Forth. This latest Lord Forrester was a man of dubious morals and seduced his niece, the wife of an Edinburgh burgess James Nimmo. She, however, later quarrelled with Forrester and stabbed him to death in his garden at Corstorphine on 26 August 1679. Mrs Nimmo was later executed at the Cross of Edinburgh for the murder. The titles then fell to William, the son of his brother William Baillie and his wife Lillias, daughter of the first Lord Forrester.

In 1698, the estate of Corstorphine was sold to Hugh Wallace of Ingliston, a Writer to the Signet. In 1713, he sold it to Sir James Dick of Prestonfield, in whose family it remained until 1869. The Dicks were a prominent family of lawyers and merchants in Edinburgh. Sir James Dick (1643–1728) was a merchant and baillie of Edinburgh and also served as Dean of Guild and later as Lord Provost.

18th century and later

The Register of the Great Seal records the transfer of the lands and Barony of Corstorphine to Sir James Dick on 2 June 1713.

Unlike some other areas of Edinburgh, Corstorphine escaped widespread industrialisation in the 19th century. It only started to be absorbed into the Edinburgh urban area in the mid-20th century. But even before then, it had started to transform into a middle-class dormitory area for Edinburgh workers. By the late 20th century, Corstorphine had an ageing demographic. In 1961, Queen Margaret College (now QMU) obtained land up on the edge of Corstorphine next to Clermiston, and set up a campus there. This was closed in 2007, when they moved all their facilities out to Musselburgh.

Corstorphine became part of Edinburgh on 1 November 1920.

Research Tips

Sources for Old Parish Registers Records, Vital Records and Censuses

• FamilySearch (Indexes only)

• Scotland's People This is a pay website providing vital statistics and census data for all of Scotland with original images. There is a description at Scotland under Genealogical Resources.

Further Sources of Reference

Please note and respect the copyright warnings on these websites.

• GENUKI article on Corstorphine.

• Scottish Places article on the parish of Corstorphine. The tabs of the right provide more information, and comparitive maps.

• Scottish Places article on Corstorphine

• FamilySearch Wiki article on Corstorphine providing direct reference to FamilySearch holdings on many topics with respect to the parish.

• The National Library of Scotland have a website devoted to maps from the 1600s right up to the present. Comparisons of modern-day and old maps of the same place can be made. From the home page click on "Find by place" and then follow the instructions on the next page. Once you are viewing the place you want, use the slider <----> at the top of the map to compare the layout of roads and the place names of smaller areas, perhaps even farms, with the landscape today. The website takes some getting used to. The One-inch 2nd edition, Scotland, 1898-1904 OS is a series of maps with the parishes delineated. Each of these maps cover an area of 18 x 24 miles and will zoom to comfortable reading size with a couple of mouse clicks on the map itself. Unfortunately, they are not geo-referenced, and it is necessary to go to the OS One Inch 1885-1900 series to locate places by latitude and longitude.

• The Statistical Accounts for Scotland In the 1790s and again in the 1830s, the ministers of the all the parishes of the Church of Scotland were asked to provide a description of their parish to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The original account request included 160 questions to be answered. These accounts are available in print in 20 volumes and are also online where it is freely available to browse. The browsing portal is below the viewing area of most computer screens. Scroll down to "For non-subscribers" and click on "Browse scanned pages". This brings you to another page on which one can enter the name of the parish in which you are interested.

• Excerpts from The Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885 are provided by Scottish Places. Selections from Groome and other gazetteers from the 19th century are also found on GENUKI.