Gilbert Cleuch

Gilbert Cleuch (died 1569) was a Scottish stone mason based in Edinburgh.

Gilbert Cleuch worked for Lord Seton

His name occurs several times in the accounts of the burgh of Edinburgh. In September 1552 he worked for a week laying a floor in St Giles for new stalls in the quire, which were made by the carpenters Robert Fender and Andrew Mansioun.^[1]

Cleuch died in his house in the then separate burgh of the Canongate in November 1569. A fellow mason John Inglis was an executor and contributed to the costs of his funeral. His will records money owed to him for his "mason craft" by George Seton, 7th Lord Seton, indicating that he had worked at Seton Palace. His spouse was Margaret Stevenson, and their youngest daughter was called Agnes.^[2]

In 1581 the Master of the King's Wine Cellar, Jerome Bowie acquired a property on the south side of Edinburgh's Canongate which had belonged to Gilbert Cleuch. Cleuch had given adjacent houses to his two older daughters, Margaret, who had married a maltman Peter Wood, and Helen, who married William Gray. Jerome Bowie obtained possession of a part of Helen Cleuch and William Gray's property in 1581. Bowie's son James Bowie had both properties in 1617, and his daughter Anna Bowie was the owner in 1642. Eventually these properties were bought up by Charles Maitland of Hatton and incorporated in Queensberry House, now part of the Scottish Parliament buildings.^[3]

References

1. James David Marwick, Extracts from the Burgh Records of Edinburgh, 1528-1557 (Edinburgh, 1871), p. 341.
2. National Records of Scotland, Wills & Testaments, CC8/8/1 pp. 727-9.
3. John Lowrey, 'Ownership of the site of Queensberry House', Scotland's Parliament Site and the Canongate: archaeology and history (Edinburgh, 2008), pp. 109-111.