engineering

John Knox House

John Knox House is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Knox House rather than just read about it. In short: John Knox House, popularly known as John Knox's House, is a historic house in Edinburgh, Scotland, reputed to have been owned and lived in by Protestant reformer John Knox during the 16th century. Although his name became associated with the house, he appears to have lived in Warriston Close where a plaque indicates the approximate site of his actual residence.

Key takeaways

John Knox House belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Knox House to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Knox House from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Knox House, popularly known as John Knox's House, is a historic house in Edinburgh, Scotland, reputed to have been owned and lived in by Protestant reformer John Knox during the 16th century. Although his name became associated with the house, he appears to have lived in Warriston Close where a plaque indicates the approximate site of his actual residence.

History

The house itself was built from 1470, featuring a fine wooden gallery and hand-painted ceiling. It had belonged to Walter Reidpath whose grandson John Arres inherited it and left it to his daughter Mariota Arres in 1556. She married James Mosman, a goldsmith. Her father-in-law John Mosman, also a goldsmith, had refashioned the crown of Scotland for James V. In 1567 James Mosman was converting a piece of Mary, Queen of Scots' jewellery when she was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle. He remained loyal to Mary when she was exiled in England. Mosman worked in Edinburgh Castle with James Cockie making coins for Mary's supporters who held the castle during the 'Lang Siege'. The two goldsmiths valued the jewels of Mary, Queen of Scots which remained in the castle, so they could be used as security for loans. When the Castle surrendered in August 1573, Mosman was charged with counterfeiting, for which he was hanged, quartered and beheaded. The house was forfeit for the treachery, and was given in the name of James VI of Scotland to James Carmichael younger of that ilk. The carvings were discovered behind woodwork in 1849, and restored in 1850 by Alexander Handyside Ritchie. The building was restored again in 1984. Over the next few centuries many decorations and paintings were added, and the house and its contents are now a museum. The building is owned by the Church of Scotland and is now administered as part of the new, adjacent Scottish Storytelling Centre.

Association with John Knox

The visitor's pamphlet states that the house "was Knox's home only for a few months during the siege of Edinburgh Castle, but it is believed that he died here." It appears to have become widely accepted as "John Knox's House" from the mid-19th century onwards after Victorian writers like Robert Chambers and Sir Daniel Wilson had repeated the popular tradition, first recorded c.1800, of attaching Knox's name to it. The house looked old enough to fit the description, but no research was able to establish the rights or wrongs of the claim. Because of its visual prominence, however, it is almost certain that the building would have been familiar to Knox. The location of his actual residence is marked by a plaque in Warriston Close which lies further up the slope of the High Street. After the Disruption in the Church of Scotland in 1843, the house was bought by the new Free Church, a fact which may have strengthened belief in its association with Knox. It was condemned and due for demolition by the Town Council in 1849 but saved through the efforts of the pioneering urban conservationist Lord Cockburn. The building immediately adjacent on the west side of the house is Moubray House. Its owner Robert Moubray also happened to be the owner of the house in Warriston's Close where Knox lodged in the 1560s.

Wellhead

Fountain Well also known Netherbow or Canmore, is located just outside John Knox House. The street well is one of the last surviving public cisterns built in 1675, supplying drinking water to local inhabitants. It was designed by Sir William Bruce and built by the King’s Master mason, Robert Mylne - it has been rebuilt numerous times, most recently in 1997.

See also Moubray House James Tytler Ranger's Impartial List of Ladies of Pleasure

Notes

References Chambers, Robert and William Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, volume VIII nos. 183-200 July-December (1847), 231. Description of John Knox House in 1847. Guthrie, Charles John, John Knox and John Knox's House, Constable (1905). Guthrie, Charles John, 'Traditional Belief in John Knox's House Vindicated', in Proceedings Society Antiquaries Scotland, vol.34 (1899), 249-273, (conclusions not now accepted) Smith, Donald, John Knox House, Gateway to Edinburgh's Old Town, John Donald (1996) ISBN 0-85976-437-0 Miller, Robert, John Knox and the Town Council of Edinburgh, Andrew Elliot (1898) Miller, Robert, 'Where did John Knox live in Edinburgh?', in Proceedings Society Antiquaries Scotland, vol.33 (1899) 80-115, (general conclusions widely accepted)

External links

Scottish Storytelling Centre Archived 27 July 2005 at the Wayback Machine

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Knox House

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Knox House claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Knox House before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Knox House ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Knox House

In research: John Knox House appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Knox House in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Knox House is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Biographical museums in Scotland, Buildings and structures completed in 1490, Category A listed buildings in Edinburgh, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Knox House outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Knox House in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Knox House means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Knox House out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Knox House in simple terms?

Why does John Knox House matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Knox House?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Knox House.