orginally occupied by the salters connected with the salt pans there, but during the last century and the beginning of the present, the population of Joppa and Easter Duddingston was largely augmented by the colliers employed in the various pits in that part of the parish.
At the beginning of last century, before wheeled carts were in general use, Easter Duddingston furnished thirty-six horses to carry coals in sacks or creels to Edinburgh. At that time the village contained upwards of 500 inhabitants, or more than one-half the population of the parish.
Magdalene Bridge is supposed to take its name from its close proximity to an ancient chapel dedicated to St Magdalene which stood on the high ground to the east of the stream now within the grounds of New Hailes. It is sometimes in old maps and histories named Maitland Bridge, from the fact of the land at one time being owned by the Duke of Lauderdale — Maitland being the Duke's family name.
There is no authentic information as to how Joppa came to be named. During last century it was quite a common thing to adopt Scripture names as names of places, and the fact of the hamlet being close to the sea, no doubt suggested itself to the founder, whoever he may have been, as somewhat resembling its prototype in Palestine.[1]
To the Abbots of Kelso, as feudal superiors, the proprietors of the soil, their tenants, and cottagers in many parishes of the south of Scotland were bound in services and dues in a variety of ways. A common exaction from the latter was their being bound to assist the landlord in the washing and shearing of his sheep. Another was that from every house of every hamlet belonging to the monastery, the Abbot took a hen at Christmas for a half-penny.
Whether these were in force in Duddingston is doubtful. We are inclined to think there was only the usual feudal obligations of tenants to landlords, while, as we shall afterwards see, the payment by the latter to the monastery was in silver, to be paid "at our chapel of Wester Duddingston.”
The "breweries” and "mills with their multures and water courses ”are commonly referred to in the old charters as belonging
- ↑ Many such instances of the use of Scripture names are to be found in the south side of Edinburgh; one or two in Haddington, and several in Ayrshire.
