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John MacMorran
Baillie John MacMorran (1553-1595), a merchant and Baillie of Edinburgh, was killed during a riot at Edinburgh High School. His house at Riddle's Court is a valued monument on Edinburgh's Lawnmarket.
John MacMorran was a merchant involved in shipping, with shares in nine ships worth over £4,000 at his death, and had exported one cargo of wax and salmon worth £3,928, large amounts at the time, indicating he was one of the wealthiest merchants in Edinburgh. He built a large house in Edinburgh's Lawnmarket, which still survives, and is now known as Riddle's Court. A carved window frame with shutters from the MacMorran house was displayed at Edinburgh's Huntly House museum.
MacMorran had been a servant of Regent Morton in the 1570s, obtaining a reward as Morton's "domestic and familiar servitor" in August 1576. It was said that he helped conceal the former Regent's treasure. The townspeople complained that MacMorran exported grain to Spain (a Catholic country) in times of dearth.
In March 1590 MacMorran wrote to Archibald Douglas, a Scottish diplomat in London to help resolve a shipping dispute. MacMorran was in Dover, and was investigating an old claim against Edward Betts who had robbed one of ships four years earlier. He hoped to recover the cost of two cannon and a cargo of lead.
The scholars at Edinburgh High School were disputing the length of their holidays. They managed to shut themselves up in the building, at that time on the site of the old Blackfriars Monastery, near the present-day Drummond Street. After two days, on 15 September 1595, the town council sent John MacMorran, as a Baillie of Edinburgh, to end the sit-in. MacMorran and his men were about to break in, using a beam as a battering-ram, when he was shot in the forehead and died instantly. The shot was fired from a window by the 13-year-old son of William Sinclair of Mey, uncle and Chancellor of the Earl of Caithness.
The boys either fled or were captured. Justice was delayed for several months, as both the children' families and MacMorran's family were wealthy and able to ask the King, James VI of Scotland, to intervene. Lord Home made representations for one English culprit, the son of one Richard Foster, who was the first prisoner to be released. The English diplomat George Nicholson heard the town would benefit by raising contributions for building churches from the boys' supporters. Seven were released soon after James Pringle of Whytbank (who lived at Moubray House), made a plea on their behalf to the Privy Council late in November. Eventually young William Sinclair and all the others were released without penalty.
The schoolmaster, and prolific poet in Latin, Hercules Rollock, was sacked.
John MacMorran was buried in the kirkyard of Greyfriars, and a memorial inscription in Latin praised his services to the town.
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John MacMorran
Baillie John MacMorran (1553-1595), a merchant and Baillie of Edinburgh, was killed during a riot at Edinburgh High School. His house at Riddle's Court is a valued monument on Edinburgh's Lawnmarket.
John MacMorran was a merchant involved in shipping, with shares in nine ships worth over £4,000 at his death, and had exported one cargo of wax and salmon worth £3,928, large amounts at the time, indicating he was one of the wealthiest merchants in Edinburgh. He built a large house in Edinburgh's Lawnmarket, which still survives, and is now known as Riddle's Court. A carved window frame with shutters from the MacMorran house was displayed at Edinburgh's Huntly House museum.
MacMorran had been a servant of Regent Morton in the 1570s, obtaining a reward as Morton's "domestic and familiar servitor" in August 1576. It was said that he helped conceal the former Regent's treasure. The townspeople complained that MacMorran exported grain to Spain (a Catholic country) in times of dearth.
In March 1590 MacMorran wrote to Archibald Douglas, a Scottish diplomat in London to help resolve a shipping dispute. MacMorran was in Dover, and was investigating an old claim against Edward Betts who had robbed one of ships four years earlier. He hoped to recover the cost of two cannon and a cargo of lead.
The scholars at Edinburgh High School were disputing the length of their holidays. They managed to shut themselves up in the building, at that time on the site of the old Blackfriars Monastery, near the present-day Drummond Street. After two days, on 15 September 1595, the town council sent John MacMorran, as a Baillie of Edinburgh, to end the sit-in. MacMorran and his men were about to break in, using a beam as a battering-ram, when he was shot in the forehead and died instantly. The shot was fired from a window by the 13-year-old son of William Sinclair of Mey, uncle and Chancellor of the Earl of Caithness.
The boys either fled or were captured. Justice was delayed for several months, as both the children' families and MacMorran's family were wealthy and able to ask the King, James VI of Scotland, to intervene. Lord Home made representations for one English culprit, the son of one Richard Foster, who was the first prisoner to be released. The English diplomat George Nicholson heard the town would benefit by raising contributions for building churches from the boys' supporters. Seven were released soon after James Pringle of Whytbank (who lived at Moubray House), made a plea on their behalf to the Privy Council late in November. Eventually young William Sinclair and all the others were released without penalty.
The schoolmaster, and prolific poet in Latin, Hercules Rollock, was sacked.
John MacMorran was buried in the kirkyard of Greyfriars, and a memorial inscription in Latin praised his services to the town.