Advocates Close

A narrow stone staircase runs down between buildings. The close once continued farther, but its west side was demolished in the nineteenth century. The laying out of Cockburn Street cut off the lower section; only the steep upper descent remains of its former length.

Advocates Close took its name from a house that no longer exists. It stood at the bottom, on the west side of the passage, and belonged to the family of the Edinburgh lawyer James Stewart of Goodtrees. His father bought a rental property here, and townspeople began calling the close Stewart's Close—the Stewarts' passage.

In sixteen sixty-one, the younger Stewart began practising as an advocate. Soon, his father's earlier services led to criminal charges: the former Lord Provost was accused of embezzling public money. James took on his father's defense and lost almost all his clients. The father was eventually released after a payment of a thousand pounds, while James, who lived on fees, was left without his former income.

Stewart then published a pamphlet defending the right of Scottish Presbyterians to resist persecution. He had to flee to French Rouen and earn a living there through trade under the name Graham. Later, he secretly advised clients in London: an assistant took in papers, while the lawyer in hiding prepared replies for half his usual fee. After another return, a note written in Stewart's hand against the government was found. Stewart fled again, took part in preparing a proclamation calling for rebellion, and was sentenced to death in absentia. If he had been caught, the case would have ended in execution.

In sixteen eighty-eight, the claimant to the throne William of Orange landed in England and pardoned Stewart. Stewart returned to Edinburgh and had his inherited house in this close rebuilt. Four years later, he was appointed Lord Advocate—the Crown's chief legal officer and Scotland's public prosecutor. The man who had once sent advice to clients from hiding now handled cases himself on behalf of the monarch.

After the appointment, townspeople replaced the family name Stewart's Close with Advocates Close. Stewart lived in the lower house until his death, and his descendants owned it until seventeen sixty-nine. In the nineteenth century, the west side of the passage was demolished, and the laying out of Cockburn Street also removed the lower section. What remained was the steep descent and the name of the office held by the man whose house had once stood at its foot.