Alexander Leckie Griegsby was born in Leith on 27 September 1828. Robert Anslie recommended him for admission to the school in May 1836 by which time his father had been missing for seven years. David Bauld Griegsby, a tailor, had gone to America to make his family’s fortune and ‘had Never since Returned or been heard of’. It was not known if he was alive or dead.

David, the son of a stone mason, hailed from Perth, but Alexander’s mother Elizabeth Leckie Griegsby was a Leith native whose father Alexander Leckie had been a boat builder. The couple had three children: by the time of Alexander’s application, only he was left alive. A brother, David Wilson Griegsby, died of typhus fever in 1835 and was buried at North Leith Parish Church. Alexander and his mother lived ‘at the back of the Old Parish Church, North Leith’ and were ‘in great poverty’.

Alexander’s cautioner, William Smith, of 35 Albany Street, Leith, was the steward of ‘the Steam Vessel Victoria from Leith to London’.

Alexander’s application was successful and he was admitted to John Watson’s in 1836. His life, however, was short and he died on 10 June 1842 at Leith.

application

Certificate of birth