In the Subject section of the index to the Session Papers held in the Signet Library, there is a case listed under ‘Nuisance’ called ‘Raeburn v. Kedslie
1815’.3 This case, in addition to featuring early nineteenth century Scotland’s most famous portrait artist, was the first heard in the newly introduced civil jury court in Edinburgh. Henry Raeburn was a native of Stockbridge and one of its primary land owners. Andrew Kedslie was a grain merchant who had a mill near the Stockbridge toll road. They came into conflict at a time when the Industrial Revolution gripped Britain and pastoral ideals of living were becoming increasingly unrealistic in urban settings. Raeburn v. Kedslie involved issues of land use, neighbours’ rights and social class. The court documents and reports relating to the case reveal much about the realities of a growing urban environment in early eighteenth-century Edinburgh.