Lady Yester's Kirk was a parish church of the Church of Scotland and one of the burgh churches of Edinburgh. Founded in 1647, it served the south-eastern part of Edinburgh's Old Town until its union with Greyfriars Kirk in 1938.
Margaret, Lady Yester gave a benefaction to establish the church in 1647; though a parish and minister were not allotted to the church until 1655. It was again without a regular congregation between 1662 and 1691. A secession from the congregation in 1764 led to the formation of Edinburgh's first Relief congregation. The church was notable for its close connection to the nearby University of Edinburgh and three of its ministers served as the university's principal. Though the Disruption of 1843 little affected the church, improvement works and population movement in the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century depleted the congregation. In 1938, the congregation united with Greyfriars Kirk. The building was sold to the university, which continues to use it as the headquarters of its Estates Department.
The church building was completed in 1805 to a Jacobean design by William Sibbald. It incorporates and imitates some features of the original church, which stood slightly to the east. The first church included the burial aisle of Lady Yester. An elaborate Renaissance plaque which stood over her grave is now housed in Greyfriars Kirk.
History
17th century
The church was named for Margaret, Lady Hay of Yester. Lady Hay was a daughter of Mark Kerr, 1st Earl of Lothian and the widow of James Hay, 7th Lord Hay of Yester. On her husband's death, she assumed the name Lady Yester: Master of Yester being a title held in courtesy by her eldest son. In 1635, the town council moved to erect two new churches: the one that become the Tron Kirk and another at Castlehill. When funds proved insufficient for both, the Castlehill project was abandoned and funds and efforts redirected towards the completion of the Tron. Lady Yester funded the completion of the Tron and gave money for the church that would bear her name. Her donation consisted of 10,000 merks for the church and a further 5,000 merks to maintain the minister. When, in 1647, the town council informed Lady Yester that almost all of the 15,000 merks would be used to build the church, she left an annual maintenance of 1,000 merks for the minister.
During Cromwell's occupation of Edinburgh, his troops used the church as barracks and ransacked it. In 1655, part of the area of the Tron Kirk parish was detached to create a parish for Lady Yester's. This was bounded in the west by Peebles Wynd (now Blair Street) and College Wynd and to the east by the Cowgate Port. It encompassed all closes on the north side of the Cowgate that were not thoroughfares and stretched southwards from the Cowgate to the Flodden Wall. A minister, John Stirling of the Tron, was appointed at the same time but, at the re-establishment of episcopacy following the Restoration, he was deprived of his position and the parish was annexed by the Tron. During this period, the church was not used for regular worship; though laureations (graduations) of the nearby town college were held here.
From 1686, following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the church was also used by a French Protestant congregation. That year, the town council commissioned two Huguenot furniture makers, Paul Roumieu senior and Peter Pittit, to repair the church. From 1687, the congregation of Holyrood Abbey occupied the church following their displacement from their place of worship by James VII. With the completion of the Canongate Kirk, the Holyrood congregation moved out in 1691. That year, Lady Yester's parish was reinstated and Thomas Wilkie of the Tolbooth was appointed minister. Lady Yester's continued to serve as the main church for the college. The Janitor, bearing the mace, would lead the professors in procession to worship.