OrnaVerum
v 7.00.00
23 Jan 2024
updated 23 Jan 2024

The Ritchie Monument

Located in Dean Cemetery, on the western side of Edinburgh, this imposing memorial is a useful source of names and dates!

Photo

William Ritchie is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh. It is located at the southern edge of the Old Town, adjacent to George Heriot's School.

The inscriptions on the twin upper panels read

JOHN RITCHIE
PROPRIETOR OF
THE SCOTSMAN NEWSPAPER
BORN 1778 DIED 1870

HIS BROTHER
WILLIAM RITCHIE
BORN 1781 DIED 1832
IS BURIED IN
GREYFRIARS CHURCHYARD

HIS NIECE
ELIZABETH JOHNSTONE
WIDOW OF PETER FINDLAY
BORN 1797 DIED 1880
 
 
JOHN RITCHIE FINDLAY
OF ABERLOUR
PROPRIETOR OF
THE SCOTSMAN NEWSPAPER
BORN 1824 DIED 1898

HIS WIFE
SUSAN LESLIE
BORN 1842 DIED 1917

THEIR DAUGHTERS

JANE LESLIE FINDLAY
BORN 1884 DIED 1931

ELIZABETH MARGARET FINDLAY
DIED 1948

The subsidiary panel engraved on the pedestal is completely obliterated on the LHS, but on the RHS just reveals the name (and presumably at least the DOB) of Grace Hunter Findlay (b 1874), another daughter of John Ritchie and Susan Findlay.

There is no surviving clue as to the date of the monument itself.