South Leith Parish Church

North and South Leith Parish Church, originally the Kirk of Our Lady, St Mary, is a congregation of the Church of Scotland. Prior to the union with the former North Leith Parish Church in 2024, the building was known as South Leith Parish Church. It is the principal church and congregation in Leith, in Edinburgh. Its kirkyard is the burial place for John Home (author of Douglas) and John Pew, the man from whom the author Robert Louis Stevenson reputedly derived the character of Blind Pew in the novel Treasure Island. 18th-century Scottish Episcopal Church bishop and historian Robert Forbes also lies buried beneath the church floor. The church has been repaired, used as an ammunition store and reconstructed but still retains the basic layout of the nave of the old church.

History The use of the site for religious purpose began in 1430 when Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig built a monastery dedicated to St Anthony on the site. The church has a long history although most of the visible building is more recent. The church was founded as a Roman Catholic chapel dedicated to St Mary erected in 1483 and dedicated in 1487. (From the twelfth century South Leith had been part of the parish of Restalrig and had no church of its own.) As part of the dedication King James III of Scotland gave 18 shillings to the kirk. The church was originally a large one, with nave, chancel, crossing and transepts. The present building is a reconstruction of just the nave of the original church. The eastern parts of the church were probably destroyed during the siege of Leith in 1560. In 1544 the church was used as a refuge for people displaced by the fighting when the English army attacked Leith as part of the Rough Wooing when King Henry VIII of England sent his forces to invade southern Scotland to try to compel a marriage between the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, and the English prince Edward. Refuge was required as Henry had ordered that Leith should be burnt. In the following year the Protestant martyr, George Wishart preached at the church and John Knox is thought to have been amongst those who came to listen. In 1547 the church was again involved in the struggle between the invading English and the Scots when the English used the church as a makeshift prison for Scottish nobles.

In 1559, Mary of Guise, the regent of Scotland, worshipped at this church. Her coat of arms is displayed in the entrance of the church today. Mary had fortified the burgh with a wall and had her palace in Leith, guarded by the thousands of French troops garrisoned there.

Siege of Leith In the following year, 1560, the English fleet and troops arrived at the invitation of Protestant Lords of the Congregation to lay siege to Leith in order that the French might be persuaded to leave. The church was damaged by English artillery fire, and this was probably when the eastern parts were destroyed. The French and the English troops did leave under the terms of the Treaty of Edinburgh, although the treaty was never formally ratified. The consequences of the treaty and the peace that followed made enormous changes to the role of this church. Nearby Restalrig Church was the parish church. That church could trace its history back to events in the year 700 when Saint Rule and Saint Triduana had arrived in Scotland. Triduana had stayed on in Scotland and when she died the church of Restalrig was founded at that place. Now however feelings had changed and by the order of the General Assembly that church was razed to the ground and this church, although damaged, became the new church of the parish of Leith. The church became the de facto Parish Kirk for South Leith after Restalrig Kirk, which up until then had served that community, was demolished by order of the newly formed General Assembly.

The form of worship at the church was also changed from Roman Catholic to Presbyterian, as a consequence of the Reformation. The church came under the ministry of David Lindsay who became the Bishop of Ross. The new arrangement of power took time to settle down. In 1571 there was much discussion regarding the transfer of church positions. Noblemen were becoming bishops without any further qualification and positions in the church were being given to inappropriate people – including some who were still not legally adult. In 1572 an "extraordinary" general meeting was called by the regent (the Earl of Mar) and held here. The meeting made resolutions but they were not fully implemented as the King, James VI of Scotland was still a minor. On 1 May 1590, James VI and his wife Anne of Denmark arrived in the Port of Leith. After a welcoming speech in French by James Elphinstone at the shore, Anne stayed in the King's Wark and James went alone to hear a sermon by Patrick Galloway in the Parish kirk. The new status for the South Leith kirk as Parish church was confirmed by Act of Parliament in 1609. This was recorded in the parish records which still survive back to May 1597. The seal of a charter granted in 1608 to a James Hall shows the church as being not dissimilar to its present appearance. The kirk records record that in 1615 the church was added to with a central steeple.

In the middle of the 17th century the church was involved in initiating and supervising sanitary measures and relieving the distress of victims during the Plague of 1645. Over 2,700 people lost their lives – this was half the population. From 1650 to 1657 the Parliamentarians used the church as a magazine during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The kirk records record the problems at that time with church services having to be conducted wherever space allowed. From 1687 until 1692 the confirmation of the congregations as Presbyterian was demonstrated as the church expelled those who were Episcopalian.

18th and 19th centuries

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