Cadgers

Margaret Connors

Message 19192 · 1 Nov 1999 13:57:38 · Fixed-width font · Whole thread

Greetings to All!

On Mon, 1 Nov 1999, Bryan McAlister wrote:

> The Canongate is just beside Holyrood Abbey therefore suspect the
> ecclesiastical version is more appropriate. Cannons came later.

The canons of the Canongate were the Augustinian (or Austen)
Canons, a monastic order of priests.

Legend tells that King David I, while hunting near Edinburgh
Castle on a holy day, narrowly escaped death from the antlers of a stag.
As penance for hunting on a holy day and in thanksgiving for his life, he
built the Abbey of Holyrood in which he deposited his mother's cross
(which was believed to contain a piece of the Cross). The Augustinian
Canons, in residence at the Castle, were given the Abbey and the right to
build a trading burgh beside it - the Burgh of Canongate. About the same
time Edinburgh was also granted a charter. The Canongate later became
incorporated into Edinburgh.

Margaret Connors,
St. John's, Newfoundland
Canada