Clement Cor of Redwalls (1533–1608) was a Scottish merchant based in Edinburgh and St Andrews.
Edinburgh career Cor was the eldest son of Andrew Cor, a merchant in Edinburgh.Robert Adam, Edinburgh Records (Edinburgh, 1899), p. 228. Cor became a burgess of Edinburgh in November 1566 and served the burgh council as a Dean of Guild, and Bailie.George MacDonald, 'Post-Reformation tombstones in the cathedral churchyard, St Andrews', PSAS 70 (1936), p. 112.Charles Boog Watson, Roll of Edinburgh Burgesses (Edinburgh: SRS, 1929), p. 119. He acquired a property in Advocates Close in 1579 and his house, built or rebuilt around 1590, is a rare survival of an Edinburgh merchant's house of this date.Inventory of Monuments in Edinburgh (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1951), p. 87. A painted renaissance ceiling was discovered in the house in 2010 and dated by dendrochronology to Cor's period of ownership.Michael Bath, Anne Crone, Michael Pearce, The Dendrochronology and Art History of 16th and 17th century Painted Ceilings (Historic Environment Scotland, 2017), pp. 14, 19-20.Rob Engl, SAIR 67 (2017), p. 11.
His sister Isabella Cor died of the plague in 1585. In September 1596, with the physician Gilbert Moncreiff and kirk minister Robert Bruce he interviewed a woman from Nokwalter in Perth, Christian Stewart, who was accused of causing the death of Patrick Ruthven by witchcraft. She confessed she had obtained a cloth from Isobel Stewart to bewitch Patrick Ruthven, and repeated this confession to the king and Sir George Home at Linlithgow Palace. She was found guilty of witchcraft and burnt on Edinburgh's Castlehill.Robert Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials (Edinburgh, 1833), pp. 399-400.
Cor bought produce from John Gordon, 13th Earl of Sutherland and expected cash payment in silver when the Earl was unable to supply the contracted "victual" from his tenant farms in 1602. Clement Cor's son-in-law, the Laird of Ardrie, made arrangements with the Earl.William Fraser, Elphinstone Book, pp. 165–166.
Fife and the Lewis venture Clement Cor moved to St Andrews before 1603, when he gave the Edinburgh house to his eldest daughter Margaret. This was an unusual move for an established merchant in the 16th century.George MacDonald, 'Post-Reformation tombstones in the cathedral churchyard, St Andrews', 70 (1936), p. 111. He obtained a property called Redwalls in Airdrie, Fife, from his son-in-law, Robert Lumsden. Cor invested with Lumsden in an unsuccessful and much-criticised venture to settle a plantation on the Scottish island of Lewis. Many of the investors were from Fife and are known as the Gentleman Adventurers of Fife.Aonghas MacCoinnich, Plantation and Civility in the North Atlantic World (Brill, 2015), p. 166.
Cor died of the plague at St Andrews on 2 March 1608. His tombstone survives in the Cathedral precincts.George MacDonald, 'Post-Reformation tombstones in the cathedral churchyard, St Andrews', 70 (1936), p. 112-3.
Marriage and children Clement Cor married Helen Bellenden.George MacDonald, 'Post-Reformation tombstones in the cathedral churchyard, St Andrews', 70 (1936), p. 112. Their children included: Margaret Cor, who married Alexander Livingstone Isobel Cor, who married Robert Lumsden of Airdrie (near Crail) in 1588.Aonghas MacCoinnich, Plantation and Civility in the North Atlantic World (Brill, 2015), p. 142: Register of the Great Seal, 1593-1608, no. 765.Ernest Beveridge, Churchyard Memorials of Crail (Edinburgh, 1893), p. 149. Bessie Cor Janet Cor (1571-1608), who married Henry McKieson, a burgess of Edinburgh, she died in the same epidemic as her father and is also commemorated on the monument at St Andrews.George MacDonald, 'Post-Reformation tombstones in the cathedral churchyard, St Andrews', 70 (1936), p. 111.
References
External links Edinburgh, 359 High Street, Advocate's Close, HES Canmore