Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

ecu JAMES JOHNSTONE, FIRST EAKI. OF IIABTFELL, 1C0S-1C53.
Cro\\u from his lands into one present act of purchase, for which he paid
2000 merks.i
111 the follo^Ying year, IG-IS, he took up a more permanent abode iu
Edinburgh under a lease of two separate but adjoining liouses, between which
he opened up a communication. One of tlicsc was leased for five years from
Mr. James Primrose, eldest son of the deceased Jlr. Gilbert Primrose, clerh
to the privy council, and his mother, Janet Foulis, being "the uppermost
ludging " iu liis tenement of laud in Edinburgh, " in the cloiss coiumonly
called James Pryrnrois Cloiss, with the two laicli cliambers lyand foreanent
tlic turupylce or enlrie of the said ludging," with the yard, cellars, and
stables belonging thereto. The other liouse was leased from Thomas Gilmour,
merchant in Edinburgh, and was the middle house of his tenement of land,
"in Mowbrayes Close, betuixt the tuo jSTatherbowes, on the south syde of the
kingis hie street." Gilmour agrees to make the connection between the two
houses by striking a door through the south end of 'the said niiddk-. house
into that belonging to Janet Foulis, to be built up on the earl's leaving.
Perhaps the necessary operations were performed by John I\rylne, the master
mason, as he was a witness to this lease. In a notarial deed the earl's lodg-
ing in Edinburgh is described as situated "on the southsyd of the