Showing posts with label Captain John Haldane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Captain John Haldane. Show all posts

Tuesday 8 August 2023

Skulferatu #102 - Duddingston Kirkyard, Duddingston, Edinburgh

 

One of my favourite walks around Edinburgh is down the Innocent Railway path, round to Duddingston and then back up Duddingston Low Road and into Holyrood Park.  When I do that walk, I usually have a rest and a sit down in the Kirkyard of Duddingston Kirk.  It is a place oozing with history and usually a quiet place to sit and contemplate whatever one feels like contemplating.

 

At the entrance to the Kirkyard is the tower like structure of the gatehouse, which was built in the age of the body snatchers for the guards who protected the corpses of the newly buried from being stolen.

 

A photo of a stone, two storey rectangular building with ornamental battlements on the top.  It has arched windows and sits in front of a cobbled lane that leads through an iron gated wall.  This is the gatehouse - used by those guarding the kirkyard against body snatchers.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
The Gatehouse

 

On the opposite wall from the gatehouse is a rather insidious instrument used by the church to control and punish its flock, the jougs.  The jougs are an iron collar that could be padlocked and are fixed to a chain on the wall.  These were used for minor offences; you know the type of thing, drinking, dancing, enjoying yourself, wearing clothes that were a bit revealing, as in showing a bit of ankle, gossiping, farting on a Sunday, and the like.  The offender would be chained up during the hour before the morning service so that they would face the humiliation of the congregation passing them on their way into the church.

 

A photo of a black, iron collar attached to a stone wall - these are the jougs.   Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
The Jougs

 

In the kirkyard itself, there are many interesting looking and rather gothic gravestones, and those buried beneath no doubt had many interesting stories to tell of their lives and adventures, all of which are now in the main forgotten. 

 

A photo of Duddingston Kirk, a small church that looks a bit like a 16th Century house, it is standing in the kirkyard with grass and gravestones around it.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Duddingston Kirk

 

A photo of an old gravestone in Duddingston Kirkyard.  At the top of it there is a face with wings around it and at the bottom is carved a skull.  The engraved name of the person who's grave it was has faded away to nearly nothing.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Gravestone in Duddingston Kirkyard

 

A photo of the carved skull at the bottom of one of the old gravestones in Duddingston Kirkyard.  The carving is quite primitive and shows only the skull with no lower jawbone.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Detail of gravestone

 

An ornate looking memorial on the wall of Duddingston Kirkyard.  On it are various emblems such as the skull and crossbones and the face with wings at the side of it.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Memorial to David Scot and Margaret Gourlay

 

Another memorial of the wall of Duddingston Kirk.  This one has not aged well and the memorial has all but disappeared.  On it are carved skulls and decorations.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Memorial on church wall

 

A photo of skull and crossbones with a memento mori banner above.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Detail of memorial on church wall

 

A photo of a fallen gravestone that is covered in moss.  The details on it have all but disappeared under the moss, however a skull and crossbones can be made out and also at the top a face with a wing at each side. Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Moss covered gravestone

 

A photo of the moss covered skull and crossbones from the gravestone.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Detail of moss covered gravestone

 

A photo showing several very old gravestones in Duddingston Kirkyard, with the watchtower in the background.  The foremost gravestone is ornate and low in the ground.  At the top of it is a rather creepy skull.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Gravestones in Duddingston Kirkyard

 

There is though, one that discreetly commemorates a scandalous tragedy that was reported widely in the newspapers of the time.  This memorial stone was originally commissioned by Captain John Haldane in honour of his grandfather Patrick Haldane, the 16th Laird of Gleneagles, who served as the Solicitor General for Scotland and as the MP for Perth. He had died in Duddingston in 1769.  On the stone there is also the depiction of a ship going down in a stormy sea.  This was added later by the executors of Captain John Haldane’s estate to commemorate the events surrounding his death.

 

A photo of a rather shabby looking memorial stone that is tall with a long triangular stone atop it.  Behind it is a wall and a white house.   Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Memorial to Patrick Haldane

 

A carving on the shabby memorial stone that shows a ship floundering in rough seas and a small boat with several people in it rowing away into the huge waves.  This is the memorial to John Haldane and Ann Cargill.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Memorial for Captain John Haldane

 

John Haldane was born in 1748 and was one of the two illegitimate sons of George Haldane.  John worked his way up through the East India Company and was eventually promoted to Captain on several of their ships.  He was not very successful in his role as Captain and suffered a series of misfortunes.  The first ship he captained was seized shortly after leaving port, by French and Spanish forces.  John Haldane and his crew were taken as prisoners and they and the ship were taken to the port of Cadiz.  There they languished for several months before being released.  On his return, the Company gave him a second ship to captain, which caught fire on its arrival in Bombay and was completely destroyed.  After this disaster Haldane no doubt felt quite low, but things in India soon picked up for him, as he met and became the lover of the glamorous and beautiful actress and singer, Ann Cargill.

 

Ann Cargill, born Ann Brown, was known as much for her love affairs as she was for her acting and was a pretty big celebrity in her day.  In 1771, when she was around twelve years old, she had made her debut at Covent Garden, and such was her popularity that she was soon commanding high fees for her appearances.  Later she gained much fame for her roles as Clara in The Duenna by Sheridan and Polly Peachum in The Beggars Opera by John Gay.  She also played MacHeath in The Beggars Opera, in a version in which all the male characters were played by women and all the female characters by men. 

 

When details of Ann’s many love affairs began to appear in the press, her father saw this as an embarrassment to him and her family, and having never approved of her career in the theatre, decided to end it and take control over her and her life.  In order to do this, he obtained a court order to detain her, but on learning of what he had done, she hid from him.  He made various attempts to get hold of her and take her into his custody, but she always managed to avoid him or escape from him.  On one occasion he took hold of her as she left her carriage to go into the theatre she was performing in.  However, she and her companion raised such a fuss that onlookers and eventually the other performers in the theatre crowded around, took her from her father and carried her into the theatre.

 

A portrait of a pretty young woman who is attired in old fashioned dress and appears to be leaning against a large boulder while holding what appears to be a metal pen like tool with which she is engraving something into the stone running up from the boulder.  The portrait is a detail of Ann Brown (Cargill) painted by Johann Zoffany.
Detail of portrait of Ann Brown (Cargill) in the role of Miranda. 
Painted by Johann Zoffany

 

In 1780, Ann eloped with a Mr R Cargill and married him in Edinburgh before returning to London and then touring England in various theatre productions.  The marriage to Cargill did not last long and in 1782 Ann took up with a Mr Rumbold and left for India with him. In India she found great success and another new lover, one dashing young captain from an aristocratic family, yup you guessed it, John Haldane. Things were lovely and rosy for both of them, and it seems that Ann became pregnant with, and gave birth to, their child.  The proud parents’ happiness in India was not to last long though.  In December 1783, the directors of the East India Company, being a bunch of old fuddy duddies, decided that they didn’t want the scandalous Ann Cargill around, and at a meeting agreed that ‘the pure shores of India should not be invaded by an actress.’  Ann was then ordered to leave the country. This she did, aboard the ship that Haldane was now captain of, the Nancy

 

The voyage home on the Nancy was quite uneventful until the ship was just off the coast from the Scilly Isles, where it hit a terrible storm.  The ship was forced into some rocks and began to sink.  Captain Haldane, along with Ann Cargill and a few passengers and crew, managed to get into one of the lifeboats on the ship and tried to row to safety.  The storm was too strong for them though and their boat was thrown against rocks at the small island of Rosevear and smashed.  Those on board were cast into the raging sea, where they all drowned. 

 

A few days later many of the bodies were recovered when they washed up on the shore at Rosevear.  These included the bodies of John Haldane and Ann Cargill.  Held tightly in Ann’s arms was the body of her and Haldane’s young child.  Ann, John Haldane, and their child were all buried at the Old Town Church on St Mary's, in the Scilly Isles.

 

In the early nineteenth century, during construction of the lighthouse that now stands on Bishop Rock the workmen were stationed on Rosevear.  It is said that while there, they were haunted by the ghostly voices of those who had died when their ships were sunk on the nearby rocks.  One of the voices they often heard was that of Ann Cargill gently singing lullabies, as if holding a sleeping child in her arms.

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on my walk, in a hole in the monument that commemorates Patrick Haldane, John Haldane and Ann Cargill.

 

A photo of a hand holding up a small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 102).  In the background is the rather shabby memorial stone.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #102

 

A photo showing a small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 102) in a hole in the stone of the monument to Patrick Haldane, John Haldane and Ann Cargill.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #102 in a hole in the monument

 

A photo showing a small ceramic skull (Skulferatu 102) in a hole in the stone of the monument to Patrick Haldane, John Haldane and Ann Cargill.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #102 in a hole in the monument

 

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #102
Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #102

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.94126

Longitude -3.149253

 

what3words: regime.limit.inform

 

I used the following sources for information on Duddingston Kirkyard, John Haldane and Ann Cargill

 

Bygone Church Life in Scotland 

William Andrews

1899

 

Patrick Haldane

Patrick Haldane - Wikipedia

 

A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800 

by Philip H. Highfill, Jr., Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans

1975

 

Oxford Journal - Saturday 13 March 1784

 

Reading Mercury - Monday 15 March 1784

 

Wreck of the East India Company Packet NANCY Isles of Scilly in 1784

Ed Cumming

2019