INDEX 1745  GLOBAL MURALS  PRESTONPANS  ARTS FESTIVAL  GOTHENBURG FOWLERS..


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Prestonpans and Vicinity

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28 30 32 33 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64
66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 81 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 100 102
104 106 108 110 112 114 116 118 120 122 124 126 128 130 132 134 136 138 140 142
144 146 148 150 152 154 156 158 160 162 164 166 168 170 172 174 176 177 178 180
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the direction of Messrs Roebuck and Garbet, but passed into other hands. Here they also make white salts and glauber salts. Fifty men employed, and the works go night and day. Men are bound under indentures of twenty-one years, which time they are paid 6s. per week. Oil of vitriol sold at 3 1/2d. per lb., aquafortis at 7|d., and spirit of salt 6d. per lb. Glauber salts, 12s. per cwt., and white ashes, is. 8d.

CHIEF FISHERY—OYSTERS.
There are ten boats now employed, there were five more recently. About twenty years ago (1776), 6,000 oysters per day were frequently dredged by one boat. An agent in Leith purchased for ten different merchants, and at that period, continuing ten years, some £2,500 per annum were drawn for oysters alone. At this time there were sixteen boats engaged from Cockenzie, eight from Fisherrow, and sixteen from Prestonpans. An old fisherman informed me that sixty or seventy years ago oysters were in little estimation. Another residenter said previous to 1776 only three or four boats were engaged. A custom house is established here.

BREWERIES.
In 1754 there were sixteen breweries.
only five. Now (1901) there is one.
In 1796 there were

TRADES, PROFESSIONS, ETC., IN 1796.
Clergymen, 1; schoolmasters, 1; private teachers, 3; surgeons, 1; officers of customs, 19; excise officers, 2; brewers, 5; licensed spirit and ale shops, 32; sailers and salt agents, 14; shopkeepers, 23; gardeners, 18; barbers, 2; smiths, 11; masons, 16; carpenters, 22; weavers, 13; shoemakers, 19; tailors, 13; watchmakers, 3; ropespinners, 4; candlemakers, 1; bakers, 10; coopers, 2; slaters, 3; midwives, 2; washerwomen, 8; carriers, 4; domestic servants, male, 7; female, 73; farm servants, male, 24; female, 5; coaldrivers, 3; day labourers, 19; seamen, 20; regular fishermen, 23; employed at potteries, 252; employed at vitriol works, 188; regular fishery, 94; salt pans, 47; brick and tile works, 23.

CHAPTER XIV.
POST OFFICE, ETC.
Post Office—Postmasters, etc.: D. Thomson—T. Cleuch—Mr Whyte— Mrs \Vhyte-Miss Whyte—Royal Bank—Parish Council—Burgh Commissioners—School Board — Hotel — Inspector of Poor, Registrar, and Heritors' Clerk—Medical Practitioners—School and Staff—Successful Scholars — Market Gardeners — Bankton Water Scheme — New Water Supply—New Congregation Halls—Co-operative Society—Coffee-house and Recreation Rooms—Public Parks and Bowling Green—The Old Church Clock—Gas Works.
THERE was a Post Office in Prestonpans long before a similar institution was established at Tranent. It is recorded that the good folks there were wont to have their business notes, love epistles, etc., conveyed to Prestonpans Post Office by means of the carters who went between the coal pits at the one place and the various manufactories at the other. The exact date at which a Post Office was established here is difficult to ascertain; but the place and the man we know. The opening of that institution here must have been towards the close of the 18th century. The first postmaster was David Thomson, a flourishing merchant, and grandfather of Mr David Marr. The first Post Office was in the house presently occupied by Mr Marr, and the letter-box was fixed in that little window which looks towards the east. The woodwork, with the slit in it for popping the letters through, was removed a few years ago.
On the decease of Mr Thomson, Mr Nimmo became postmaster. The office was then shifted almost opposite to where it is at present. In 1825 Mr Thomas Cleugh, grandfather of the present postmistress, became postmaster, when the office was transferred to the foot of Harlo Hill. Mr Robert Whyte, who attended the High School, Edinburgh, along with the late Mr William Cadell, brother to the late Mr Hugh Francis Cadell of Cockenzie, and through him got into old laird Cadell's office,
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