Moubray House, 51 and 53 High Street, is one of the oldest buildings on the Royal Mile, and one of the oldest occupied residential buildings in Edinburgh, Scotland. The façade dates from the early 17th century, built on foundations laid .
The tenement is noted for its interiors, including a Renaissance board-and-beam painted ceiling discovered in 1999,Michael Bath, Renaissance Painting in Scotland ( NMS, 2003), p. 245. a plaster ceiling with exotic fruit and flower mouldings with the arms of Pringle of Galashiels (five escallops on a saltire) dated 1650 painted on the wall, and a wooden barrel-vaulted attic apartment which is expressed on the roofline.RCAMS Inventory of Monuments in Edinburgh (HMSO: Edinburgh, 1951), p. 96.
Persons associated with the house include Scotland's first eminent portrait painter George Jamesone, the English spy and writer Daniel Defoe, who was instrumental in the passing of the 1707 Act of Union with England, and Archibald Constable, proprietor of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Moubray House is designated a Category A listed building by Historic Scotland.
Description
Moubray House lies on the north side of the High Street, between Trunk's or Turing's Close and the John Knox House, near the site of Edinburgh's Netherbow Port, the main gate into Edinburgh before its demolition in 1764. On the pavement in front of the property survives the Netherbow Well, one of the wells which formerly supplied water for the Old Town.
In its origins, the tenement is a rare survivor of the Burning of Edinburgh in 1544, when Henry VIII of England ordered the Earl of Hertford to "put all to fire and sword, burn Edinburgh town". In Trunk's close, over a stone vaulted basement, can be seen "massive corbelled projections" which contained straight flights of stairs serving the north wing, perhaps part of Adam Moubray (III)'s building of 1529 and its extension.RCAMS Inventory of Monuments in Edinburgh (HMSO: Edinburgh, 1951), p. 95. One of these stairs rises from the first-floor hall of this "back-land," where a later sixteenth-century painted ceiling of "exceptional quality" was discovered in 1999. This room is lit by a row of windows facing east.Bath, Michael, Renaissance Decorative Painting in Scotland (Edinburgh, 2003), p. 245.
The Moubrays In 1369, the three houses here all belonged to the Turing family, whose name is remembered as "Trunk's Close."Laing, David, ed., Registrum cartarum Ecclesie Sancti Egidii de Edinburgh (Bannatyne Club, 1859), p. 278 The present site was laid out c.1472-7, after reconstruction of the Netherbow Port close to "John Knox's House" by Alexander Bonkill. The street frontage of Moubray House retains the line of the earlier medieval High Street, being the last house east before the defensive narrowing at the gate. The "John Knox House" is on the site of one of four houses built in the new narrow passage to the gate.Smith, Donald, John Knox House (John Donald, 1996), pp. 3-5: Charters and other Documents relating to Edinburgh (Scottish Burgh Records Society, 1871), pp.nxiv-v, 134-5 no. XLVII, orders for fortifying Edinburgh, 1472. During the 16th century the tenement was identified as Andrew Moubray's house in legal records. There were three Andrew Moubrays, although the original builder is called "Robert Moubray" in many sources.RCAMS Inventory of Monuments in Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1951), pp. 94, 123. The part of house at the back was probably built around 1529 by the third Andrew Moubray (III) and his wife Katrine Hoppar. The plots on Edinburgh High Street were called "lands." The buildings could be divided into "fore, mid, and back-lands." These could also be divided in storeys, leading to complicated patterns of ownership and tenancy.Miller, Robert, John Knox and the Town Council of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 75-77.
These were wealthy and well-connected merchant families, and the Moubrays owned other properties in Edinburgh. In 1494 Andrew Moubray (I) disputed the rent of another house he owned in Leith with his tenant the sailor Robert Barton.Acts of the Lords Auditors of Causes and Complaints (Edinburgh, 1839), p. 187. Andrew Moubray (I), a second son, was made a burgess of Edinburgh in 1451, his fee pledged by the Baillie James Bonkill.Marwick, J. D., ed., Extracts Records of the Burgh Edinburgh, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1869). As a merchant, he supplied cloths and sheets to Margaret of Denmark, Queen of Scotland to line her bath tub.Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 30. On 18 August 1482, jointly with Laurence Taillefer, Moubray was appointed "Customar of Edinburgh", the collector of royal rents and duties owed by the town to the King.George Burnett, Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 1480-1487, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, 1886), p. 213. Andrew Moubray (I) bought the lands of Kirktonhill in Lauderdale from William Moubray in 1486, and with his wife Elizabeth endowed a chaplain at the altar of St Ninian in St Giles Kirk in 1478 and 1492. Their grandson, Andrew Moubray (III) was still patron of the altar in 1533. Their daughter, Agnes Moubray was married to the merchant Patrick Cant by 1492.Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1882), nos. 1400, 1660, 2120: John Durkan, Protocol Book of John Foular, SRS New Series 10 (Edinburgh, 1985), p. 156 no.483, in 1533 Andrew (III), grandson of Andrew (I), as patron replaced Chaplain John Harkness with John Porteous.
The Moubrays main business was textiles and Andrew Moubray (II) sold fine cloth to King James IV in 1496, accepting a gilt cup as payment.Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol.1 (1877), pp.15, 271 Some of his mercantile activity in the Netherlands in the 1490s was recorded in the shipping Ledger of Andrew Halyburton, which records his trip to Middelburg and his cargoes carried by Andrew Barton. Andrew Moubray (II) exported wool and imported wine and furs. Laurence Taillefer, Andrew's partner as Customar of Edinburgh was married to Helen, the sister of Andrew Halyburton.Innes, Cosmo, ed., Ledger of Andrew Halyburton (Edinburgh, 1867), pp. 25-6, 89-91, account of "Andrew Moubray younger". Andrew Halyburton died in 1507/8, Protocol Book John Foular (Edinburgh, 1941), no. 423. He was also joint owner of the 60 ton James of Leith and had a licence from Henry VII to sell fish in England in 1490.Bain, Joseph, ed., Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, vol. 4 (1888), p. 318 no. 1565
Andrew (II) married Jonet Halyburton, whose brothers James and David Halyburton were soldiers of the Garde Écossaise.Robert Kerr Hannay & Denys Hay, Letters of James V (HMSO, 1954), p. 403. When Andrew Moubray (II) died in 1499, his children were still minors, so James IV gave his property to Patrick Halyburton until they came of age.Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1908), p. 59 no.416. Andrew Moubray (III) sold a crossbow to James V in 1527.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1903), p. 305.
Andrew Moubray (III) and the Hoppar family Andrew Moubray (III) married Katrine Hoppar, daughter of William Hoppar and Elizabeth Carkettill. William Hoppar supplied a chest for the royal wardrobe on the day that Margaret Tudor arrived in Edinburgh.Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 391. Hoppar and Adam Carkettil were members of the religious confraternity of the Holy Blood, and witnessed the censure of the poet and priest Gavin Douglas when the mass on 27 February 1511 was not properly performed. His son, Adam Hopper was master of the Edinburgh Merchants Guild, established by "seal of cause" in 1518 when it was given the Holy Blood Aisle in St Giles Kirk. A banner of the confraternity made at this time, the "Fetternear banner" is kept at the National Museum of Scotland.Marwick, ed., Extracts Records Burgh of Edinburgh, vol. 1 (1882), pp. 130, 186 seal of cause: The Holy Blood Aisle and the altar of St Ninian, where Andrew (I) endowed a chaplain, were adjacent spaces in St. Giles Kirk, see George Hay, 'Late medieval St Giles',PSAS (1975/6), pp. 255, 251. Adam Hoppar (d.1529), Katrine's brother, was married to Katherine Bellenden the seamstress of James V of Scotland.Register of the Great Seal, 1513-1546 (Edinburgh, 1883), p. 548 no. 2394: John Durkan, Protocol Book of Thomas Foular, SRS New Series 10 (Edinburgh, 1985), pp. 34 no.98, 49 no.141
Katrine Hoppar had a relation, probably an aunt, Isobel Hoppar, the daughter of Richard Hoppar.Cosmo Innes, Ledger of Andrew Halyburton, (Edinburgh 1867), pp. 211-212, (William Hoppar, Katrine's father, was Richard Hoppar's son) Isobel's first husband was Master John Murray of Black Barony, a clerk of the exchequer, who was killed at Flodden.The families are linked in a transaction recorded in the Protocol Book of John Foular (Edinburgh: SRS, 1941) nos. 548-9, Katrine's father William Hoppar, Isobel's husband John Murray of Barony and Adam Otterburn husband of Eufamia Moubray were witnesses on 31 March 1509. In 1515 Isobel Hoppar was described as a "rich widow of Edinburgh" by Baron Dacre.Letters & Papers Henry VIII, 2 (London, 1864), p. 205 no. 779: Protocol Book of John Foular (Edinburgh: SRS, 1941), no. 858: Godfrey, A. M. Civil Justice in Renaissance Scotland (Brill, 2009), p. 186 record of Isobel Hoppar reserving her Blakbarony liferent. Isobel's second husband was Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie, called Greysteil, brother and advisor of the Earl of Angus.Rosalind K. Marshall, Virgins and Viragos: Women in Scotland (Collins, 1983), p. 37. By the King's gift in 1526, Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie and Isobel Hoppar were given another property on the south side of the High Street, when Kilspindie was Lord High Treasurer and Provost of Edinburgh. The house had belonged to Isobel's former husband and to James Forstar or Forrester, son of Jonet Halyburton and a grandson of Sir Duncan Forrester of Garden.McLeod & Wood, ed., Protocol Book of John Foular (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 237-8 no.273: Durkan, John, ed., Protocol Book of John Foular, 1528-1534, SRS New Series 10 (Edinburgh, 1985), p. 2 no. 2: Protocol Book Foular, 1514-1528 (SRS, 1941): Register of the Great Seal, 1513-1546 (Edinburgh, 1883), no. 356 cf. no. 649
Archibald and Isobel lost the Forrester house, and the lands she held near Peebles when James V reached his majority and escaped from the Douglases. On 5 September 1528 the Earl of Angus shouted over the Tweed to the Earl of Northumberland's steward that if his family was forced into exile at Norham Castle, Isobel Hoppar would wait on his daughter Margaret Douglas. Isobel continued to serve Margaret as her "gentlewoman" at Berwick Castle. The English diplomat Thomas Magnus wrote that Isobel "totally ordoured" Kilspindie, and in turn Kilspindie and George Douglas had brought the Earl of Angus to his troubles.State Papers Henry Eighth, vol. iv (1836), p.509-510, 539-40, 567: Letters & Papers Henry VIII, 4 (1875), no. 4709: Jamie Cameron, James V (Tuckwell, 1998) p.36-7 & fn.24, calls her "Jonet" and Isobel "Hoppringle" from the same source which does not name Kilspindie's wife. Kilspindie's house was given to the new treasurer Robert Cairncross.Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland vol. 1, nos. 4077, 4082: Register Great Seal, 1513-1546 (Edinburgh, 1883), p.144 no.649: As a forfeited person, Isobel might not be listed as an heir in later contracts, but was "relict" of Kilspindie in 1536.