Edinburgh

Variant name of place

Edenburgh

Geographic position

55.9531° N, 3.1889° W

Event

Fundraising Tour of Great Britain

Sources

"The History of Edinburgh." About Scotland, 2015. Web. http://www.aboutscotland.com/edin/history.html; "History Timeline of Edinburgh." Visit Scotland, 2015. Web. http://www.visitscotland.com/en-us/about/history/timeline/edinburgh-lothians; Nenadic, Stana. "The Rise of Edinburgh." BBC History, 17 Feb. 2011. Web. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/scotland_edinburgh_01.shtml; Geo coordinates at https://www.google.com/#q=geographic+coordinates+of+edinburgh

General note

Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is located in Lothian, a region of the Scottish Lowlands on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. When Romans arrived in the area in 79 AD, they found and fought with the Celtic Britonnic Votadini Tribe, though they never settled there. In 1093, the Scottish King Malcolm III built his castle in Edinburgh, establishing it as the royal seat of a newly united country. The 1707 Act of Union united the kingdom of Scotland and the kingdom of England to form Great Britain, which took the Scottish Parliament and Crown out of Edinburgh. In 1752, the New Town Proposal responded to overpopulation and the unrest that troubled Edinburgh after the Act of Union, and was highly successful in bringing wealth and culture to the city. As a result, Edinburgh became known as the “Athens of the North.” In the 18th century, Edinburgh, along with London and the American colonies, became a key component of the transatlantic Presbyterian network. The city was home to the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK), the Presbyterian missionary society founded in 1709 to anglicize the Scottish Highlands. When the SSPCK turned its attention to the colonies and efforts to christianize American Indians, New England witnessed an influx of Presbyterian missionaries and ministers who hailed from Edinburgh, including Robert Clelland, the schoolmaster at Mohegan who clashed with Occom during the Mason Land Case. Because the Connecticut branch of the SSPCK sent Occom on his fundraising tour of Great Britain, it was fitting that he and Nathaniel Whitaker visited the parent organization while in Edinburgh. The same year, the University of Edinburgh offered Occom an honorary degree in divinity, which he turned down. The University conferred an honorary degree on Wheelock, but neglected to grant one to Whitaker, despite his best efforts to lobby the school. Today, the city is still known as a center for intellectual life and, in 2004, the Scottish Parliament returned to Edinburgh.