John Knox House - Association With John Knox

Association With John Knox

The visitor's pamphlet states that the house "was Knox's home only for a few months during the siege of Edinburgh Castle, but it is believed that he died here." It appears to have become widely accepted as "John Knox's House" from the mid-19th century onwards after Victorian writers like Robert Chambers and Sir Daniel Wilson had repeated the popular tradition, first recorded c.1800, of attaching Knox's name to it. The house looked old enough to fit the description, but no research was able to establish the rights or wrongs of the claim. It was owned by a prominent Catholic at the time of Knox, so it is unlikely the reformer ever visited it, given the Catholic connection. Because of its visual prominence, however, it is almost certain that the building would have been familiar to Knox. The location of his actual residence is marked by a plaque in Warriston Close which lies further up the slope of the High Street. The house immediately adjacent to "John Knox's House" on its west side is Moubray House. Its owner Robert Moubray was also the owner of the house in Warriston's Close where Knox lodged in the 1560s.