‘A GIRL WITH BAD LUNGS’

Born in 1538, she was just six when Leith was destroyed by English troops and she and her family fled and hid in the dunes along the shore of the Forth. When they felt safe enough to return they found a town in ruins and it took them a while to get their bearings and find their home. Her father’s blacksmith’s shop was left standing, but was stripped of its tools and most of its goods.

When she was nine, the English returned, arriving by land and sea. Some 10,000 Scots died compared with only a few hundred English.

Once again the blacksmith hid his family, but his shop did not survive a second fire. The English had taken or destroyed all the ships in the harbour and all the grain stores from the recent harvest.

The blacksmith and his family spent much of the winter in a village of shanties and shacks which had grown up while Leithers attempted to rebuild their lives. The girl developed a bad cough which she was unable to shake.

In June, the following year the French came to Leith after being invited over by Queen Mary. Some stayed and began to fortify the town. Great earthern ramparts began to be thrown up and thick stone walls were constructed along the shore of the Forth.

The girl’s mother found her daughter, now 10, a job in the house of one of the Frenchmen and her life became one of constant cleaning, fetching, carrying and cooking, rising before dawn to set fires and getting to bed around midnight.

With her cough worsening and the girl becoming wheezy and out of breath, she moved back in with her mother, but began coughing up blood and found breathing increasingly difficult. She died aged just 16.