Seven

Building

Completed in1807 by John Hamilton for James Laidlaw, W.S.

Who lived there

Claud Muirhead, proprietor and publisher of the commercial news-sheet, the 'Edinburgh Advertiser', lived here from 1834 until his death in 1872.  He also owned Gogar Park House, Midlothian.

The 'Edinburgh Advertiser' was a twice-weekly newspaper, published on Tuesday and Friday mornings for almost a century. At the time of it's inception, it was the only newspaper published on these days in Edinburgh.  It ran from 3rd January 1764 until 29th March 1859 when it merged with the 'Edinburgh Evening Courant'.  Claud Muirhead bought the paper in 1820 from James Donaldson, who bequeathed much of his family's large fortune for the endowment of Donaldson's Hospital.

Claud married Mary Watson, the daughter of an Edinbrgh merchant and they had five sons. She died in 1857.

His eldest son, James Muirhead, was a professor of Civil Law at the University of Edinburgh.

Another son, also called Claud, a physician, continued to live at 7 Heriot Row after his father's death.