Spence's place, Edinburgh

[barbarajoh]

Can anyone tell me where this exactly this place is in Edinburgh? Comes under St Cuthbert's district and St David's parish in the 1841 but seems to be a street as there are at least two pages of families livings there. I can't track it down using google maps or google search.

Thanks
Barbara

[carlineric]

It was on the south side of Castle Barns (now Morrison Street) on the west corner of Semple Street. See the OS map at National Library for Scotland on http://maps.nls.uk/townplans/view/?sid= ... h1056_1_sw. I think that was where St Cutberts Co-op had their stables later on. Unfortunately I do not know any resources for finding lost streets in Edinburgh, unlike Glasgow which has details of lost streets on both the internet and in booklets. I have found that using the street indexes for the various censuses which are available on ScotlandsPeople useful in tracking down the location of lost streets. If you go into ScotlandPeople without logging in and click on a census year, at the bottom of the page which appears there is a link to the street indexes for that year. When you find the street you are looking for in the index take a note of the registration district number and the enumeration district number then have a look through the index to find another street with the same registration district number and enumeration district number or close which you can locate on a modern day map.

Eric

[AndrewP]

Hi Barbara,

It looks like the name Spence's Place disappeared betwwen the times of the OS maps of 1877 and 1894 (on the NLS website, as given above by Eric), and the various short stretches of buildings along there all became part of Morrison Street. By the looks of the shapes of the buildings shown on these maps and more maps leading through the 20th century (on http://www.old-maps.co.uk ), the buildings stood until sometime between 1966 and 1973. The St Cuthbert's Dairy and stables were immediately west of these buildings (I am old enough to remember a school trip to the stables where as well as the co-op milk horses, the Queen's Scottish coaches were kept). The co-op milk horses are history now.

The site was redeveloped again, somewhere about 10 years ago, and is now home to the HQ of Scottish Widows. Click here to see on Google maps.

All the best,

AndrewP

[barbarajoh]

Thanks both for very helpful replies.

Barbara

[barbarajoh]

Further to Spence's Place, where if they died there, would be their nearest burial ground? This is a family of Bartons or Burtons who sadly seemed to all die young and mostly in the 1840s. the father James born around 1806 was a stone mason so I am really hoping there is a stone somewhere.

Barbara

[AndrewP]

Hi Barbara,

The nearest burial ground would have been in St Cuthbert's Parish Churchyard.

Have a look at ScotlandsPeople OPR burials. Search for B?rton (the question mark stands for a missing single letter), deaths & burials. I searched in Midlothian 1830 to 1854, specifying males of any age. I had a look at one of the 15 results - John Barton, 1835, St Cuthberts and got a result for you. John Barton, age 10, son of James Barton, of 2 Spence's Place, hooping cough. This level of detail is better than most for burials. There is a fair chance that some of the other results could be of this same family group.

All the best,

AndrewP

[barbarajoh]

Thanks Andrew, I didn't know about John so thanks for that but have already found deaths for Rachel Barton 1842 , Rachel the daughter 1843 and a James aged 20 in 1841. Nothing for James who was aged 35 in 1841 and James jnr was only 14 in the census so can't have aged 6 years in a year. Rachel was a "relict" in 1842 so James died before her and I was hoping a gravestone would clear the mystery up. He is listed in death as stonemason and the address correct so it is one of the James but which one. Perhaps it is the son but I hope I have fund the son alive and well in Northumberland and then Edinburgh from 1841 to 1856.

sorry probably more than you wished to know. I am a volunteer researcher for Borders family history society and this is for a member but is driving me crazy. And I am not so hot on Edinburgh. She thought her ancestor came from Berwickshire but I disproved that one.

Barbara

[AndrewP]

Hi Barbara,

There is a pair of books of the monumental inscriptions for the headstones in St Cuthbert's Churchyard. According to the webpage below it should be in the Edinburgh Central Library, the National Library of Scotland and the SGS Library, all in the same part of Edinburgh.

See http://www.st-cuthberts.net/famhist.php#graves

All the best,

AndrewP

[barbarajoh]

Thanks again Andrew, we have a lot of the Edinburgh MI books in our archives at Borders Family History but for some reason not this one. I think we will have to purchase it for our archives!

Barbara