Richard Lawson of High Riggs


Richard Lawson of High Riggs was 15th century Scottish landowner and lawyer who served as Provost of Edinburgh in 1492 and 1493 and 1504/5.
He was trained as a lawyer and largely served the country in the role of ambassador in treaties with England and as King's Council. He owned a country estate known as Cairnmuir House in the Pentland Hills.
The area known as High Riggs still exists as a street name in Edinburgh and previously related to a wide area of high fields, south-west of the city, "Rigg" being Scots for a field, normally of linear form.
He served as Town Clerk in Edinburgh in 1482. He was Justice Clerk from 1489 to 1495.

Family

His son Robert Lawson was one of the many killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.. His son James Lawson was an MP in the Scottish Parliament in 1528, 1531 and 1532.
His grandson James Lawson, Lord Lawson was both a Senator of the College of Justice from 1532 and Provost of Edinburgh in 1532.
In 1568, a descendant, John Lawson of High Riggs, made complaint to the Town Council that the Flodden Wall had been built in such a way as to cause the flooding of his property. In 1573 the Council declared parts of his building at High Riggs as unsafe and a public danger. This house known as theOver Bowwas demolished in 1877.