Jenny Geddes

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 A local hero today! It’s been a while since I’ve done some Edinburgh history so I hope you enjoy!  


Janet ("Jenny") Geddes (c. 1600 – c. 1660) was a Scottish market-trader in Edinburgh who is alleged to have thrown a stool at the head of the minister in St Giles' Cathedral in objection to the first public use of the Scottish Episcopal Church's 1637 edition of the Book of Common Prayer in Scotland. The act is reputed to have sparked the riot that led to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which included the English Civil War, thus changing the face of Scotland – and indeed Britain – forever. 

Since the early years of the 17th century, the Scottish Church had been established as an Episcopal Church on the same basis as its English cousin the Anglican Church, but was far more puritan, both in doctrine and practice. In 1633, King Charles had his Scottish coronation service at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, using the full Anglican rites, accompanied by William Laud, his new Archbishop of Canterbury. In the years that followed he began to consider ways of introducing Anglican-style church services in Scotland. The King arranged a Commission to draw up a prayer book suitable for Scotland, which was met with widespread opposition across Scotland. 

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The first use of the prayer book was in St Giles' on Sunday 23 July 1637, when James Hannay, Dean of Edinburgh, began to read the Collects, part of the prescribed service. However, the service was interrupted when Jenny Geddes, a market-woman or street-seller, threw her stool straight at the Minister's head. Some sources describe it as a "fald stool" or a "creepie-stool" meaning a folding stool as shown flying towards the Dean in the illustration, while others claim that it was a larger, three-legged cuttie-stool. As she hurled the stool she is reported to have yelled: "De'il gie you colic, the wame o' ye, fause thief; daur ye say Mass in my lug?" meaning "Devil cause you colic in your stomach, false thief: dare you say the Mass in my ear?" 

This trigged a bigger riot, during which much of the congregation shouted abuse and threw Bibles, stools, sticks and stones. John Prebble reports the phrase "Daur ye say Mass in my lug?" as being addressed to a gentleman in the congregation who murmured a dutiful response to the liturgy, getting thumped with a Bible for his pains, and describes Jenny as one of a number of "waiting-women" who were paid to arrive early and sit on their folding stools to hold a place for their patrons. Officers summoned by the Provost ejected the rioters, who, for the rest of the service, stayed to hammer at the doors and throw stones at the windows. 

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More serious rioting in the streets (and in other cities) followed, and the Provost and magistrates were besieged in the City Chambers, to the extent that it became necessary to negotiate with the Edinburgh mob. At the suggestion of the Lord Advocate Thomas Hope it appointed a committee known as the Tables to negotiate with the Privy Council. Characteristically, Charles turned down the Tables' demands for withdrawal of the Anglican liturgy and more riots ensued with talk of civil war. This led to widespread signing of the National Covenant in February 1638 (another important part of Scottish/Edinburgh history), with its defiance of any attempt to introduce innovations like the Prayer Book that had not first been subject to the scrutiny of Parliament and the General Assembly of the Church. In November of the same year, the bishops and archbishops were formally expelled from the Church of Scotland, which was then established on a full Presbyterian basis. Charles reacted by launching the Bishops' Wars, thus beginning the Wars of Three Kingdoms. 

Around 1787, Robert Burns named his mare after Jenny Geddes and wrote amusingly of this faithful horse, and in 1886 a plaque was erected to Geddes's memory in St Giles' Cathedral.  

Today, it is debated whether Geddes started the fight or if she even existed at all, but she remains a part of Edinburgh tradition. Lord Barrett of Newburgh wrote of the riot on 29 August 1637, "I hear they were by the women beaten out of the church with their little stools (which it seems their custom is to sit upon)." As an outspoken Edinburgh gal myself, I know we have never been a gang to meddle with!  

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