Isobel Meikle

[Brian Meldon]

David, you appear to have a nack of finding intresting story's for me to investigate and this is no exception.

There is a 1913 book by Andrew Young entitled `History of Burntisland'.
I guess that this may be the origin of the text about the bell. This book is available to view on-line and down load here:

http://archive.org/details/historyofburntis00youniala

The bit about Mrs. Isobel Meikle re-casting the bell is on page 146.

It reads:

There is no inscription on the church bell, but it was recast by Mrs Isobel Meikle, of Edinburgh, in 1708, and the cost defrayed by public subscription. 

(Of note to the bell historian this book also describes the tollbooth bell on page 89/90 and its use in the paragraph on government.)

There is indeed a possible Marriage:

10th October 1673 at Edinburgh Parish: John Meikle to Isobel Meik.

So her pre-marriage name was Isobel Meik. But there is no way to tell from this if she had been married before.

However for John Meikle and his foundry in Edinburgh I have found some more information:

In `The constitution and finance of English, Scottish and Irish joint-stock companies to 1720' Volume 3 by William Robert Scott. (1910)

(Available on line here:
http://archive.org/details/constitutionfina03scotuoft)

On page 187 we find:

In 1686 John Meikle received the usual privileges of a manufacture for the founding of bells and cannons. He established a foundry, called the Founding House, at Castle Hill, Edinburgh. Unlike the great majority of those who obtained privileges from the State, he did not take others into partnership, and on his death the business was sold in 1705 by his widow.
The reference for the sale is the Edinburgh Courant No16 and this could well have been an advertisement for the sale of the foundry and my guess would be that it did not sell and that John's widow Isobel continued the business in her own name. For how long I have not yet found out.

The next bit of information dating from 1745 is somewhat more dramatic:

Just after dark on 4th October 1745 when under siege from the Jacobite's under Charles a party came out from the castle and set fire to the founding-house that had been deserted along with most other properties in the area owing to the fighting and cannon fire.
I would guess that this was the end of the buisness. 

Brian Meldon