DICKSON, James Tailor, of Laurencehouse ¹

  Research Notes:

JAMES DICKSON IN HADDINGTON

There were at least three men named James Dickson of an appropriate age born in Haddington:
Name: James Dickson
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 13 Nov 1722
Baptism Date: 18 Nov 1722
Baptism Place: Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland
Father: George Dickson
Mother: Margaret Hall
and
James Dickson
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 21 Oct 1725
Baptism Date: 24 Oct 1725
Baptism Place: Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland
Father: Alexander Dickson
Mother: Agnes Black
and
James Dickson
Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950
birth: 4 September 1727
christening: 10 September 1727 , HADDINGTON, EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND
residence: 1727 Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland
father: Robert Dickson
mother: Mary Sutherland



LAURENCE HOUSE

The area called Laurence House is to the west of Haddington, using the B6471, north west of the Dovecot and south of Haldane Avenue.

It was in early days a leper house or hospital. In later years it was a stage in the annual July Carter's Race, much loved and enjoyed by the skilled artisans of the town.

Sir John Cope's army were encamped in this area before the Battle of Prestonpans.

"Haddington, St Laurence's Hospital and Chapel
Organisation
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
Alternative Name(s)
ST LAURENCE HOUSE
Canmore ID
56506
Site Type
CHAPEL, HOSPITAL, HOUSE
County
EAST LOTHIAN
Parish
HADDINGTON
Council
EAST LOTHIAN
NGR
NT 50280 73779
Latitude, Longitude
55.954451N, 2.797833W
Images
Archaeological Notes
NT57SW 23 c. 50 73.

St Laurence's Hospital, founder unknown, existed before 1327/8 and by reference to a writ of 1337 may be assumed to have been already of some antiquity at that date. It was re-founded in 1470-2. No exact date of termination is known but it is certain that permanent secularisation took place after 1562/3.
D E Easson 1957; D E Easson and G Donaldson 1955

It stood "bewast the burgh of Haddingtoun" (NT 51 73) (Acts Parl Scot) - Robb states at the W end of the village of St Laurence House, where "also formerly stood a chapel dedicated to the same saint; the exact spot cannot be pointed out but many human bones have been dug up in the gardens attached to the cottages."
That there was a chapel with the hospital is a sine qua non and agrees with the RCAHMS statement that the chapel dedicated to St Laurence existed as a separate building from its mother church of St Mary's, Haddington.
Referring to St Laurence House, Kerr notes that only a two-storey tenement marks the existence of this hospital which had a chapel, graveyard, and leper hospital (NT57SW 11). A field near the two-storeyed house was pointed out as the graveyard. Wallace-James, writing of the same area, states that "an antique building which tradition identifies with it (the hospital) stood by the roadside till several years ago (pre-1914) when it was taken down and houses erected on the site. The hospital lands are now comprised in the farm of Spittalrig." (transcript of charters in Register House).
J M Mackinlay 1914; J Robb 1883; RCAHMS 1924; H F Kerr 1891

No further information was found during field investigation.
Visited by OS (BS) 9 July 1975 "

The above statements may be modified somewhat, for we read in a Note, signed J.G.W.J, following the Preface to The Lamp of the Lothian by James Miller:

"The Chapel of St. Laurence did not belong to the mother Church of St. Mary, but was the chapel of a very ancient hospital, which gave its name to the village of St. Laurence. The hospital was, some few years before the Reformation, granted to the Nunnery of St. Catherine
of Sianna [sic], near Edinburgh, which name, now corrupted, gives its name to the district of the Sciennes in Edinburgh. Various deeds exist in connection with St. Laurence Hospital; one especially being most interesting, as it gives minute directions as to the feeding and lodging of the patients in the Hospital, and thus enables us to get some idea of the domestic arrangements of the 15th century."


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James married Isabell BARY. (Isabell BARY was born about 1730.)