54 Transactions of the [Sess. 



As already referred to, the lands belonged to a family bearing 

 the same name in the early period of its existence. They passed, 

 however, about the fourteenth century, to the Logans, through mar- 

 riage, in the reign of Robert I. , whose descendants held them till 

 1604, when they were sold to Lord Balmerino, secretary to James 

 VL, whose descendants in turn possessed them till the Stuart rebel- 

 lion, when they were confiscated, and handed over to the Bute 

 family in 1746. These Logans seem to have figured somewhat 

 conspicuously in the annals of history, and to one of the earliest of 

 their branches does Edinburgh owe its large share in the manage- 

 ment of the Leith Docks — indeed the superiority over Leith itself. 

 It might, therefore, be not uninteresting to refer shortly to some of 

 the principal events in their history. The name Logan appears 

 first in the documents of the realm about the twelfth year of Alex- 

 ander II.'s reign. The principal family of the name was given of 

 Lastelrig, commonly called Lasterrick. Sir Eobert married a 

 daughter of Eobert IL, and he granted in May 1398 a charter to 

 the city of Edinburgh while he was Admiral of Scotland, allowing 

 it the exclusive right to certain waste places in the vicinity of the 

 harbour of Leith for the erection of quays, wharves, shops, and 

 granaries. In 1413 he made another one, this time restricting the 

 Leith folks from carrying on any trade, or keeping inns for strangers, 

 thereby giving to the city the whole monopoly of trade. In 1421 

 he acted as one of the hostages for James I. In 1441 we find that 

 one John Logan, a son or grandson of the former, was made High 

 Sheriff of Edinburgh by James II. The superiority of Eestalrig 

 was sold to Mary of Lorraine in 1555. The last to whom Eestalrig 

 belonged seems to have been a scapegoat. In some of the early 

 traditions he is described as a " profligate and debaussit man." In 

 1580, by marriage to a daughter of Sir P. Home of Fast Castle, he 

 became its proprietor. On account of outlawry for participation in 

 a highway robbery, he hid himself here in 1596. In the same year 

 he sold his estate of Nether Gogar to Logan of Coatfield, and, as 

 we have seen, the barony of Eestalrig to Lord Balmerino in 1604. 

 It seems he was in a way implicated in the famous Gowrie con- 

 spiracy, although his complicity was not found out till after his 

 death, which took place in 1606. Two years thereafter, a man, 

 George Sprott by name, was tried, found guilty, and executed for 

 his share in the conspiracy, and the evidence on which the convic- 

 tion stood was merely a letter found in his possession written by 

 Gowrie to Logan. Although noAV dead, the authorities, according 

 to an old law, gave orders for the exhumation of his bones, which 

 were duly brought into Court to receive sentence of confiscation and 

 outlawry. Many people of the name of Logan changed it, although 

 they were unconnected with the family, so great was the ignominy 

 attached to it. A younger son fled to France, where he joined the 



